That had to be awful.

forgot a good one




 

I was following my best friend home from work one night; he was on his motorcycle and I was in my truck. We came to a stoplight and he made it through, but I got stuck at the light. When I finally made it through and around the next turn, I saw his bike in a bunch of pieces all over the road and he was laying facedown in the ditch and not moving. I just knew he was dead. It turns out he'd hit a pothole at about 50mph and gone over the handlebars. The bike cartwheeled and he went skidding off the road. All he had was some road rash and a mild concussion, but he was out when I pulled up.

Another time, he and I were down in the Bahamas on one of the outer islands. We were surfing in kind of a weird spot with not many people around and the current grabbed us and started pulling us out into a big channel, out into the open ocean. I was near exhaustion by the time we got back to the beach.



That happened to me once. My girlfriend and I had just gotten home from dinner and we heard a bunch of thumps upstairs like someone was going through drawers in the bedroom. I got my gun out and told her to stay put. I slowly made my way upstairs, pieing corners and expecting some thug to come after me at any second. When I made it into the bedroom, the bed was messed up and there was stuff all over the floor that had been knocked off the desk and dresser. Then I saw my dipshit cat was just sitting in the middle of the floor amongst his handiwork, looking at me like "Why u hav ur gun out?"

Girlfriend was not as amused as I was.

Most scared? Nothing physical but realizing that my mom required hospice care and it was me and me alone that would be the primary care giver.
Worked out though I am tougher than I thought.

First was the day I took my then 2 year old to the Dr for a weird recurring ear ache/infection.  Dr had us go over and get a CT scan to figure out wtf was going on.
We got home to a ringing phone, and told to grab the boy and a change of clothes for the wife and I and to get back to the office ASAP, we were spending the night at the local level one center an hour away (no other explanation)...I instantly felt the most helpless I ever had.  All I could do after hanging up was drop and hold my boy telling his confused face I loved him more than anything.  
3 days later was the second time while in the waiting room for the 9 hour surgery to remove the brain tumor they found in that CT scan. It was a long 6 months of treatment and recovery, but here we are a little over a year later from the surgery and then proton radiation, and if you didn't know any different, you wouldn't know he had been through anything.
I pray every day his cancer never comes back, and would take his place in a heartbeat.  I never want to see him go through the battle he did again. I'll skip the recovery details for now...

Nothing else bothers me anymore, and I almost lose it every time I see or hear a story of a little kid battling for their life... and I am more proud of my little guy's strength than he will ever know or understand.

Just last month actually. My wife's cousin died unexpectedly the week before thanksgiving, and we had to drive down to eastern Oregon in really bad pass conditions. I was driving our Explorer AWD with studs on all fours, it's a really great snow/ice vehicle. Most of the trip was uneventful, and we were coming down the east side of Grant's Pass. I was about 100ft behind a slow-moving semi truck that we had been stuck behind for most of the way. Once we started coming down in elevation, I saw the sign for a passing lane in 500ft. The passing lane opened up, and I prepared to go into it to pass the truck. At the last second before I was about to start passing the truck, the truck moved over unexpectedly and straddled both lanes, apparently trying to avoid a hard packed snow bank on the shoulder. I had no choice but to hit the brakes and move over to the left into the unplowed "median", started to fishtail at about 50-60mph, and wad basically sliding with no way to slow down. I continued fishtailing in the heavy packed snow between the passing lane and the oncoming lane, and could see cars heading towards us, and I was trying not to slam into the back of the truck's trailer. I hit the overdrive off button, forcing the truck to drop a gear, and I was able to regain control and back off from the semi truck. Just as soon as I did, several cars flew by in the oncoming lane.

This was with my wife, MIL, and 10 month old son in the truck with me. They all seemed like it was no big deal. Being the one in control, I knew just how close we had come to leaving the road or being slammed into head on.

Working hot wires on a ladder in a crowded casino is exciting.
Watching Barack Husien Obama take a pledge to uphold our constitution chilled me to the bones.

My wife miscarried our first baby and she started bleeding at 10 weeks or so with our oldest. We had to wait in the ER for 3 hours before she got an ultrasound. Finally got to see that heart beatin and knew God was good.

During delivery of our second son my wife looked at me and said "something's not right". I looked at the monitor and her blood pressure was 200/140. Many docs trying to figure out why it spiked after delivery like that. She had residual hypertension for a while but is fine now. The thought of her stroking and me raising 2 boys by myself or with an invalid wife scared the shit out of me.

My second son had a lymph node that wouldn't go away for several months and different antibiotics. We thought for sure he had lymphoma though all labs were normal. Finally had surgery and it was just an infected node that didn't respond to therapy.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Right after the Deepwater Horizon event I was on board the production facility I was working at. It was about 2am and everyone (other than the night operators) was asleep. It was very humid and there was a fine mist in the air. We also had a drilling rig on us working over a well. Something tripped our fire detection system, causing a platform blowdown. This diverts all produced gas to flare and shuts in all flowing wells. We went from flowing along steadily  to blowing gas at a 50mmcf rate out of a lit flare boom. It also initiated the emergency muster and abandon system. When we all piled out of the quarters headed to the life boats the mist in the air was glowing orange making it look like the rig took a kick and exploded. All I knew was I was responsible for accounting for about half of the folks on board, getting them in a boat, and getting them off the facility. We were all relieved when we figured out it was a false alarm and all we were seeing was the produced gas flaring off.

Getting mortared in Iraq for the first time was pretty scary shit.

Almost getting mugged outside of a bar in LA.  I'm glad my roommate had my back.

I've been IED'd three times.  Been in plenty of gun fights.  Had mortars land much too close for comfort.  Had RPGs shot at me.  Blah blah blah.

But by far, the most scared I've ever been was when I thought my son stopped breathing.  It was fucking terrifying.  Thankfully, he didn't, and I didn't panic.  Though I cried like a baby later.  

Watching Jaws at the theatre when I was 13

Was kayaking down the Mississippi and had a loose line on the deck I didn't notice, it was foggy and had my strobe marker lights going and my dad was in front of me.

The line got snagged on a tree branch floating under the surface and spun and flipped me into the river, my hand got snagged on my paddle teather and I was out of by kayak stuck on a log and being dragged down.

Thought I was going to drown and was able to cut myself free and hold on to my boat and screamed for help. Dad showed up and tied onto my kayak and drug me to an island where I was able to get back into mine after I was done shaking, vomiting,and crying.
Had a cut on my head and hands along with legs from the tree

Now when I go out I keep all my lines nice and neat and make sure I keep my knife on my vest sharp

While in college I was out riding with some buddies and a new guy was along for the ride. We were getting on the Northway outside of Albany and were
in a long sweeping right turn. We were doing over 100mph when the new guy could not hold his line and cut me off. Well that caused me to have to move off my line
and at that speed bikes do not like that. Well the front tire of my GSX-R 1000 started to wash away and all I saw was the drop off on the left coming up quick. I had
not doubt I was going to be launched into the abyss. Well the big guy must have been looking out for me as the tire grabbed and while it unseated me I stayed upright.
Talk about knots in gut for sometime after. My roommate who was behind me could not believe what he just saw. Never road with new guy again.

Since I don't have any kids, I would say I have never known real fear.

Fuck man, can you be more obtuse?

Assuming you had a parachute?  

Wish you dudes could finish the fucking stories.

Can you please finish the freakin story?

Moved into a 15 year old home a few years back. When they built the deck, they didn't sink the footings deep enough for MN or for the heavy clay. Deck had a pretty decent slant to it when we first moved in.

I was grilling and feeling lazy so I fired up the gas grill instead of charcoal. I almost always use the charcoal unless it is for hotdogs,  the wife uses the gas frequently though.  About 5 minutes into the steak being on the grill I glance outside to see a massive fireball.   I run outside to the deck and take a quick second to ponder my options.   The entire grill including the tank are engulfed in flames.   I figured I didn't have time for the fire extinguisher, grabbed an oven mitt and went for it.  The 20 gallon tank sits under the grill and I am crouched down with my arm in the flames turning the gas knob.  I get the knob shut off and as I am backing out from the inferno the gas line breaks in two right in front of my face.  Literally inches from my nose.

I go inside,  grab the fire extinguisher and put out the grill. It's about this time I realized what just happened.  I have no idea if the tank would have exploded or not,  but I am pretty sure I was a split second from my face at least taking an instant fireball when the line melted.

Turns out the deck was slanted enough that the grease drippings were not draining properly.  When the steak flared,  the inch plus of grease went up with it.

I know exactly that feeling, I can't tell you how many times I've had to do actual abandon musters (not drills). I cant imagine having be the person taking muster thinking the place is fixing to come apart. My job has landed me on the majority of the deep water platforms in the gulf at the moment they are brought online for the first time. It's always a scary feeling knowing you are on a new facility, that is just seeing all that pressure from a freshly drilled well flowing through the pipes initially...and whether everything is set up right. Most people don't know how it is to feel and hear the roar of the high pressure oil shaking everything around you.

My story:
I was asleep one night in my room when I still lived at home with my parents. It was late spring or early summer in 82' I believe. I actually had two rooms there. My parent 's purchased a two story four bedroom farm house on 13 acres. One room of mine was upstairs but my main bedroom was a 20'x20' tack room adjacent to the house. When my parent's first purchased the place I immediately claimed the tack room. It had everything but a toilet, ac, heat, phone, cable, intercom into the house.

I was asleep in my "tack room" bedroom that night. I had a very strange and sad nightmare that night. I was dreaming that I was in my room and opened the door to look outside. It was dark outside and I saw a very large reddish brown bear about twenty feet outside my door and charging at me. I somehow had a rifle in my hands so I shouldered the rifle and shot the bear. As the bear fell down dead all of a sudden it was no longer a bear but one of my dogs. I was mortified and started screaming and crying as I ran towards my dog a large reddish brown 110lb German Sheppard named Bobo. As I am standing over my dog heartbroken and hysterical I looked into the row of large kitchen windows of the house. The lights were all on and I could see my parent's inside mulling around completely oblivious to what was going on outside. I started yelling at my parent's trying to get their attention, the kitchen windows were only about ten feet from me. It was like they could not see or hear me. As I was trying to get there attention I felt like I was rising off of the ground. I kept floating/rising up into the air until my feet were about the same level as the top of the kitchen windows... then I woke up. Now in this dream/ nightmare I had the realistic feeling of floating/rising off the ground. My perspective in the dream was all from a first person account rather than watching it from another person's view.

I remember waking up ( it was somewhere around 2 or 3 in the morning). I woke up but did not open my eyes right away because of the sheer terror I felt. I just knew someone or something was in that room with me. I laid there listening for a few moments but could not hear anything but I just knew someone was in there. I wanted to crack my eyes open and peer around the room without appearing to wake up. I wanted to see or hear whatever I could in order to be prepared when I bolted out of bed ready to fight.

Nothing, no sounds no sight of anyone but my heart was pounding and my adrenaline was soaring. Finally I said ok here we go... I jumped up as fast as I could threw the covers back and came up in a fighting stance on my bed. I was ready, I was in fight or flight mode and I was ready to fight for my life. After scanning the room for several seconds I realized no one was physically in my room. I took a few seconds more to listen to see if anything was outside, nothing. I looked out my windows, nothing. I was still so frightened that I went inside the main house and crashed out on one of the couches in the living room.  The three dogs (2 German Shepherds and 1 doberman) we had all came to greet me when I came in. I gave Bo a big hug and as I slept she laid beside me on the floor.

I never did understand what happened that night nor have I to this day. I have never been that terrified/scared in my life.

Maybe 20 years ago, I was horseback riding with a couple of friends. I was on a borrowed horse that I rode a lot. Anyway, we had to go on a dirt country road for a little distance. Some guy in a pickup suddenly decided to go around me and pass on the side of the group, hitting his horn while he went by. This really spooked the horse I was riding, and we nearly ended up in the bed of the pickup.

I was shaking so badly we had to stop at the side of the road for a bit for both me and the horse to calm down.

We would have been fine if the idiot hadn't hit the horn.

when I was 17 years old, I was out sailing with my cousin's hot girlfriend sailing on my 17 Prindle Cat in 25knot gust winds/4-6fters.  We should have never been out but she had the wonderful idea to stop the boat and skinny dip.  Almost sure I would get some in a battling sea, I agreed.  She took off her bikini bottoms and I took mine off and we held each other. I knew she wanted to do the nasty and the whole thing was kinky as shit with our vests on.  

Landing came out from under us on landing. Dad was flying, i was in the right seat cussing my head off.

once when my daughter was choking and once when my wife fell and hit her head on pavement and started passing out.

I don't really worry about myself.

Main chute didn't fully open on my fifth free fall.

Grenade landed between my feet. Mosul, Iraq. Jan 17, 2004. Haji pulled the pin, but I guess he was former, fuck maybe current, military and had the spoon taped down. That was a fucked up night.

Incidentally, my youngest daughter was born Jan 17, 2007.

Falling 120mph at 3000ft with what was supposed to be a open chute instead of a ball of

Man, I always have a vest on.  I flipped the canoe or rather my 6 year-old did.  Both wearing vests and it was still scary.  Lost a nice fishing rod but had a spare one so I swam to an island with the boat, got all the water out and went back to fishing.

Had a helo lose power while launching off spot 1 on the carrier.  I dove into the catwalk and it landed on top of me.  Pretty sure I was going to die.  Didn't really have time to be scared until after it happened.  Pretty shaky for a while afterwards though.

Armed robbery. So much stress I overloaded and basically just blanked for a few minutes.



I also got really freaked out by War of the Worlds for some reason



Also had one of those paralyzed waking dream things where all of existence flattened and shed its emotional investments, leaving me with the pure sensation of understanding the objectivity of myself fully. A few seconds of that nearly dove me insane. I'd prefer the armed robbery again.

Let me guess:  Screaming and covered in blood?

Creampied an ugly chick in college

Similar situation to the OP story. My son was stillborn and after the delivery my wife went into what was later determined to be DIC with uncontrollable bleeding. They started paging every nurse and OR tech on the floor it seemed. They handed my son to me and took her to the OR. i felt like I was going to pass out the whole time this was going on, given the loss of our baby and the potential loss of my wife. They finally got a handle on it and brought her back around and she was fine after a week in the hospital. I hope to never go through anything like that again.

Almost drowning in a creek when I was about seven.  Or when I was riding on the levee drunk with about 3 other friends when the driver decided to act stupid and flipped the explorer over about 3 times.  Literally saw my life flash before my eyes.

Drawing my gun on two guys I thought were going to rob me at the gas station I worked at. They left the scene pretty quick.

3 days later, same guys got busted for armed robbery at a gas station down the street.

Pointing a gun at another person is something I never want to do again in my life, and I hope it never happens again. If I can make it the rest of my life without ever pulling my gun again, I'd be more than happy.

The first time I went to Afghanistan.  We had a compound out by Phoenix in Kabul.   Anyway the camp manager tried to fire the head guard (Afghan guard force).   He turned the guard force  on the manager and put us at gunpoint and tried to walk the manager out the gate and load us up.   Luckily one of the guys in the camp partied a lot with the guys at the police training center down the road and was able to get a text out.  No one got hurt but nothing ever happened to me like that in Iraq but we always had Blackwater or other proper security contractors.    Stayed at Green until we got a proper guard force in place supplied by people that do not exist!    

She called me on the phone and said her period was a week late.

Seriously though, it was 9\11 watching the Pentagon burn down the street.  My sister and my Dad were both supposed to be there, in that part of the building that morning.

World trade center sept 14 2001.  Was working with a FEMA rescue task force and was standing over a hole as backup for two guys about 30 feet below me breaching a door below the pile looking for survivors. There was a small fire burning down there and the whole hole exploded. Burned my teammate next to me with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. Sounded like a jet engine. I grabbed the guy on fire and carried him off lightning fast and got him put out and then ran to the hole where my two buddies were and I was convinced they were dead. Happens that they were below the point of origin of the gas explosion and the force went up and out, not down. I was screaming their names into the hole after the fire was out and I hear two voices hollering back that they are ok. I thought they were dead.

When I walked off the train at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, without my backpack and didn't realize it until we got to the top of escalator and my significant other asked for her phone. Contents of said pack included my wallet, family's passports, airline tickets, iphones, laptop, basically our lives. I've never experienced that feeling ever before. Had to have been fear.

I went to the train info kiosk in a panic, told them what happened, they radioed the train who sent an employee on a search and rescue. They found it where I left it, and put it on the next train heading back to the station. Talk about lucky.

700' up a TV tower when the mount I was standing on broke. Thought I was going to die. The fall arresting lanyard did its job.

We called those lanyards "screamers" for a reason.

I was in a bad car crash.  We were it from behind on the freeway.  Nothing I could do.  Steering, braking....nothing.  Newton’s laws were in charge.  It was a full-sized van.  It rolled 3 times and ended up upside down on the freeway.  My wife and I were in the upside down van and when we looked around, our children were no longer in the van.......they had been ejected.  That instant was was the worst of my life.  Terror.


My boys were out laying on their backs on I-15.......miraculously un-injured.  Not even a scratch.  God has other plans for them.  I’ll never forget the sight of my boys laying out on the pavement.

The drunk who hit us was killed instantly.

Im doing better bud.  But thank you.  

soutisde chicago and the north side, right in front of a shooting. death has never come closer

Thankfully, I've never been in a situation where I really feared for my own life.

I guess the most scared I've ever been was standing around my brother's hospital bed with my family while the doctors told us that the outlook was not good. Unfortunately, they were right . R.I.P. Dan.

That story brought back memories.  i spent my teenage years sailing Hobie Cats in the Gulf of Mexico.  I know exactly how that could happen.  Scary.  And as you pulled yourself in with the main sheet......the boat picked up speed.  Yikes.

I was walking home late one night (well, trying to walk home) from my girlfriends house up on a mountain about 4 miles from my grandma's house (lived with grandma my senior year).

About 1/4 mile away from the house, I began to get the creepy crawlies.  Goose bumps, hair standing up on my arms/neck/back of my head.  Trouble breathing.  Hell, even trouble walking.  I tried forcing myself to keep walking but it got slower and slower and I finally stopped on the side of the road in the dark.  I could see the town down below that was about halfway between our houses.  I stood there for awhile, figuring the feeling would go away.  It didn't.

Finally I turned around and started walking back towards her house.  With each step, it got easier.  Breathing go easier, walking go easier.  The goosebumps/etc. went away and I felt normal again.  I tried to shrug it off and turned around to head home again.  Got to the big curve and the same thing happened.  Each step towards town was more difficult.  Breathing was tougher.  Just felt sick.  Stopped again and waited a bit.  No improvement.  Headed back up the mountain again and felt better with every step.

Got back up near her house and felt normal.  Stood there awhile and then decided I was being pretty damn silly so I headed back towards town again.  That time it was different.  No problems at all, no fear, no trouble.  I was home in about 45 minutes or so.

It never happened before, never happened after.  No idea what happened or why it affected me that way.

And that was the most scared I've ever been in my life.  And I was standing in a big masson cutter room one night when it had what they call a catastrophic failure.  It went boom, I heard pieces bouncing off the walls to my left and right (not a piece touched me) and when I next looked at the cutter the case had bulged so badly I could see the blades/rotor inside the cutter through the cracks in the body of the cutter.  That one didn't even raise a goose bump on me (it was over pretty quick).  Scared the cutter operator standing outside the room more than it scared me.