When I was just a young private in the army. Desert Storm had come and gone like a flash. I was a private and 1st Ranger Battalion got the call to jump into Iraq. Mission: jump in, head to the border and crush Saddams missile sites. Road March to the objective and kill everything. Not a problem because I was hard as wood pecker lips.
We did in-flight rigging for a parachute jump. Man… this like every airborne cadence I had ever saying in the army…”Mission unspoken destination unknown. Don’t even know if I’m ever coming home.” Lol. Doors opened, jump master gave the winds and wtf did he just say??? 30+ knot winds. Next thing I know we got the green light and GO!
As I jump out the door and count to four my parachute opens. So I looked down I see the airfield we were supposed to land getting farther away. As I get closer to the ground, I realize there’s a lot of stuff on the ground I don’t want to hit but there’s nothing I can do. So I lower my rucksack. As I’m getting closer to the ground, it hangs up in a blown up building of concrete and rebar. As it hangs up, I get dragged through the rebar. I hit so hard I didn’t even know my name. Next I did the standard airborne check fingers, toes, knees and elbows. Houston we have a problem my left shin is sugar cookie and in sand. This was peculiar so I used my canteen to dump some water on it.
I had a compound fracture of my shin and I could see the bone sticking out. “NO BUENO.” As I laid there I realized this is a pressure dressing situation but it was too long, so I had to do two next to each other. As I bandage myself up I got up I realized I had to walk it back and make link up. So I tied the bandages extra tight to help me walk. Then I saw I was also in a minefield. I walked through the mines and jumped the fence to make link up. I told my first sergeant I think I’m fucked up. The medic cut off my bandages looked at my injury and said who patched you up? I said I did then he replied, “good job Ranger.” Threw me more stuff and said “patch your self up”. This was my first of many “welcome to the world MF” situations.
Article and photo courtesy of SOB Tactical