proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 18:24:15
bear 1300cc Superstar
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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 S tar 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 t o 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 fel t 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'."
Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of th e warrior spirit. 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.
Replies
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 18:31:24
the_ox 1300cc Superstar
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Top man.
oxo
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 18:46:26
vibro 1300cc Superstar
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sir.............i salute you
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 19:56:01
r1froog 1300cc Superstar
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must hae scots blood in him.......top guy.
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 20:27:58
Loadsbob 400cc Rider
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True Hero Bear, and 1 finger up to them classic
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 23:33:32
weasleboy 1300cc Superstar
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if its ture bear i salute him,but aint we still got a propaganda machine going lol,any way we only there cos blair i s stuck up the bush
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-29 07:51:48
fredcbr6uk 1300cc Superstar
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a great story. we should support the troops which ever way we can. they deserve it.
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-29 08:03:50
Roeby 1300cc Superstar
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wow, i don't know what else to say
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-29 15:20:00
bear 1300cc Superstar
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tis apparently a true story. yes it has propaganda elements but so what! if it makes some folk think their sons and daughters may be safer due to the heroics of this bloke and all the others who do the same job then wheres the harm.
the point is not wether the war is right or wrong, got nowt to do with blair or bush its about a soldier who did his job. I for one would certainly buy him a few beers.
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-29 15:28:13
Roeby 1300cc Superstar
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so would i bear
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-29 18:33:25
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-29 22:31:15
franonacbr 1100cc Pro Racer
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what a man! he deserves the title hero. my son is hoping to join up next year, it makes me think what he might come across and to be honest, it scares me.
our boys have to see and go thro so much in war, in their own ways they are all heros. god bless them all
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-30 09:31:20
suzuki_goddess 1300cc Superstar
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proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 18:24:15
proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 18:46:26
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proper attitude this bloke - Posted on 2006-12-28 23:33:32
