M-16 to be replaced by M-4

[Keith_Hixson]

AS medic to have a .50 cal bullet go straight through the head and live is nearly impossible. However I treated a guy who had been shot about an inch and half above his eye brow. The bullet had turned up followed his skull and came out of the top of his head. He lived! Bullets take strange paths. But, I saw this guy with a piece of rebar going through his skull, saw it on television a month or so ago. In the front and out the back. Strange things do happen, he lived and was doing well. I treated too many people and seen a few too many autopsy's but I also know strange miracles happen. Weird isn't it!

Keith


P.S. Treated three head wounds to the head as a civilian medic. All but one was covered by a sheet.

[ArtySgt]

All the head wounds I saw on duty lead to that persons death. Thats my experience, but as most of you have pointed out. Some strange things happen in life.

[revwardoc]

I have the Time-Life series of books on Vietnam and there's an X-ray photo of a VNA soldier who was hit with a mortar round that entered his body between the collarbone and the scapula, then lodged between his ribcage and the skin, AND IT WAS STILL LIVE! They got a couple of doctors and nurses to volunteer to remove it, built a sandbag barrier around them and with the aid of ordinance engineers, removed the mortar round and saved the soldier's life. I don't remember what happened to the soldier, I'd have to look that one up, but the photo was incredible.

[Cutaway]

A similar incident in Afghanistan/Iraq? happened when medics removed an RPG shell from a soldier, Ill try n find it soon.

About the M4 replacing the M16, The US Army wouldnt have a rifle anymore as the M4 is a carbine.