Yup. It wasn't just Baghdad. Tampa was the big one. Ran North and South almost all the way to Kuwait.

The summer before I took off for college I had my wisdom teeth out. I had taken my moms suburban to town to get some groceries for her. I was turning off the highway towards my house. I had stopped to wait for a car to pass and there was a pickup behind me. A truck decided to pass. I didn’t see it, but the kid in the pickup behind me said the car had to take the ditch. As I started the turn, right before the impact I started to hear the tires screeching from the semi jackknifing then boom. The truck hit the suburban right above the back wheel. I’m guessing he was going 50ish when he hit me. All that happened to me was I hit my head on the corner post (looking back I had a pretty solid concussion).

If he’s have hit any farther forward on the car I get to eat the semi and the car doesn’t spin around. I was probably less than a foot from dead.

Still sucked less than the Wisdom teeth.

I can think of a few times at least. One from some mother****er dropping a rock from and overpass and hitting the roof of my car right above my head. Was going about 60 mph. Another, came inches away from being smashed under a big CAT bulldozer. And one from a bad drowning situation involving a couple little girls and their dad(RIP).

Almost died river rafting when I got stuck in a hydraulic. My son had just been born and I had recently gotten life insurance. I remember looking up to the surface thinking, "cash the check honey". Was down for a long time before I went down and swam out.

I had hyperkalemia once that I caught purely by accident since it was time for annual bloodwork.

Other than that...I dunno :shrug:. I got tren cough once and I wasn't prepared for it. I thought I was going to die for about 5 minutes until I figured out what it was.

It’s sketch around CENTCOM but not IED bad.

Yeah roger that .Started as highway 80 out of Kuwait city to Safwan then on up to Baghdad. Very familiar to me since 1991. Was in Al Anbar during your 2008 tour as well. Thanks again.

Roger. different kind of sketch but guys can choose which spooks them more.....

Roger that...

One deployment we owned 36 km of Tampa from just north of Baghdad up to LSAA. Every single time you rolled out, it was pretty much guaranteed to happen. 15JUN07 just south of CP59A was my worst experience.

RTE TAMPA, RTE COYOTES, RTE GOLD in Sadr City... Not "if" but "when".

I digress.

My buddy got shot in the back of the head in Iraq, his first week in country. Obviously it wasn't a front to back shot, but it took a sizeable chunk out of his skull. He has, more or less, made a full recovery, despite some ongoing memory problems. Interestingly enough, the incident was caught on camera. Scary shit.

Thanks for your service!

Double pneumonia when I was 2.

Wow. I almost drowned when I was like 15 years old. My dad, me and my brother went canoeing on the Niobrara river in north central Nebraska. I had decided on the last day to try tubing on the rapids at the end of the two day run. It looked like a water slide to me, in fact I saw some kid go before me and he wiped out and popped up laughing on the other side...so I figured why not?

I was sitting on the edge of the tube trying to navigate a bit before hitting the rapids, and I pushed off a boulder...and the tube shot out behind me and I was standing belly deep in the river, which was just starting to pick up speed. I remember feeling the unrelenting and un-conquerable strength of the current...I was going over and there was nothing I could do about it...it sucked me under feet first, I think I hit my head on a boulder, then I got launched over the short falls at the end of the rapids and when I went under, I was in the "washing machine". I remember the stones on the river bottom were really smooth, and I remember thinking briefly "it's quiet...this ain't so bad..." then by some miracle the river spit me out and all this water came out of my lungs and they were burning...and my next thought was "No no, I want to live..."

I remember my dad running along the river yelling at me to try to stand up, but I had lost feeling in my legs and thought "Oh shit, now I'm paralyzed"...but then they started to work and I slogged my way to the shore. My dad was beside himself and yelling at me (which I understand, that's what he did when he was scared shitless). We rested for a minute, got in the car and drove home.

Crazy 30 seconds in my life that I'll never forget.

Yeah I didn’t want to hijack the tread but the Wikileaks reports from 04 to 09 might bug you guys or you’ll see the sterile reporting of incidents that you remember so much more personally (that’s my response)

On thread topic, I am obviously an old guy and likely competitive in the near death scared shitless olympics. Different sub categories are emerging that match my experiences.
1) I was damaged but had no idea what happened or where it came from so no fear involved. Just pain/rehab.
2) I was not damaged or only minimally but I can recall them all and get the scent when the memories arrive. Like all crashes-Darwin Award or Military- they play out mentally in slow motion.

Absolutely agree with this.

Also to all the military responding to this thread....

THANK YOU.

I've had pneumonia a few times, as well as bronchitis, pluerisy, and God knows how many respiratory infections. That stuff sucks man..