Godzuki
05-13-2014, 07:13 PM
the group walked "down this little incline and looking into the valley, (when) I hear this single shot. Then two shots, then the echo, then fully automatic gunfire."
Taking so much fire, members of his patrol were separated as they tried to take cover. White was finishing off his first magazine and beginning to load another one when an rocket-propelled grenade exploded, knocking him unconscious.
Moments after he came to, an enemy round hit a rock just inches from his head. The shrapnel and rock fragments cut his face.
Dazed, he struggled to take in what was happening. He and four others had been separated from the other soldiers, who'd jumped from a cliff. White administered first aid to one wounded soldier using the only cover available: a single tree. That soldier would survive.
It was at that point in the attack that White realized his radio wasn't working.
He looked out and saw a member of his patrol about 30 feet away whose wounds were so bad that he could not move. White ran toward him, braving enemy fire.
White was able to drag the wounded man back to the tree.
But the man's injuries were too severe, and he died.
Risking death, again and again
White continued to risk himself to help his fellow warriors, again running from cover into enemy fire to reach the platoon leader. White told the military publication Stars and Stripes that he could see the leader's helmet and assault pack, but he couldn't tell whether the leader was alive. White had to see, he said.
White crawled toward the man. It was too late. He was dead.
White figured he would be killed. But he would do what he was trained to do. He would carry out his duty.
"It was never a choice," he explained to CNN. "I told myself from the beginning that I was going to be killed, you know... just the amount of fire ... I'm not gonna make it through this."
But he kept focused. The soldier White had dragged to the tree earlier was hit again, this time in the knee, so the White wrapped his belt around the man's leg, creating a tourniquet.
Then White found a working radio on a deceased comrade and called for artillery and helicopter gunships to help.
Finally, maybe, there could be hope. But then a friendly mortar round landed near White.
"I remember just red hot chunks of metal like the size of my palm just flinging by your head," he told Stars and Stripes.
Suffering a concussion, White managed to hang on, waiting for helicopters to evacuate him and others with him that day. When help arrived, he told his rescuers to put the other wounded aboard first.
its really just like the movies :bowdown:
Taking so much fire, members of his patrol were separated as they tried to take cover. White was finishing off his first magazine and beginning to load another one when an rocket-propelled grenade exploded, knocking him unconscious.
Moments after he came to, an enemy round hit a rock just inches from his head. The shrapnel and rock fragments cut his face.
Dazed, he struggled to take in what was happening. He and four others had been separated from the other soldiers, who'd jumped from a cliff. White administered first aid to one wounded soldier using the only cover available: a single tree. That soldier would survive.
It was at that point in the attack that White realized his radio wasn't working.
He looked out and saw a member of his patrol about 30 feet away whose wounds were so bad that he could not move. White ran toward him, braving enemy fire.
White was able to drag the wounded man back to the tree.
But the man's injuries were too severe, and he died.
Risking death, again and again
White continued to risk himself to help his fellow warriors, again running from cover into enemy fire to reach the platoon leader. White told the military publication Stars and Stripes that he could see the leader's helmet and assault pack, but he couldn't tell whether the leader was alive. White had to see, he said.
White crawled toward the man. It was too late. He was dead.
White figured he would be killed. But he would do what he was trained to do. He would carry out his duty.
"It was never a choice," he explained to CNN. "I told myself from the beginning that I was going to be killed, you know... just the amount of fire ... I'm not gonna make it through this."
But he kept focused. The soldier White had dragged to the tree earlier was hit again, this time in the knee, so the White wrapped his belt around the man's leg, creating a tourniquet.
Then White found a working radio on a deceased comrade and called for artillery and helicopter gunships to help.
Finally, maybe, there could be hope. But then a friendly mortar round landed near White.
"I remember just red hot chunks of metal like the size of my palm just flinging by your head," he told Stars and Stripes.
Suffering a concussion, White managed to hang on, waiting for helicopters to evacuate him and others with him that day. When help arrived, he told his rescuers to put the other wounded aboard first.
its really just like the movies :bowdown: