Wake27
03-03-17, 12:58
I spent all of February down at FT Polk for a JRTC rotation with my BDE. It went pretty well, much better than I expected and was a good experience, but I was involved in an accident at the end in which I came out very lucky. Endex (or more correctly, "change of mission") had just been called and we were close to heading out of the box and getting ready to come home. Out of my entire company, I was the only one still wearing my armor at that point, for a number of reasons. I took my personal plate carrier (OPT's version of the APC) for the first time to an Army training exercise because I knew we'd be in plates for the whole rotation, and I wasn't about to wear my IBA and FLC that whole time.
We were about to conduct a convoy (I'm a distro PL right now) to grab MREs for the BN and I must've spent 30 seconds debating whether or not to switch to my chest rig. But, since the straps were in another bag that was locked up in a conex and the plate carrier was relatively comfy anyways, I decided to just keep it on. Oddly enough, if I brought my IBA, I wouldn't have even been in possession of it at that time - the line companies had just completed an LFX and were required by JRTC to wear IBAs or IOTVs, so our whole company had to give up our issued armor to temporarily replace any plate carriers in those companies. That odd equation saved my life. Before rolling out, I decided to download the MREs in the bed of my HMMWV. We didn't need that space, but I wanted them out anyways. It was only 25 boxes going from the back of the truck to one of our LHS flat racks that we had dropped earlier. I ground guided my driver to within a few feet of the A-frame on the flat rack and then began hurriedly downloading boxes. We were almost done and my back was to the HMMWV when I heard people yelling to watch out. I felt someone tug at me but assumed that my driver had sent an MRE box flying and that it would hit me, which I wasn't really worried about. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rear of my HMMWV, maybe a second before it rolled into me and pinned me against the a-frame. It took a few seconds before I realized what was happening. The truck was uphill, the brake had failed, and we hadn't put down the chock block because we would be there for only a few minutes. I was in between the flat rack and my HMMWV when it started to roll backwards and caught me. I felt a rush of panic as I realized that I was being crushed between the two, with the a-frame bar going diagonally across my chest. I vaguely remember seeing my driver pushing the truck and briefly tried to do the same, but quickly realized that it wouldn't work. There was a lot of commotion and I yelled something to the extent of "get it the **** off of me." I think I was pinned for about 10-15 seconds, with the majority of the crushing pressure impacting the right side of my ribcage, under my arm. The next thing I remember was slowly wandering over to the BN TOC, maybe 50 yards away, gasping for air and holding my right arm into my side. My driver was in tears, frantically moving around me trying to figure out how to help. He was shouting for a medic as everyone around the TOC stopped and looked at us, probably trying to decide if it was real. Someone came into view, sprinting towards us and stopped just short, asking who needed help. I just muttered "its me" but I think he had already figured it out. Within an instant there were a dozen people helping me. I ended up being air medevac'd to the hospital on main post where they ran a number of tests but ultimately concluded I had suffered nothing more than bruised ribs.
Every medical professional that examined me, probably close to a dozen, all said the same thing - wearing plates saved my life. I've had a lot of time to overanalyze everything that happened and there are still moments where the realization comes back to me. I went back and forth about even posting here, but talking about it helps me digest it. It wasn't really a big deal, but so closely could have been. I'm not overly religious, but I do believe enough to know that there is a reason that I ended up wearing my plates. There have been a lot of forum members here that have told me to stay safe, which I appreciated in the past, but never felt was necessary since we're not deploying. I appreciate it a lot more now so my thanks to those of you that have.
There's really not much to show, the bruising feels a lot worse than it looks and two PMAGs were they only real damage to my kit.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170303/4bac7a004a28173a6182e3fb05069b13.jpg
I don't know if it made it better or worse that the spare antenna mount was what pinned me, but seeing how it turned out, I'm leaning toward the former.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170303/7e1eb95adc8c365f6e1e625df399f1d9.jpg
We were about to conduct a convoy (I'm a distro PL right now) to grab MREs for the BN and I must've spent 30 seconds debating whether or not to switch to my chest rig. But, since the straps were in another bag that was locked up in a conex and the plate carrier was relatively comfy anyways, I decided to just keep it on. Oddly enough, if I brought my IBA, I wouldn't have even been in possession of it at that time - the line companies had just completed an LFX and were required by JRTC to wear IBAs or IOTVs, so our whole company had to give up our issued armor to temporarily replace any plate carriers in those companies. That odd equation saved my life. Before rolling out, I decided to download the MREs in the bed of my HMMWV. We didn't need that space, but I wanted them out anyways. It was only 25 boxes going from the back of the truck to one of our LHS flat racks that we had dropped earlier. I ground guided my driver to within a few feet of the A-frame on the flat rack and then began hurriedly downloading boxes. We were almost done and my back was to the HMMWV when I heard people yelling to watch out. I felt someone tug at me but assumed that my driver had sent an MRE box flying and that it would hit me, which I wasn't really worried about. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the rear of my HMMWV, maybe a second before it rolled into me and pinned me against the a-frame. It took a few seconds before I realized what was happening. The truck was uphill, the brake had failed, and we hadn't put down the chock block because we would be there for only a few minutes. I was in between the flat rack and my HMMWV when it started to roll backwards and caught me. I felt a rush of panic as I realized that I was being crushed between the two, with the a-frame bar going diagonally across my chest. I vaguely remember seeing my driver pushing the truck and briefly tried to do the same, but quickly realized that it wouldn't work. There was a lot of commotion and I yelled something to the extent of "get it the **** off of me." I think I was pinned for about 10-15 seconds, with the majority of the crushing pressure impacting the right side of my ribcage, under my arm. The next thing I remember was slowly wandering over to the BN TOC, maybe 50 yards away, gasping for air and holding my right arm into my side. My driver was in tears, frantically moving around me trying to figure out how to help. He was shouting for a medic as everyone around the TOC stopped and looked at us, probably trying to decide if it was real. Someone came into view, sprinting towards us and stopped just short, asking who needed help. I just muttered "its me" but I think he had already figured it out. Within an instant there were a dozen people helping me. I ended up being air medevac'd to the hospital on main post where they ran a number of tests but ultimately concluded I had suffered nothing more than bruised ribs.
Every medical professional that examined me, probably close to a dozen, all said the same thing - wearing plates saved my life. I've had a lot of time to overanalyze everything that happened and there are still moments where the realization comes back to me. I went back and forth about even posting here, but talking about it helps me digest it. It wasn't really a big deal, but so closely could have been. I'm not overly religious, but I do believe enough to know that there is a reason that I ended up wearing my plates. There have been a lot of forum members here that have told me to stay safe, which I appreciated in the past, but never felt was necessary since we're not deploying. I appreciate it a lot more now so my thanks to those of you that have.
There's really not much to show, the bruising feels a lot worse than it looks and two PMAGs were they only real damage to my kit.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170303/4bac7a004a28173a6182e3fb05069b13.jpg
I don't know if it made it better or worse that the spare antenna mount was what pinned me, but seeing how it turned out, I'm leaning toward the former.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170303/7e1eb95adc8c365f6e1e625df399f1d9.jpg