tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11943295.post113647380754602101..comments2023-05-30T03:03:42.982-07:00Comments on parallax adjustment: Un-Freakin'-Believable!!!shooterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06085940732084386201noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11943295.post-1137701560531162792006-01-19T12:12:00.000-08:002006-01-19T12:12:00.000-08:00sent to me via email. Can't vouch for accuracy, bu...sent to me via email. Can't vouch for accuracy, but sounds reasonable..<BR/><BR/>----------<BR/><BR/>The Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant in the picture is Michael Burghard,<BR/>part of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team that is supporting<BR/>2nd Brigade 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania Army National Guard).<BR/>I think it demonstrates the true spirit of most of our troops on the<BR/>ground.<BR/><BR/>Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron<BR/>Mike" or just "Gunny". He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become<BR/>a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for<BR/>disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his<BR/>second tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at<BR/>a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not<BR/>to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper<BR/>fire and you get tunnel-vision," he explains. So, protected by just a<BR/>helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal<BR/>officers term "the longest walk", stepping gingerly into a 5ft deep<BR/>and 8ft wide crater. The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao<BR/>base station with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his<BR/>7in knife to probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord<BR/>between my legs," he says. "That's when I knew I was screwed."<BR/> <BR/>Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at<BR/>everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching<BR/>through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate<BR/>the secondary device below the sergeant's feet. "A chill went up the<BR/>back of my neck and then the bomb exploded," he recalls. "As I was in<BR/>the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me.' I was just<BR/>ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not<BR/>able to feel anything from the waist down."<BR/> <BR/>His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None<BR/>could believe his legs were still there. "My dad's a Vietnam vet who's<BR/>paralyzed from the waist down," says Sgt Burghardt. "I was lying there<BR/>thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for<BR/>him to see me like that. They started to cut away my pants and I felt<BR/>a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and<BR/>I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.' As a stretcher was brought over,<BR/>adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I decided to walk to the helicopter.<BR/>I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a<BR/>stretcher." He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a<BR/>one-fingered salute. "I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost<BR/>that round but I'll be back next week'."<BR/> <BR/>Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for<BR/>the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and<BR/>that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has<BR/>hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt Burghardt's<BR/>injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks - kept him off<BR/>duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But,<BR/>like his father - who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple<BR/>Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam - he stayed in Ramadi to<BR/>engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with<BR/>more ingenious ways of killing Americans.Porta's Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832717505836074noreply@blogger.com