How Close Have You Come to Death?
 

Spinning off the car surfing teen thread...

What’s your story of the closest you’ve come to dieing?

Between all of us I’m sure there’s a decent mix from Darwin-award candidate behavior to emergency quadruple bypass patients.

Also: take a moment to be grateful to be alive. Every day is a gift.

Couple of near-misses in cars in the snow. One time I did a 360 on a busy highway and barely pulled out of the way of an oncoming semi; another time I slid sideways across a bridge in the south during a freak snowstorm and almost nailed some crashed cars at the end. In both times I didn't actually hit anything, though. (The only actual accident I've ever been in was an old lady running a red light on her way to get donuts who totaled the front of my car.)

Oh, wait. There was the time in the 80s that I took my Houston-native girlfriend to an Oilers-Pats game in old Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro (back when the Pats sucked, and lots of drunks filled the stands), and the Oilers kicked the shit out of them and she cheered the whole time, nearly getting us killed...

Mine: I was in high school, it was a week before graduation and I was riding my 10-speed bike home from work at night.

I was approaching an intersection and the light turned green for me. As I entered the intersection I noticed in my peripheral vision a car going about 50 MPH from my right with no sign of slowing or stopping.
I squeezed both brakes as hard as I could and slid back on the bike seat as far as I could. It was a 4x4 truck, like a huge early 80s Chevy - a rectangle on wheels — blows past right in front of me and the front tire of my bike grazed the back wheel of the truck as it flew past.

I was frozen there. I looked up to make sure my light was green. It was. There was actually a car stopped at the light, in the next lane. The driver and I looked at each other like “holy ****”

If I hadn’t seen him coming, or reacted a split second late, they’d be cleaning me out of his radiator. It took me about ten minutes before I finished riding home.

Too many times to list.

Broke my neck when I was 17. My body temp was in the 70's. Was dead for around a minute while in the life flight on the way to the hospital.

twice

As a baby. Going to church. No kids seats. I was in my sisters arms in the front seat. Dad pulled out in front of someone. We got t-boned. Sis and I hit the dash. I was given mouth to mouth by my dad and the a person that lived on the corner..

In Glacier park 1975. I was 6. I was Standing on a rock overlooking the cliff. Someone bumped someone who bumped me. Caught my balance. Thought I was going over. I am not sure if anyone would have seen me go over. Still not afraid of heights.

Winner!!! Since you actually died.

IED nearly got me in 2008 on Tampa. Spooky times.

I think the truly frightening thing is most of us probably don’t even know the true answer to this question.

Bored to death reading most DeBerg threads.

Wow. Did you fully recover? While technically dead did you have any tunnel of light experience?

In 1995, flipped my car end over end, with a roll at the end. Came away with a few scratches.

In 2014, double pneumonia and renal failure. Blood O2 in the 50s. Eight days in ICU.

I was pretty close in 93, 97, and 14.. but Mahomes give me something to live for..

I assume you are talking about MSR Tampa/Baghdad Airport Road (previously Saddam airport prior to us renaming the airport) or maybe Florida in/out of SOCOM and CENTCOM. Both were spooky. Thank you.

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

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..

when trucking, I came home for the weekend; woke up Saturday and felt like someone was sitting on my chest. Thought I might be having a heart attack or something, and told the wife I think I need to go to the ER ; 4am, and she jumped out of bed - because I never go to the doctor so she knew it was serious.

no heat attack; they took a picture of my chest (CT scan or whatever it's called) but noticed an odd thing at the bottom of the pic; so they took another one lower in my gut area. Found my gall bladder was YUGE........and, at that picture, they noticed 3 big blood clots in my lungs.

they said that it was a blessing the gall bladder caused me to go to the ER because the clots were in the danger zone...not good.

Got the gall bladder yanked out, thought they didn't want to do surgery right away becaues they put me on some super potent blood thinner for the clots. after a nearly a week in the PCU, they took me off the thinner for long enough to yank out the gall bladder and put in an IVC filter, then another few days in the PCU.

i guess I have a genetic mutation in my genes that makes me prone to clotting; so trucking was over, and blood thinners the rest of my life. good times.


the other two close calls were motorcycle wrecks; 1st, just a cracked rib and broken bone in my hand; 2nd time was just road rash but no broken bones. Helmet was on both times. 1st time, abotu a quarter sized chunk was missing from the back of the helmet. 2nd time, the back of the helmet was caved in /cracked. Would've been dead both times had it not been for the helmet, I'm sure of it.

No kidding.

Truth. Thanks gents and ladies

The closest to Death? We shared a row on a plane once. Fortunately someone got assigned the middle seat between us. No idea how he got that scythe through security and I wasn't going to ask

Imagine being that poor bastard in the middle seat though...

I risked my life way more times than I should have between ages 18-25. Probably more than 100. Most were going into areas of the world I had no business being in as an American and or not native.

That doesn't count working on an oil rig in the late 70's-early 80's that had a 50% injury rate within a year. Sharks swimming below the rigs. Had a rig blow out not too far from us. People died. Could hear their screams of help and death. Got off the rig in the morning and never worked out there again.

I'll give you one.... In Jersalem there is an "Arab Quarter", not the tourist one but where they have actually lived for centuries. No non-Muslims is allowed into that area. Traditionally the only non-Muslims allowed in this living area is conquering armies.

I wanted to go but the Israeli army patrols the area to keep the tourists from wandering into this area, I went up into Davids tower and watched their patrols and figured out how to get past them into that area.

Worked. Got in tool my pictures, got yelled at and killer death stares but people left me alone until I took the pic of the old man below. He was old school and through a translator telling me what he is shouting that I've stole his soul. Now there is a crowd. I know I'm in trouble. I apologize and push through the crowd back towards the tourist area. He's following me with his donkey yelling at me. I have to make a turn and in the street are 6-7 young men wearing kifahs. They wernt carrying weapons that I could see so I figured I could take out a couple and make a run for the last 100 yards to the tourist area.

I took out 2-3 but then I took a bat or something like that to the stomach that I never saw coming. Perforated my stomach and I went to the ground. They started kicking me from all directions on the ground. Couple of broken ribs, bruised kidney, 2 stitch's in the corner of my mouth, 6 loosen teeth. I thought what a dumbshit to go out like this and then I hear automatic gunfire burst, 2-3 rounds.

It was the Israelis and the Arabs ran away. The Israelis picked me up and helped me back to the tourist part. Called an Ambulance. Embassy visited me in the hospital and said the Israelis won't be charging me that I'd already been taught a lesson on why its off limits to tourists.

My first job was at Worlds of Fun. Coming back from working grad night at 3am on I-435, I fell asleep in my car while not wearing a seatbelt. At 60 mph, still asleep, I managed to swerve between the bridge over Winner road and a highway sign supported by steel girders. It's probably instant death if I hit either of those.

I woke up with my car bouncing in the grass on the side of the highway. I saw a fence coming and was sure I was going through it. But somehow my car came to a very quick stop just short of the fence. It turned I had hit and dragged a 6' square concrete sewer drain cover a good 10-20 feet off of the drain it was covering. Beyond the fence it went almost straight down to Winner Rd. I might have survived but it wouldn't have been pretty.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World was playing on the radio. I still hate that song.

I was walking in downtown KC one time with ear buds in, just minding my own business strolling around at lunch time. I got to a street corner and almost walked right in front of a bus. I was right at the edge of the curb and the bus was literally a few inches from my face but I had the earbuds in so I couldn't really hear any street noise to know the bus was coming.

I've never walked around on the street with both ear buds in since that day. I have to hear the street noise otherwise I zone out and am oblivious to the world around me.

Severe peanut allergy. Guy never stood a chance.

Damn - there are a few...but probably the A Shau Valley, ROV 1969. First time shot at. I heard the crack as the bullet went by my head and saw a red flash. I figure about an inch or two at most from coming home in a bag.

And yes, I DID crap my pants that day.

Fell backwards into a 2nd story window as a kid.....the bamboo shades and my friend grabbing me was the only thing keeping me from dying that day.

in my mid-twenties, I had 3 jobs working 80+ hours a week......one of them involved lots of driving......fell asleep at the wheel on 435 a few miles from Arrowhead, woke up driving down an on-ramp.

Had to be some divine intervention that day.

I think I've told this before....

Was in my late 20's. Filled in at goalie for my indoor soccer team. About mid field a player is chasing the ball, but not gaining on it at all. I figured with a good angle, I could beat him to the ball. I was mostly correct.

I get to the ball about a second before he would have. He sees that there is going to be an impact and cringes/ducks down toward his right. His head smacks me right in the face. We both go down. I immediately felt my sinuses fill with blood so I thought my nose was broken again. Nope...

Broke my face. A trilateral break driving my cheekbone into my sinuses, and breaking my eye socket orbital. I ended up with Teflon felt under my eye, three titanium plates and 12 screws. Dr. said another half inch would have killed me.

When I was 18, I had car trouble. Parked my POS car at the local grocery store parking lot and began to walk home. I was walking on the top part of Braes Bayou, which runs parallel to a main street in the neighborhood. My buddy, who was riding a dirt bike illegally on the bayou (everyone did it) saw me and offered me a ride home. I got on back and about 2 minutes in, this cop car came on of nowhere from the bayou access road, and was right behind us sirens blasting. Another cop car was coming at us from the front. We couldn't go down into the bayou because the water was high due to recent rains. We were 18, we ran - thought it would be fun. We went into the street and cop followed jumping the curb. We were weaving in and out of traffic, trying to reach the woods, and then "IT" happened. I have no memory of exactly what happened. I'm told a car pulled out in front of us and I was thrown off the bike. I woke up in the hospital later that evening with a headache and blurred vision, but otherwise fine. My friend died at the scene.

My actual stories are boring. I got a stomach bacteria in college that I think would've killed me if not for five days in the hospital getting my stomach pumped.

In more recent years, I had a terrifying event for a few minutes. It was a weird fluke. I was in bed and rolled over and for some reason threw up a little, which had never happened before. Since I was lying down, it blocked my airway. I had about 20 seconds where I was sure I was going to die and then 90 seconds where I could just barely get enough air to not pass out. It was a glorious feeling to finally get a breath above the oxygen debt level. I never want to experience that again.

Boring maybe, but NO JOKE. Those freak stomach deals can make you wish for death. YIKES!

Caught Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever when I was 5 years old. Got my right arm almost chopped off at the elbow joint by a lawnmower blade when I was 6 years old. Got hit by a car in a parking lot hard enough to be knocked unconscious and thrown through the air when I was around 8 years old. Got chased out of a creek and up a dirt path by a water moccasin when I was 8 years old. Got caught in a landslide on the side of a mountain when I was 10 years old. Got stuck in a stand off between two escaped mental patients and the sheriffs at my house when I was 12-ish years old. I have quite a few of these stories.

Yeah, it ended up costing me a year of college, too. It happened at exactly the wrong time.

Nope. Not me.

Ah, you got the ol' Rod Stewart stomach pump, eh?

Man, you were a magnet. Thanks for self identifying cause the frag pattern of you is likely dangerous.
I could relate to the kid and cottonmouth (as we called them) story.

The one I'm most aware of (because I wasn't aware how close I was all the times we played with fire and fireworks) was at a crossing walk for Grand at the MSU Campus in Springfield.

The crossing walk had a light to stop traffic, I was waiting, walking back to my truck after class.

I wasn't really paying attention and when the light turned red and the green walk signal came on, I started to cross the street as usual without looking at the traffic.

For those you don't know, grand has 4 lane road, like most in Springfield. I was just far enough into the left lane when I heard tired squealing behind me. A car blew threw the red light, stopping well past me.

If I would have been 3 feet back, I would have died then and there, no question. I'm surprised there wasn't anyone else in the street, that was a heavy foot traffic area.

Let's see....

At 10, I developed a severe abscess when my last baby tooth didn't get loose and the permanent tooth started pushing it's way up. Went from a bump I ignored for several weeks into the entire side of my face swelled up like Popeye overnight. And **** did it hurt. Spent a week in the hospital over that shit. The doctor told my mom that the infection was so bad that it would have killed me in within another day.

Around the same age, I fell out of a tree, probably 30 or 40 feet. Hit enough branches on the way down to break my fall. If it happened to me now I'd surely explode, but back then all it did was knock the wind out of me. The resilience of children.

Swimming off Paradise Island in the Bahamas, a wave drove me into the bottom - hard. Hit on my back just below the neck. Nearly drowned, probably came closer to being paralyzed than I want to know.

More incidents in cars involving close calls with other vehicles or those giant long-legged rats otherwise known as deer to count. A swerve here, a brake slam there, gunning it at the last second - I've always (knock on wood) made the right split-second decision. I think I've got an angel on my shoulder. Probably has PTSD. :D

A couple of years ago, I was walking in Chicago on the way to the train station, passing in front of a parking garage. I was just about to cross in front of the exit when a car came shooting out onto the street, fishtailed and disappeared down Franklin Street. No idea if the driver had stolen the car, was pissed off or just in a hurry, but he (she?) obviously didn't check for/give a shit about pedestrians on the sidewalk, and had I been two steps farther I would have been splattered. That kind of freaked me out.

And as mdchiefsfan said, the things you don't know about.....

Then you just turned and looked, shrugged, and continued on your way while whistling "Pop Goes the Weasel" to yourself.

I was run over by a car. Guy was a drunk driver. He rear ended me. I got my pen and paper to go get his insurance information and the mother****er actually started chasing me in his car. I tried running for a while but 1. quickly ran out of energy, and 2. partly because I was out of energy, I tripped on a curb and fell into the street after he had chased me into a grass field for a bit. I looked up and there was his front bumper about 7 or 8 feet away and hauling ass right at me. I put my hands up, and the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air spinning. I landed 20 feet away. I was dazed, looked up again and he was almost on top of me. I covered up and he ran me over. The front tire went over my shoulder and grazed my neck, leaving a huge strawberry on my neck and totally destroying my shoulder joint and muscles. That rolled me over, and the rear tire went over my lower back, and road grated me into the concrete. Finally, as my arm flailed around, the rear bumper took about a 3 ounce hunk of my left forearm out. Fortunately, a buddy that was with me got his plate number and the cops got him and the hunk of meat was still on his bumper so he was screwed. several shoulder surgeries later, i'm good. Close call thought

What you neglect to mention is that you instigated the whole thing by choking that guy out at a little league baseball game.

Basically, without the whistling. I had to get to work.

a couple of times. I nearly drowned in a pool as a young child, couldn't swim and the teens who were supposed to be watching me weren't. Almost drowned on the Current River about 10 years ago after getting pinned under a canoe getting sunk in a bend against some trees.


The big one I dodged was in high school I ALWAYS followed a certain bus home. This day I had a dental appointment so I went a different way. Found out later a couple of kids speeding rear ended that bus when they came over a blind hill at high speed and were killed. I normally would have been between them.

I have worked pipe laying construction all my life.. I was a ditch man when I was younger so I’ve been in a lot of ditch that wasn’t shored up.. Can’t tell you how many times in the 80s that I’ve crawled out of a 10 plus deep ditch and it caved in right after.. or a cave in call would go out and I would just make it out of the way.. We do things much safer now with shoring and I’m the Trackhoe operator so I make sure everyone is safe and goes home at the end of the day..

There's a lot of really stupid shit...

Dating the Devil's direct spawn who had a thing for witchcraft and knives is probably the closest I've come to death. Toward the end, I fully expected to come to while being fully gutted surrounded by a ring of strange burning objects.

Kicking your way out of an upside down flattened cab that's catching fire isn't fun. Falling asleep behind the wheel and waking up just in time to avoid a head on with a semi changed my driving habits forever. Having a gun go off inches from your face changes who you chose to surround yourself with. Getting rag dolled at high speed ended my racing dreams and ruined a really nice helmet.

None of my stupid compares to those in uniform who went in knowing their fate. Those are the stories people should hear. Recently lost a good one who spent years fighting off whatever happened in that god forsaken sandbox.

My car was t-boned by a drunk driver who blew a red light going 70mph (they were passed out drunk so no attempt at braking). Took the front end off my car. Another half-second and he would have ripped my car in half.

2006 I would up in the hospital after a horrific event and the doctor said I was very lucky to be alive. Worst period of my life.

I prefer not to elaborate.....:(

LOL. But no.

I'm a C5 quad but living. No noticeable brain damage lol. Nope not that a i can recall

All the best.

Yeah,I guess I’m the opposite. Caught up to me recently and while every joint has orthopedic shrapnel and cadaver or other non original components, I am now damaged neurologically. Similar to Tim Green (https://www.npr.org/2018/12/12/67569...w-opponent-als )
I have devolved into a science experiment for neurologists.

As an old guy, I think about you and guys like you that got damaged young.

I was surfing in Mexico, wiped out, broke rips, punctured lung. We were gonna try to make it over the border to San Diego, and I would have died waiting to cross. Had about 15 minutes to go when I got to the ER, according to the doctor. I'm only recently realizing that I have some trauma-related depression/fear from that.

I almost drowned in 1990 and I almost died in a car wreck in 2002.

There was a lot of collateral damage around me as a kid and young adult inflicted upon other people who were guilty of listening to my stupidly ****ing dangerous ideas. The kid I was playing with when we got chased by that snake actually dropped a log of shit in his jeans though. It rolled out of his pants cuff when we were walking home.

Also, I used to weld rail for several railroads across the country. Had a few close calls. The worst was when a chain broke while lifting a 2000 lb piece of equipment. It dropped from about 15 foot up and landed about 5 foot from me.

Have any of you ever used Google Earth to go look at the locations of these incidents? I have because a lot of them happened a long time ago. Hundreds, even thousands of miles from where I now live. I just looked up where I was chased by that snake and it doesn't look much different than it was back in the early 70's when it happened.

Bet the snake’s telling his buddy the same now except bragging about the time he chased a kid and the kid’s buddy shit himself.

Went over a water fall in my kayak and wound up ass up and head down with the grab loop tucked underneath the skirt and woke up the color blue/grey skin while getting CPR according to bystanders.</br></br>Never again forgot to make sure the grab loop was front and center.

Wow yeah the power of the water is incredible. Funny thing in my story was there was a rescue raft waiting for me when I finally came up and they paddled too fast to me and sent me back down again. By this time though I had figured out how to get out. They say you are better off without the life jacket cause it pushes you up straight into the hydraulic. Better to swim along the bottom till it's not so strong.

Just once in a traffic collision. March 18, 2005 I believe. I think it's the same date that KU lost to Bucknell. Almost did me in.

1st - I was in a wave pool in So. Indiana, I was in about 3/4 deep end where the water pick smaller people up. Well, it did this, it took a guy smaller than me and he rode the wave right towards me. I had just went under the previous wave after my knee locking up and then popping free and had no clue I was right in line for a head on collision. Just as I came up, there he was out of control, BOOM, head to head. I take the full force of him being hurled around by the wave. For a second, I saw stars, I let out a yell from the collision ( pain ) & then I took a big drink. I was gasping for air after chocking down water, all the while trying to breath, regain myself upright, getting knocked over again, taking in more water, and of course,1 more time, taking in water. That's it, I thought I was going to die, I'm done, I'm gone. Another guy saw the hit to my head and then going down by the waves, he grabbed me and got me back up where I could breath again. He helped me back to swallow waters where I could stand on my own. But I was still heaving, gasping for air from the water. I went straight to dry ground, screw this, I was in no shape to stay in that damn thing. Damn, it took me another 15 minutes to recover myself back to normal. A wave pool is great fun until 1/2 way in where some people get tossed around. You gotta watch out for that shit!

2nd - This damn infection I'm fighting now, just last year that 1st time dealing with it. When they sent me home and I lost site of the world for a week. The doc's gave me a 20% chance to live,scaring the hell out of the family in June of last year.

2007 I was blown from the gunners hatch through a wall from an IED blast. ****ed my shoulder up, broke a few ribs, broke my ankle, some shrapnel wounds.

Couple years later, I caught six AK rounds to my chest plate that is designed to take 3 before not being worth a shit. Also had a few sniper shots pass close enough to my head to feel the heat and pressure from the rounds on my face.

Couple years later, survived a helicopter smashing into the ground like a lawn dart. Broken back from that.

Couple of years later, was blown off the side of a mountain from an RPG, during an ambush. Ended up with broken bones, blown out knee and few other things. That lead to my retirement.

I miss the **** out of my old job.

:eek: :shake:

Glad your with us!:)

Yeah. Thank you. I was the “bridge” generation between the Vietnam guys that trained me and likely you and yours (1977-2009 active then turned Pentagon bureaucrat), my first Skipper referred to his PHs as “Vietnamese shooting badges”

Should have died on my way back from NWMSU one night from Bedford, IA.

Me and a friend were there drinking then headed home, passing a bottle of Mailbu Rum. He had a nice Camaro and we were going WAY fast. Like close to 100 but I'm trying not to embellish.

A turn came and we spun off the road, through a fence, and into a field. Not once rolling or anything. Just scooting and spinning.

We flagged down a truck driver and got back to Maryville. Had the car towed next day with minimal damage.

25 or so years later, we reconnected and I asked him if he ever thought of that night. He said "all the time".

So do I.

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Another occasion was also in college and more of an "I should have been there" kind of thing. My Gladstone friends all went to CMSU, I went to NWMSU. We were really tight. Well they were all back in KC one weekend and wanted me to come down too. I couldn't. That night, the car I would have surely been in, driven by my best friend, plowed into another on their way back from Smithville. I'm guessing 85-86 timeframe. Killing one of my friends and really messing up my best friend because he killed his friend.

That one dicks with me all the time.

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Most recent is when I broke up with my Mexican FG.

Yikes.

In my case, a little too close for comfort. I've had several close calls, actually.

But probably the most significant near-death experience occurred when I was injected with a substance at UCLA hospital that sent me into severe shock. The main problem was that the nurse who administered the injection walked out of the room afterward so she didn't see my reaction. Thankfully, a friend of mine was with me at the time.

Apparently, my friend saw me convulse and ran into the hallway to call for help. According to the doctors who provided the after-action report, I had stopped breathing and my heartbeat had ceased for a couple of minutes before they used the crash cart (I was paddled for the first time since high school) and injected me with adrenalin and ... something else ...

But, unfortunately for my enemies, I survived.

FAX

Clearly drugs.