mk1civilian:

One Finger Salute:

GYSGT Michael Burghardt, USMC, known as ‘Iron Mike’ or just ‘Gunny’, on his third tour in Iraq, gestures here to suspected nearby insurgents in a photo dated 19 SEP 2010 after being injured in an IED blast.  GYSGT Burghardt is a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour.

From the Omaha World-Herald:

“He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four Marines and chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit.  ’You can’t react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision,’ he explained.  So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term ‘the longest walk’, stepping gingerly into a 5-foot deep and 8-foot wide crater.

The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it.  He cut the wire and used his 7” knife to probe the ground.  ’I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs,’ he says. ‘That’s when I knew I was screwed.’  Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt. Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back.

At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant’s feet.  ’A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded,’ he recalls.  ’As I was in the air I remember thinking, ‘I don’t believe they got me.’  I was just ticked off they were able to do it.  Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down.’ 

His fellow Marines cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt.  None could believe his legs were still there.  ’My dad’s a  Vietnam vet who’s paralyzed from the waist down,’ says Sgt Burghardt.  ’I was lying there thinking I didn’t want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that.  They started to cut away my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down.  Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, ‘Good, I’m in business.’  As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in.  ’I decided to walk to the helicopter.  I wasn’t going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher.’  He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute.  I flipped them one.  It was like,’OK, I lost that round but I’ll be back next week.’”

8 months ago  /  42 notes  /  Source: mk1civilian