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Posted: 10/8/2004 12:03:33 PM EDT
I am 16 years old and have been considering entering the military. I am not afraid to admit that I am afraid of being wounded in combat, not because of the pain, but because of the uncertainness of what has happened to my body. I think fear is a postive and very necessary emotion; however, fear detracts from a man's character when it prevents him of doing what must be done.
I think people are most afraid of being shot, stabbed, etc. because they have no prior experiences to relate being wounded to. So... my question is... could anyone who has been shot/wounded and would not have a problem talking about it, please post what it felt like and if you can remember, what you were thinking when it happened. I think the fear of death is universal and that the "macho" attitude prevents many individuals from voicing this. ----- GRH - God's Right Hand - "Hold No Quarter. Feel No Remorse." |
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I was shot with a .45acp at about 6ft. It was an accident and a deep graze, it caused a hell of a trench and felt like a bee sting from a 9ft yellowjacket. I was an Air Force SP, no special training beyond the academy and some ABGD at Ft Dix NJ and a couple runs at Volant Scorpion. Basic combat stuff only. When hit I reacted as I was trained to, suprisingly enough.... this was 3 years after I got out of the AF and had no formal training after seperation. I stood up, assessed the wound and took action to ensure survival. I was busy keeping the shooter/everyone else calm. I didnt have a problem until the EMTs said to check my chest for the bullet. And of course the emergency room screening nurse who woudnt beleive I was there for a gunshot wound until I showed her. Sure it wasnt a serious wound but I didnt know it at the time. Training does stick, you wont think so until it comes time to use it but it'll be there. I'm personally not so much afraid of bullets as the other stuff like chem warfare. Not much, but hopefully provides some insight. Btw, at no time did I even experience a small amount of fear. I knew what to do and did it.
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I wonder if cops or military deals with this. Because going back to "mindset" deal, I remember hearing a bunch of reports on this sort of thing, and one was about a deputy who was so afraid of getting shot that he convinced himself that if a person got shot, they died. He apparently talked about it a lot. While serving a warrent, he got shot in the upper arm by a .22 LR and died for no readily apparent reason. His coworkers and the docs decided that he had basically convinced himself to death. Anyway, I've never been shot, or even shot at. I did get my upper left leg pretty torn up by falling down a barnacle encrusted rock (I was jogging on a beach and had to climb down a five foot jetty) also banged up my elbows pretty good (the left one wouldn't bend for about 15 minutes. I thought at first that I broke it). After about 10 minutes of lying there in a hell of a lot of pain, I limped the three miles back home. It was 5 AM so nobody else was out except a guy walking his dog who looked at the limping guy covered with blood (on my shirt from my arms, my leg was also clogged up with algea and sand, which kept it from bleeding) and said "good morning" (fucking New Jersey people). Anyway, after about 15 minutes it was like my body said "Hey, that hurts a hell of a lot, and apparently there's nothing we can do about it, so we're going to ignore it." It still hurt, but it became like background noise. Which was kind of weird, but I was fully prepared to accept it. Until I had to scrub out the wounds with a pot scrubbing pad. Then it hurt again. |
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If this is your fear then you need to join the AirForce, Coast Guard or Navy. You will not be a complete fighting soldier if you are afraid on this level. Being afraid isnt a big deal, its how you deal with it, if you let these types of thoughts go thru your head you will certainly die or worse yet cause others around you to die because you are too afraid to do your job or act accordingly. But if you can put this aside and focus on what you need to do, then by all means join a fighting branch. Jus remember Shit Happens, its not up to you weather it happens now or later. When its time for you to punch your time card one last time than it is. Do what you want and dont be afraid. Nothing in life is much fun without the risks involved and a job to do. |
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I served in combat. Before we got there, I was a scared-shitless 18 year old. Once we were boots on the ground, it dissapated quickly.
I was amazed at how well everyone performed under fire. The phrase, "you fight like you train" is 100% accurate. |
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My brother shot me with a BB gun when I was about 8 or 9.
Does that count? |
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I concur wholeheartedly. Dont much care for the comment about join the Air Force though, SF's (as they call them these days) can see some shit close up too. Not to mention Pararescue and combat controllers. Of course these arent the vast majority of mechanics and paper pushers that make up the larger portion of the AF. |
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Yeah, I was really ticked off when my nice cool looking leg scar just faded away. It was there for about a year and then went away. I didn't think they were supposed to do that. I was a big fan of that scar. |
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A number of years ago, my partner was stabbed three times in the back by a susp. that we were trying to arrest for burglarly. It was at night on a hillside and as I was fighting the guy, my partner says "I think he stabbed me, look for a knife". I noticed the guys hand trying to stuff something in the ground cover and discovered that he was trying to hide a 6" buck hunting knife. My partner helps me walk the guy up to the car and after we throw him in, my partner mentions that he is having a hard time breathing. I had called for rescue and had him take off his jacket. We had white uniform shirts and his back was covered in blood. He was stabbed in the left shoulder, left lung and left kidney. He asks me "Did he stab me?" I said "yeah, but it's just a scratch.....quit being a pussy." He started to really have difficulty breathing by the time rescue got there and was barely conscious as they drove away. He ended up making it through this, but it was a close call. Most of the time when your adrenaline is flowing you don't feel the pain. One of the hazards of my job is that I have had to fight people sometimes. 99% of the time that I have gotten hurt, I didn't realize it until after the fight was over. This is a good thing when you need to be able to focus on doing what needs to be done. As I learned in boot camp (USMC), shit happens and you just have to deal with it. You have to literally say to yourself, "fuck it!" and carry on. Once you learn how, you will be amazed at how it helps you overcome shitty situations that you may find yourself in. |
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You are full of bullshit. If you think that Marines and Army soldiers aren't afraid of being shot... you are fucking retarded. Everyone has fear... and don't act like soldiers are immune to it. If anything, fighting men are just too caught up in the moment to think about "fear". |
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* Your focus in a fight must be on taking out the threat, not worrying about how not to get shot. You must work from the assumption that in a gun fight, you will get shot but must fight on anyway.
* "The best cover is rapid accurate fire directed at your enemy." * When you need to be shooting, you need to be shooting. Anything that takes time and effort away from that is a drain on precious resources.---------------Ernest Langdon www.langdontactical.com |
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Having never been shot or anything like that, I have nothing to offer you in the way of advice.
Will a compliment do? I read a lot of posts here from people I strongly suspect of being, well, YOUNG, and trying to act as if they are older. If you hadn't stated your age, I would have taken you for much older. FWIW, I think you are gonna be OK, no matter what you do. (The "God's right hand" thing worries me a little, though.) |
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I was stabbed with a bayonette in teh chest, and no it was not a drive by. I was on the middle of a fight, I really didn't feel it at all when it happened. The only real pain came when the nurse stitched it up, it being on the chest they couldn't use a local pain killer.
I was in much more pain from a car wreck I had once. |
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I got a knife deep in the leg once, not painful at all, just looked at it and didn't believe it was sticking into my leg, then pulled it right out. Thankfully no major veins or arteries were severed.
I think the pain of a wound varies an extreme amount depending where you get it. From what I've read on past threads here, wounds to your main torso, especially stomach area, can be extremely painful. |
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A large part of life is about confronting your fears. Everyone who is normal...ok, I'll add semi-normal for some of the guys on this site...is afraid of many things. You can sit and brood about them, never making the effort to confront and overcome them, or you can meet them head on and not let them get the better of you. You can get hurt or even dead just crossing the street.It has been my experience that situations happen so fast that you don't have the time to be afraid while the shit is flying...only afterward will your hands and legs shake...when you realize what you just went through. It's the guys who really are NOT afraid...at all...not even a little bit...who worry me.
Of course, you can also be a damned fool and invite trouble by your actions, which is very unsmart, but provided you get good training, have a reasonably good head on your shoulders, and don't panic and do something stupid, you will usually be fine. If not? Well, fate plays a role in all our lives...we never know what is around the next twist or turn...and I, for one, don't want to know. Sooner or later, we all owe God a death...we cannot escape it. Only a fool tries to hurry it along, but "IF" we will die is not in question...only when and how. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I made up MY mind a long time ago that I would do my best to meet death on my feet and like a man...not like a whipped dog. Hopefully that will come to pass when my time comes, and hopefully that time will not be for many. many years to come. |
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I disagree with you. I was a soldier, a good soldier. I was not really afraid to fight, but I was scared all of the time, getting shot scared me, getting captured scared me, and getting killed sure as hell scared me. A lack of fear in the face of an enemy is not bravery it is stupidity, a good measure of fear will ensure that you do not do stupid things that get yourself killed for no good reason, the fear of losing your buddies is what makes men heros. |
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Thank you all for your advice. So, another question is: Having seen the insurgents that were shot/blown up by the Kiowa helicopter in my other thread... what do you think they felt?
NOTE: "God's Right Hand" is a biblical allusion (No, not "illusion") to justice. It refers to justice for the terrorists of the world : Al-Qaeda, Mujahadeen, Hamas, etc. |
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Listen Junior, you asked a fucking question, you dont like the answer go back to your fucking play pin. I neve said to be all macho, but if you focus only on the fear of gettin shot than you will more than likely FUCK UP and get shot, BUT if you listen to the ppl that are training you and practice, it will keep you alive longer. Oh for the RECORD I was USMC 89-93 and have been shot. . I stand by my orginal statement. *edit* Fear itself Can keep you alive and keep you alert, ITS HOW YOU USE THAT FEAR AND STILL FOCUS ON YOUR TASK. Everyone is AFraid at one point , I never said nobody wasnt. |
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It is hard to guess what they were thinking, being the fact that they are often told that if thier faith is strong American bullets can't hurt them, I would guess an awful lot of them are just realizing that they have been lied to as they die. |
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sometimes people die cause they think they are going to die and panic.
My biggest fear is to be shot and can't do a damn thing about it, that would really suck. |
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Die-tryin, Nothing personal, but that is just flat out ignorant. I was a boarding officer in the Coast Guard and one of my crew was shot on the job. Also, just ask the AirForce airmen in Iraq if they don't get shot at, mortered, car bombed and what not. GrH, Surviving a gun shot, or any other major trauma, is all about mind set. Some people have no faith in their ability to survive. Others, you could cut them in half and they won't even go into shock. Have faith in your ability to survive, have faith in your training, and have faith in your squad and your medic. There are times when you will be afraid, but when the SHTF, you will do your job. Most of the time, you don't feel scared untill it's over and you relize how close you came. |
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I have never been shot but I have been shot at many times ,people who say delivering is nothing is full of it.I usto have a 1983 caviler i used to deliver pizza in .After the first time i was shot at I took and put a 1/2 inch thick steel plate in the door(that was no easy task) .After the car finally had enough I counted the holes in the car ended up with 10 holes , 2 guns,5 knives and one rolling pin(). People ask me why I still did after that and I tell them you have to love the job. And to top it off all the pizza places around here except one don't want any driver to carry.
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Don't join the Navy if you're afraid of water (or being burned alive in a fire trapped below deck, or drowning in a locked compartment flooded with JP5 , or being sucked through a jet engine, or slowly suffocating while trapped underwater in a submarine, or etc... etc...).
I think I'd rather be shot to be honest. |
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Link to that thread? |
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Cool, I thought I was the only person here who had been a pizza guy that got shot at, and still loved the job. |
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Before we jumped into Operation Just Cause, Panama, 1989, everyone at the PHL was very on-edge and quite scared. Once we were over Omar Torrijos International Airport and tracers were piercing the skin of the aircraft, the fear quickly ebbed and anger took its place.
Our platoon performed remarkably well and I too, was surprised at how everyone clicked and did their jobs without hesitation. I learned on Dec. 20th and 21st that we had some very brave, heroic men in our unit. Being shot or injured was not really a thought that occupied our minds. Killing the enemy was at the forefront. I know it may sound disturbing but as young men with molded minds, we actually craved action. The only other fear that comes to mind during that action was the helo ride to Fort Cimmaron (Panamanian Special Forces School). We were told that we were going to land in a "hot" LZ and it drove my fear factor up considerably. |
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Die- Tryin...
Thanks for your service to your country, but there are a few things you need to work out. You may have had an MOS in the USMC and you may have been shot at. However, if you want to express your opinion and not have people misunderstand your statements because they didn't infer your true meaning, take some fucking English classes and construct your arguments more effectively. You are angry at me because I misundertood a statement that was an amalgamation of sentence fragments. So Sr., Chill out and go relive your passed on "Glory Day's" . ---- "What is the final destinate of hatred? When you look into the eyes of the enemy and see yourself." - To End All Wars |
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As long as your still walking and talking --- you have a reason to be smiling. |
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Pics of what? Me in the service. believe me I dont give a rats ass if anyone believes me or not. |
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If you post pics, I'll post pics of me stuffing it in my dogs pooper.
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Roger that - hence the "DILLIGAF" moniker! |
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You sound like every other kid who's discovered the metaphysical, and then starts spouting it to sound more mature. Pull back, that way lays simpering pussyhood. There is no problem in acknowledging and discussing Fear. But crap as you've expressed so far all too often ends up in lassitude, nihilism and posturing like 'it's useless, why bother'. The times I've ended up massively injured (not shot), I've been far too busy working on overcoming the situation and getting myself to proper care for any languid introspection or useless 'What's it all about, Alfie?' bullcrap. |
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GrH, you may not like the way Die-Tryin expressed his opnion, but you need to have RESPECT for the man. Personal attacks of a Marine who served his country are not going to win you any friends here. He has earned respect, you should show some. |
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Everyone has fear, don't let anyone tell you they don't ever feel fear. But you must learn to face those fear and despite them do your duty. Personally I was more afraid of letting my Marines down than getting shot.
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I think you misunderstood my question and I also think that you haven't considered the psyche of individuals if there was a large draft. I am not afraid of being shot at to a point of negligence to duty, however, I do have the balls to express what is on the minds of many men that go into combat. Do you think that men don't feel fear the moment they pass Basic or Adv. MOS? I am just curious because I have never experienced it... same reason Ragma Fucktarder gets knocked up at age 14 because she was curious about sex. Anyways, if you thought you were being prodigous and enlightening me through your ability to quickly scour over a dictionary and find some words that your normal individual wouldn't know, you weren't. So, move along, and make yourself feel better by kicking dogs and pushing over children to get to the front of whatever Japanese Animation action-figure debut at your local Toys 'R' Us. |
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+1 |
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Excuse me, but exactly who the FUCK do you think you are boy? Here's some advice: speak to people as you would be spoken to. Post here like you were talking face to face. This shit aint gonna get you anywhere; makes you look like a keyboard kommando. |
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I believe I acknowledged that at the beginning of the reply. But, to continue on with your though process, do you think we should let all the Marines out of jail that come back to the U.S. after their tour and commit crimes? Do you think we should let all Marines not have to abide by the same laws as everyone else? I have much respect for any man that serves his country in ANY CAPACITY, however, I don't think a person's MERIT at one time in their life excuses them for the rest of their life. |
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Seems to me like you didn't thoroughly read his post before I replied. Speaking of Keyboard Kommandos.... |
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You have alot to learn and your age really shows , 16? I wouldve guessed 13 (the legal age to be on ARF) |
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Been shot in the finger by 5.56. It hurt for a second and then went numb, my finger has been numb ever since, but it works good so who cares.
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Trolling your own thread? How about responses to the positive posts? Your lack of that emits an impression of trolling. IMHO. |
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AND YOU THINK YOU SPEAK FOR ALL INDIVIDUALS THAT GO INTO THE ARMY?? DO YOU THINK JOHN KERRY SPEAKS FOR ALL VIETNAM VETERANS?? |
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If you DO ever join up, your DI is going to LOVE you. |
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Thanks, Cpt. Kirk |
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Yeah, I read this whole thread, and you are coming across like a first class pompous ass. Someone who talks smack sitting behind a keyboard, hence the term "keyboard kommando". Chill out with the attitude dude. |
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