Quote:
Originally Posted by bornright
Army Staff Sgt. Ian Newland spotted the enemy grenade inside the Humvee. Almost simultaneously, he saw Spc. Ross McGinnis, 19 — a gunner standing in the turret of the vehicle — lower himself onto it.
"I saw him jam it with his elbow up underneath him," says Newland, who was sitting inches away. "He pressed his whole body with his back (armor) plate to smother it up against the radios."
The heat and flash of an explosion followed, and McGinnis was killed. Hours later, after surgery for shrapnel wounds, Newland realized the enormity of what happened: McGinnis had sacrificed himself to save four other soldiers in the Humvee on Dec. 4. "Why he did it? Because we were his brothers. He loved us," Newland says.
Since the Iraq war began, at least five Americans — two soldiers, two Marines and a Navy SEAL — are believed to have thrown themselves on a grenade to save comrades. Each time, the servicemember died from massive wounds.
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Honorable men. How nice it would have been if they were allowed to wear
Dragonskin armor instead of the bush buddy contract armor they have. I saw on Discovery Channel that
Dragonskin actually survived a grenade explosion. But then again the inventor of Dragonskin was not a bush campaign contributor, so even the General who had
Dragonskin had to stop wearing it. and that is how they support the troops. By not only giving them inferior equipment supplied by bush buddies, they do not allow the soldiers to have better equipment, even if they pay for it themselves.
Had they been wearing
Dragonskin armor those 5 brave men would still be as brave, but also alive, to go home to wives, children and family.