Friday, February 03, 2006

Ah... Snopes confirms it.

In mid-January, I received an e-mail about this story, but I couldn't confirm it was true, so I didn't mention it. Now, finally, Snopes confirms it, so it must be true.

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The e-mail tells the story:

Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron Mike" or just "Gunny". He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become 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. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision," he explains.

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 5ft deep and 8ft 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 7in 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 colleagues 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'."

Sgt Burghardt's injuries — burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks — kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But, like his father — who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam — he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

Thanks to Cassandra, whom I had asked about my original e-mail, for the Snopes link.

And thank God we have men like Sgt. Burghardt on our side.

5 Comments:

At 11:33 AM, Blogger Cassandra said...

Glad I could help. And sorry I didn't have time to research it earlier.

 
At 11:41 AM, Blogger KJ said...

Cass, when I e-mailed the question to you, Snopes didn't have it. They just added it two days ago.

 
At 1:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So, this great story was in the New York Times, the Washington Post? Nightly news?
Really?
Can we be sure it's true and not the demented ravings of some bewildered UK basketball fan?

All I can say is, what a man. Oorah. I'd buy him a beer any day; a whole freakin' case.
-"Don Brouhaha"

 
At 6:11 AM, Blogger Cassandra said...

KJ, I don't know if I left this comment before and it got lost or I'm just tired and losing my mind.

I saw the date on the Snopes thing, so I know it wasn't there last week. I just ran across it on my RSS.

 
At 4:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice story, but as for your last sentence "to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans", remind me who invaded who, and who the aggressors are and who the freedom fighters?

 

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