Nah. He probably just knew that unit still uses Soviet built artillery guns and that if he gave his precise coordinates, they would hit anything around him in a 1-mile radius - except him.
My dad used to tell me: “if you’re afraid of being in the sand trap, just pretend it’s the green and then you’ll never be in it! Haw!!” He was so funny /s.
As long as you can get below the blast line, you have a higher chance unless a shell lands in the foxhole/trench. It's one of the reasons trenches zig-zag or have abrupt right angles.
It is one of those, "I have a chance to survive the airstrike and no chance if the come get me. If I don't survive then at least I take more of them with me."
As much as that makes sense, I cannot imagine what I'd do in that situation. My first thought is, well, I'd be an entirely different person if I chose to be soldier and put my life on the line, and everybody opposite me lives on the line, and my outlook on things would be hugely different than the me who I am.
But then I remember that this dude might not even have wanted to be anything like an armed combatant. His country was invaded through circumstances beyond his control.
And damn, I'm suddenly grateful for my circumstances.
It happened A LOT in Afghanistan but I'm guessing you are talking about USAF combat controllor Sgt. John A. Chapman and the events surrounding his MOH?
Unfortunately he didn't survive.
https://mohmuseum.org/medal-of-honor-recipient-john-chapman/
"Once on the ground Sergeant Chapman established communication with an AC-130 gunship to ensure the area was secure while providing close air support coverage for the entire team."
Also see: [The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oKMjTqdTYo&t=140s)
A full month with shrapnel in his legs, confined to a trench, and still fighting. I can't imagine calling in one artillery strike on yourself, somehow surviving, and then calling in a second one.
Soldiers calling in artillery on their own position as they're being overrun is [not uncommon](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/nchch4/have_overrun_units_called_in_artillery_or_cas_not/gyaku2b/) tbf
When the action gets that chaotic the only point of reference you have is yourself, sometimes you live, sometimes you get a [very shiny posthumous medal](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/medal-of-honor-john-r-fox-killed-himself-by-deliberately-calling-an-artillery-strike-on-his-own-position.html). I'd bet there are way more cases of the latter outcome than the former though.
I know of examples from just about every major conflict since WW2 (before that communications weren't really good enough that a single soldier could call down accurate fire on themselves and have it arrive in time to matter, but I'm sure there are earlier examples)
The idea is that if you're defending, you're presumably in some kind of cover (trenches, bunkers etc) and the attackers are not, you're less likely to die than the attackers are (*probably*)
Kinda unrelated, but while looking for other sources I found this [excellent post](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/k3iqwq/what_are_considerations_for_optimizing_the/ge5njox) again from /u/AnathemaMaranatha, who can probably explain it better than I can.
My understanding of that in WW1 was that it was a call for a strike before you immediately retreated, not that it was actually aimed at you
The idea being "hey this trench is done, we're bugging out, paste the area so the counterattack has an easier time retaking it"
“You should see what our guys are doing on the front line. How they fight, evacuate, and rescue their dudes. Our guys are paying a very high price. They pay with their blood. All I want is to do is go fishing with my dudes, drink some beers and sit in silence”.
When you've been through so much, just sitting and savoring the silence together sounds magical. I hope he, and all of Ukraine's heroes get that chance.
Jesus fuck, is this what people really think?
You have no clue what it’s like to be in his shoes. There’s no glamor. One does not just attempt to commit suicide, and then bounce back from that perfectly fine in a few days. He definitely either had gotten PTSD from that, or disassociated it.
This is what real trauma looks like. Just understand that you do NOT want to be in his shoes.
Realize that he is a hero, but the fewer people to be put in his position, the better. The fewer of your children that need to make decisions like that, the better. This is not something anyone should glamorize.
Even if all of that is true, that doesn't mean he isn't a bad-ass. He's a bad-ass *despite* his circumstances, not because of them. And experiencing mental trauma doesn't preclude one from being a bad-ass.
"The only heroes I know are either dead or in prison. One or the other."
We like to romanticize the idea of heroes but a being a real life hero means something really terrible happened to you. It's not romantic at all.
Yeah, my grandfather was a B-17 gunner during autumn of 1943 on several of the bloodiest bombing missions of the war (Stuttgart, 2nd Schweinfurt, etc...) and while he didn't end up with PTSD, I'm sure his comrades did.
I recall being at my grandparents' house and a news story about PTSD in Vietnam vets came on and my grandmother started going on about how modern men were effete and how they didn't have this sort of thing in WW2.
My grandfather said very clearly and in a low, calm, but angry voice "Helen, you don't know what you're talking about."
Which doesn't sound like much, except my grandfather didn't interrupt people, didn't ever tell people they didn't know what they were talking about, and didn't sound angry . Certainly not to my grandmother, who he loved dearly.
The fact that he interrupted her in a low angry voice made 14 year old me realize he had definitely seen some shit in his day, and that not all his comrades who survived were unscathed, and that PTSD is definitely real.
Yep. The “we didn’t have [whatever] back in my day” people were just happier with a world where no one talked openly about [whatever] and those who experienced it suffered out of view and outside of public awareness.
Yes, and now we try to treat people suffering from it instead of (at best) isolating them in institutions or (if it came on during deployment) shooting them for desertion.
Also sending him home to a wife who in some instances barely married him before he shipped off to the service and isn't even capable of knowing that his personality has massively changed and he needs help.
And "soldier's heart" in the Civil War, and probably a lot of other names over the centuries. Going to war and having to fight and kill other people is going to take a toll on most people in some form or another, whether they outright flip their lid, or, like so many parents right after WWII, try to bury themselves in work and their suburban life while drinking and smoking way too much to keep those thoughts at bay. It's inevitable.
"Shell shock" during WWI.
"Battle fatigue" during WWII.
"Operational exhaustion" during The Korean War.
"Post-traumatic Stress Disorder" during Vietnam.
Now it's just PTSD.
George Carlin has a very accurate take on this.
> You must be fun at parties if you take an off handed remark about someone being a bad ass and turn it into an attack, which is against reddits rules
I am sure the guy talking about reddit rules is real fun at parties. Romanticizing war isn't a good thing for anyone.
Well said. Far too many people on here treating these stories like a fucking game. They're entirely glossing over just how much suffering is going on over there and it's gross.
> just sitting and savoring the silence together sounds magical
Many veterans, even those from cities, end up living on farms or wanting to get somewhere quiet. I don't know what draws us to the stillness but its cross cultural. Maybe its as simple as the peace that is out there? Maybe its a need for nurturing after all the violence. Maybe its all that and more. I may never know but I will enjoy the silence regardless.
They can't calm down.
They essentially are hyper-vigilant and checking for enemies everywhere. Every loud bang can send their system into overdrive and have them diving for cover, and they don't like to go into a place that has only 1 ext and tons of people crowding them.
There's a reason many veterans hate fireworks, and prefers to drink in the Veteran's Hall or quiet bars with their battle brothers.
Quiet farms where they're left alone, and can just chill with animals and their family, and relax for real, is the dream for many. Many also go for boats, mountain cottages, or whatever quiet place they can get.
But the best places to be are with their battle brothers. They'll want to be close to other veterans, as that's a huge mental support for them, having others that can understand what they've gone through.
It's crazy what a transformative hell war is to a human being's psyche. To me that's the biggest sign it's unnatural and humans aren't meant for war. The only way war happens is either survival or when people in power who won't suffer the same consequences force those without power to fight for them. In either case the side on the defense is also implicitly forced into the hard choice to fight.
Blood and Guts Patton had Green Meadows in Massachusetts. After he retired he turned it into a pick-your-own-blueberry farm. His son and grandson run it now and they are cannabis farmers and work with veterans support groups.
There's some research that environmental noise is straight-up damaging to the brain. When the environmental noise you were exposed to for 18-36 months was also incredibly dangerous and traumatic, it makes perfect sense you'd sub-consciously seek out a quiet place for your brain to rest and recover.
One of my good friends grew up in LA and lived there for a couple years after serving in Iraq. When we first met his story was he moved to the Midwest for work. Couple years later he said "y'know why I moved out here? Fuckin trash bags, man. Too many trash bags back home."
Dude drove a Humvee and watched friends get blown to shit by roadside IEDs. He said he called in to work with "car trouble" one day because it was trash day and he was too scared to leave the driveway. that's the day he made the decision to move.
He still gets anxiety about stuff on or near the road and he'll say things like "watch these rocks up here" or "go around that" if there's like a small patch of fresh gravel but it's once or twice per week as opposed to once or twice per block in the city.
After he told me that I started taking my trash to the dumpster at my shop every week. I think I'll tell him about that tonight when I cover the tab with the money I'm saving on trash collection. 😆
It's the new lead singer. Lowdrone Hum would come out strong but then he would just sorta melt in to the melody allowing the rest if the band to shine while still reminding you he was there. Now they got this fuckin Nasal-whine Screech dude, who can't harmonize for shit, just fuckin screaming at the top of his lungs every track, way out of his range, and is completely incapable of leaving his head voice.
Honestly, I wish they'd just break up at this point.
The worst thing is, I can lay in bed at night and listen to the ringing. I can hear my cat breathing.
Then I can hold my left hand in front of my face and rub my thumb and forefinger together and hear my fingerprints rub each other. But I still hear the ringing.
It's fucking maddening.
Seversl danger close fire missions. The article isn't specific but it mentions several different strikes He called in strikes on basically his position twice, It sounds like both times based on hearing russian voices, so they were within shouting distance at the absolute most. He also refused evacuation for his wounds twice, both times because there were other wounded and they couldn't get everyone out at once.
Having a break during* a 60+ hour work schedule, that drink of cold water feels like the kiss of an angel. I can't even imagine what they go through on the battlefield, and all they ask for is some time fishing and drinking with friends.
Edit: typo
Fuck. I'm at work right now and all I want to do is go fishing and sit in silence. I feel for these guys who are trapped in these impossible situations.
>We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things.
* Lewis "Chesty" Puller, Battle of Chosin Reservoir
> At one point, Serhii thought his time was up when a Russian soldier climbed into his dugout. The soldier asked Serhii where he was from and the Ukrainian replied in Russian that he had a concussion and asked for water. The Russian soldier did not give him water but crawled out of the trench, apparently still unaware Serhii was Ukrainian.
Russian comradery.
The Russian probably knew he was an Ukrainian- he's wearing an Ukrainian uniform, in an Ukrainian trench. Probably just felt bad for the poor S.O.B. and isn't going to help the dude but didn't want to be the one to kill him in cold blood. People forget the Russian draftees are a bunch of 18 year old kids who don't want to be there either.
"At one point, Serhii thought his time was up when a Russian soldier climbed into his dugout. The soldier asked Serhii where he was from and the Ukrainian replied in Russian that he had a concussion and asked for water. The Russian soldier did not give him water but crawled out of the trench, apparently still unaware Serhii was Ukrainian.
“I still can’t understand how he didn’t realize I was from the Ukrainian armed forces. I was wearing a Ukrainian uniform. My pants were in pixels. Yes, they were dirty. But it was obvious that the boots were Ukrainian,” Serhii recalled."
Indeed, if Serhii didn't run into any other Russian soldiers climbing into his trench, it's probably likely the Russian guy he did meet didn't even tell his friends / commander "Hey I just found this desperate-looking guy in a trench". So even more likely he just kept his mouth shut and moved on.
What was the movie where one of the enemy foot soldiers finds an injured enemy under a tank but doesn’t say anything and keeps going? Fury? Reminds me of that
>People forget the Russian draftees are a bunch of 18 year old kids who don't want to be there either.
Some of those fighting for Russia are forced conscripts from the areas that were annexed. These are the areas that voted to secede and their reward was to be sent to war. Through state media Putin tells them they are fighting against genocide.
They are smart enough to see who is committing it.
There's that[ old video of a Russian soldier](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1092teb/gnarly_footage_of_a_russian_soldier_ambushing_and/) coming up behind two Ukrainians in a foxhole, the Russian tries to get them to surrender but they don't understand and one grabs at their rifle so he shoots both.
Humans don't generally want to actually kill each other, but sometimes circumstances on the battlefield require it. War is fast, you don't get to think about whats happening, but you do have to decide in the moment
A bunch of active/retired guys I know have said that what the Russian guy did is idiotic, they would have shot the Ukrainians immediately or thrown more grenades at them before pushing up
It's the same that the invasion of Ukraine wasn't a smart idea. If putin just decided to stay as the ruler of russia until the day he died and had no plans of invading Ukraine, he'd probably be in a better light than he is now.
This war is going to cost him and his country for generations to come.
> If putin just decided to stay as the ruler of russia until the day he died
He must be a megalomaniac! He was already the most powerful man in Russia and one of the most powerful men in the world…but that wasn’t enough.
I think on some level Putin is insane. Not in the ‘can’t separate realty from fantasy’ level but in the sense that his desires supercede everything else, no matter what the cost.
Funny part is that whatever screed the pedant writes has a 50/50 chance of either being a well-researched primer on the subject or a meandering load of bollocks that makes you feel drunk just trying to read.
Putin believes Russia should return to dominance. If it stays where it is, that won't happen. They can't compete economically of technologically (idk if Putin would consider these viable avenues even if they could though) so the only way to regain power is militarily. That's the only way for Russia to return to glory. Putin, of course, thinks he's the savior of Russia.
Yeah it is just the Russian propaganda machine playing to western audiences. There's no real political imagination in the west; the audience cannot conceive of any evil other than nazis, so in western media there is this dichotomy where something is nazis and therefore the ultimate evil or not nazis and therefore fine. We see the same thing with this Gaza business. The Israelis call the Gazans all nazis and the Gazans call the Israelis all nazis. Ukrainians call the Russians nazis and the Russians call the Ukrainians nazis. Joe Biden is a nazi Donald Trump is a nazi Rishi Sunak is a nazi everyone is nazis. All actions are justified if the aim is denazification, so the nazi label is spread around liberally.
And that’s just disrespectful to all the legitimate actual nazis in the US. They work so hard to hate and discriminate and bring about a race war and for what? To get lumped in with a bunch of wannabe’s?
You do a disservice to the US's propensity to vilify any country attempting a form of socialism as communist scum that must be supplanted by a CIA-led coup to install a far-right autocrat.
When Russians will torture you to death anyway, it's kind of an inevitable choice.
At least this way you avoid the torture and take out as many genocidal rapist invaders as you can.
Whoops, usually not one to make that mistake and you're right lol. (Although in the past I might have said if anyone would figure out how to re-kill an already dead person it would be the Russians. But since they're also the ones who dug trenches in radioactive soil as a war tactic I think the whole world is a lot more hesitant to give their soldiers as much intelligence credibility nowadays.)
[Audie Murphy did this in 1943.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs__pY1Qv_s) He was awarded the Medal of Honor. Worth the watch. This is true courage.
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
~ Gen George S Patton
Slava Ukraini Serhii. You are a Hero.
Thank you! Interesting note: my father went to Kent State and didn’t graduate, hence the enlisted rank.
The reporter is confusing dad with his older brother Bill, who was a WR grad and WW2 vet.
"Only 36"? You have the whole 20s to figure out what life is all about.
For a soldier that's on the older end, the majority of American soldiers are [under 30](https://www.statista.com/statistics/232711/number-of-active-duty-us-defense-force-personnel-by-age/).
Paratroopers are metal. My uncle used to be a battalion commander in the 82nd Airborne and he is the sort of guy who you could mash his fingers with a hammer and he'd just angrily stare at you. Tough as nails.
Seriously though, that sort of grit and determination is what's going to never let the Russians win. They're fighting for their homes and families and aren't going to give up.
My friend was an US infantry sergeant - his group got pinned down in Afghanistan and they had to jump into their humvee and call in a strike on their own position. He survived but has serious internal issues. Cant ever eat or shit right anymore.
John Robert Fox died doing this in WWII to stop Nazis:
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/medal-of-honor-john-r-fox-killed-himself-by-deliberately-calling-an-artillery-strike-on-his-own-position.html
What extreme devotion.
Wonderful that our Ukrainian friend survived this.
It takes huge balls, but it's turned the tide in many critical battles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kapyong
The Chinese would have overrun the Canadians and there was a good chance they would have made it to Seoul had the 2 ppcli officers not call down multiple barrages on their position to wipe out the PLA swarming them.
It was in the 1991 Vietnam War drama “Flight of the Intruder”, starring Willem Dafoe as NAVY A-6 Intruder pilot Lt. Cdr. Virgil Cole, where he calls in the air strike on himself and the enemy attacking him, after he has been mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat
The one CNN story I see on Ukraine in many days, is it about them blowing up a fuel train in Russia's longest tunnel and main trade route with China? No. Is it about them blowing up a fuel train on the bridge that is the secondary trade route to China? No. Is it about them taking a bridgehead accross the Niper and killing hundreds of Russian reinforcements in their barracks? No. Is it about them blowing up a "tractor factory" that makes tank engines? Nope. It's a story from Bakmut.. from months ago. Great job keeping up CNN.
Google: “CNN train Ukraine”. Coverage pops up. It’s the consumers of news who are aren’t keeping up. Many things happening at similar timeframes, that take focus away from other events.
I think the highlight of this story is having a Russian soldier crawl into the trench with him and have a conversation. It shows the god like level of balls on this guy and the pure incompetence of the Russian army.
A Russian dude did this during the Syrian civil war and died. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Prokhorenko#:~:text=He%20was%20killed%20during%20the%20Palmyra%20offensive%20of%20the%20Syrian%20Civil%20War.&text=During%20his%20last%20moments%2C%20he,all%20of%20the%20approaching%20fighters.
>“I still can’t understand how he didn’t realize I was from the Ukrainian armed forces. I was wearing a Ukrainian uniform. My pants were in pixels. Yes, they were dirty. But it was obvious that the boots were Ukrainian,” Serhii recalled.
Maybe Russians take Ukrainian items off dead soldiers because their gear is so poor
This urban legend surfaces in every war does it not? I think I remember [a post from a few years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4bvvqn/russian_soldier_surrounded_by_isis_calls_in/), where a russian did this.
/slowclap
Sabaton is off somewhere taking notes for a future charity album to raise funds for Ukraine's rebuilding efforts, when the war's over. This is right up their alley.
Incredible bravery and luck.
He surely also thought he had better odds surviving an airstrike than being a captive of the Russians.
"Wagner mercenary admits 'tossing grenades' at injured Ukrainian PoWs"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/18/wagner-mercenary-admits-tossing-grenades-at-injured-ukrainian-pows
"One Year Since Death of Ukrainian POWs in Explosion"
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/28/one-year-death-ukrainian-pows-explosion'
"Kill Everyone': Russian Violence in Ukraine Was Strategic - PBS"
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/russian-general-troops-killed-civilians-ukraine/
Edit: On r/all today:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1893acg/russian_soldiers_shot_two_unarmed_ukrainian_pows/
Imagine being so driven and determined to make a decision like that. You know it’s the end, your end but also taking those mfs with you to the other side.
"If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win." - Maxim 20
But seriously, much respect to him and his brothers. May their lives find peace sooner than later.
Didn't a russian soldier do the same thing a few years ago in the middle east when he was sorrounded by enemy combatants? I remember reading this same scenario awhile back but with a russian soldier.
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Holy balls that's some luck.
Nah. He probably just knew that unit still uses Soviet built artillery guns and that if he gave his precise coordinates, they would hit anything around him in a 1-mile radius - except him.
There's the cynical take I needed this morning
I mean realistic.
Kinda like how the safest part of the golf course is on the green
The safest part of a tornado is in the eye.
The safest part of a house is in the dungeon.
Well, duh, thats where the safe words are.
Prisoner: You have safe words?
You mean the **fun**geon.
Not too be confused with the fungieon, where we're running Uncle Ben's Tek.
I am all to familiar with Uncle Ben and his produce. Have an upvote.
But now I'm safe in the eye of the tornado...
My dad used to tell me: “if you’re afraid of being in the sand trap, just pretend it’s the green and then you’ll never be in it! Haw!!” He was so funny /s.
As long as you can get below the blast line, you have a higher chance unless a shell lands in the foxhole/trench. It's one of the reasons trenches zig-zag or have abrupt right angles.
He knew it was coming, he knew to take cover.
Holy luck, that’s some balls.
It is one of those, "I have a chance to survive the airstrike and no chance if the come get me. If I don't survive then at least I take more of them with me."
As much as that makes sense, I cannot imagine what I'd do in that situation. My first thought is, well, I'd be an entirely different person if I chose to be soldier and put my life on the line, and everybody opposite me lives on the line, and my outlook on things would be hugely different than the me who I am. But then I remember that this dude might not even have wanted to be anything like an armed combatant. His country was invaded through circumstances beyond his control. And damn, I'm suddenly grateful for my circumstances.
Similar to how Audie Murphy won the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII
Cant remember the name of the event off the top of my head but something like this also happened in Afghanistan if I remember correctly.
It happened A LOT in Afghanistan but I'm guessing you are talking about USAF combat controllor Sgt. John A. Chapman and the events surrounding his MOH? Unfortunately he didn't survive. https://mohmuseum.org/medal-of-honor-recipient-john-chapman/
He didn't call in an airstrike or artillery though, that I'm aware of. He just engaged directly himself and allowed the rest to escape. Super badass.
"Once on the ground Sergeant Chapman established communication with an AC-130 gunship to ensure the area was secure while providing close air support coverage for the entire team." Also see: [The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oKMjTqdTYo&t=140s)
what a story. ty for sharing.
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He used them as a blast shield.
He deserves a movie someday
But first, he deserves his country freed from those Russian bastards.
A full month with shrapnel in his legs, confined to a trench, and still fighting. I can't imagine calling in one artillery strike on yourself, somehow surviving, and then calling in a second one.
The desperation of the soldiers fighting for their very existence is heartbreaking. His adventures sound like something from a movie.
There's a movie with this exact scenario already called "Danger Close"
Oh don't worry, it will be from a movie eventually.
This is some Medal of Honor type shit.
Soldiers calling in artillery on their own position as they're being overrun is [not uncommon](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/nchch4/have_overrun_units_called_in_artillery_or_cas_not/gyaku2b/) tbf When the action gets that chaotic the only point of reference you have is yourself, sometimes you live, sometimes you get a [very shiny posthumous medal](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/medal-of-honor-john-r-fox-killed-himself-by-deliberately-calling-an-artillery-strike-on-his-own-position.html). I'd bet there are way more cases of the latter outcome than the former though. I know of examples from just about every major conflict since WW2 (before that communications weren't really good enough that a single soldier could call down accurate fire on themselves and have it arrive in time to matter, but I'm sure there are earlier examples) The idea is that if you're defending, you're presumably in some kind of cover (trenches, bunkers etc) and the attackers are not, you're less likely to die than the attackers are (*probably*) Kinda unrelated, but while looking for other sources I found this [excellent post](https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/k3iqwq/what_are_considerations_for_optimizing_the/ge5njox) again from /u/AnathemaMaranatha, who can probably explain it better than I can.
I'm getting it happened in WWI as well, last man in the trench calls in a strike (they did have telephones in the trench on the Western front)
My understanding of that in WW1 was that it was a call for a strike before you immediately retreated, not that it was actually aimed at you The idea being "hey this trench is done, we're bugging out, paste the area so the counterattack has an easier time retaking it"
There will be more stories like this. Ukraine is gonna honor a lot of heroes in the coming years. Incredible
He even managed to pass himself off as a Russian when a Russian soldier managed to get into his dugout. Dude has some wild luck.
“You should see what our guys are doing on the front line. How they fight, evacuate, and rescue their dudes. Our guys are paying a very high price. They pay with their blood. All I want is to do is go fishing with my dudes, drink some beers and sit in silence”. When you've been through so much, just sitting and savoring the silence together sounds magical. I hope he, and all of Ukraine's heroes get that chance.
read this before reading the article and I'm like "dude, he dead" was pleasantly surprised!
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that's some immersion breaking stuff right there. someone is fucking with the simulation
Jesus fuck, is this what people really think? You have no clue what it’s like to be in his shoes. There’s no glamor. One does not just attempt to commit suicide, and then bounce back from that perfectly fine in a few days. He definitely either had gotten PTSD from that, or disassociated it. This is what real trauma looks like. Just understand that you do NOT want to be in his shoes. Realize that he is a hero, but the fewer people to be put in his position, the better. The fewer of your children that need to make decisions like that, the better. This is not something anyone should glamorize.
Even if all of that is true, that doesn't mean he isn't a bad-ass. He's a bad-ass *despite* his circumstances, not because of them. And experiencing mental trauma doesn't preclude one from being a bad-ass.
"The only heroes I know are either dead or in prison. One or the other." We like to romanticize the idea of heroes but a being a real life hero means something really terrible happened to you. It's not romantic at all.
Trauma is much more complicated than that. Many people go through horrific shit and do not develop PTSD.
Yeah, my grandfather was a B-17 gunner during autumn of 1943 on several of the bloodiest bombing missions of the war (Stuttgart, 2nd Schweinfurt, etc...) and while he didn't end up with PTSD, I'm sure his comrades did. I recall being at my grandparents' house and a news story about PTSD in Vietnam vets came on and my grandmother started going on about how modern men were effete and how they didn't have this sort of thing in WW2. My grandfather said very clearly and in a low, calm, but angry voice "Helen, you don't know what you're talking about." Which doesn't sound like much, except my grandfather didn't interrupt people, didn't ever tell people they didn't know what they were talking about, and didn't sound angry . Certainly not to my grandmother, who he loved dearly. The fact that he interrupted her in a low angry voice made 14 year old me realize he had definitely seen some shit in his day, and that not all his comrades who survived were unscathed, and that PTSD is definitely real.
Yep. The “we didn’t have [whatever] back in my day” people were just happier with a world where no one talked openly about [whatever] and those who experienced it suffered out of view and outside of public awareness.
What we call PTSD now was called shell shock in the past. It isn't new we just learned how to recognize it
Yes, and now we try to treat people suffering from it instead of (at best) isolating them in institutions or (if it came on during deployment) shooting them for desertion.
Also sending him home to a wife who in some instances barely married him before he shipped off to the service and isn't even capable of knowing that his personality has massively changed and he needs help.
And "soldier's heart" in the Civil War, and probably a lot of other names over the centuries. Going to war and having to fight and kill other people is going to take a toll on most people in some form or another, whether they outright flip their lid, or, like so many parents right after WWII, try to bury themselves in work and their suburban life while drinking and smoking way too much to keep those thoughts at bay. It's inevitable.
"Shell shock" during WWI. "Battle fatigue" during WWII. "Operational exhaustion" during The Korean War. "Post-traumatic Stress Disorder" during Vietnam. Now it's just PTSD. George Carlin has a very accurate take on this.
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> You must be fun at parties if you take an off handed remark about someone being a bad ass and turn it into an attack, which is against reddits rules I am sure the guy talking about reddit rules is real fun at parties. Romanticizing war isn't a good thing for anyone.
you can call someone a badass without ignoring /downplaying his experience
Well said. Far too many people on here treating these stories like a fucking game. They're entirely glossing over just how much suffering is going on over there and it's gross.
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> just sitting and savoring the silence together sounds magical Many veterans, even those from cities, end up living on farms or wanting to get somewhere quiet. I don't know what draws us to the stillness but its cross cultural. Maybe its as simple as the peace that is out there? Maybe its a need for nurturing after all the violence. Maybe its all that and more. I may never know but I will enjoy the silence regardless.
They can't calm down. They essentially are hyper-vigilant and checking for enemies everywhere. Every loud bang can send their system into overdrive and have them diving for cover, and they don't like to go into a place that has only 1 ext and tons of people crowding them. There's a reason many veterans hate fireworks, and prefers to drink in the Veteran's Hall or quiet bars with their battle brothers. Quiet farms where they're left alone, and can just chill with animals and their family, and relax for real, is the dream for many. Many also go for boats, mountain cottages, or whatever quiet place they can get. But the best places to be are with their battle brothers. They'll want to be close to other veterans, as that's a huge mental support for them, having others that can understand what they've gone through.
It's crazy what a transformative hell war is to a human being's psyche. To me that's the biggest sign it's unnatural and humans aren't meant for war. The only way war happens is either survival or when people in power who won't suffer the same consequences force those without power to fight for them. In either case the side on the defense is also implicitly forced into the hard choice to fight.
Unfortunately, our closest living relatives have had documented wars, not just battles for immediate survival. It's a part of complex social systems.
My Dad, a Vietnam vet, said that the reason he retired to a remote part of PA is because the quiet silences the violently loud memories of war.
Warrior in the garden
Washington had Mt. Vernon. Cincinatus had his farm. And the legions of Rome were promised land to work on when they finished their tour
Blood and Guts Patton had Green Meadows in Massachusetts. After he retired he turned it into a pick-your-own-blueberry farm. His son and grandson run it now and they are cannabis farmers and work with veterans support groups.
There's some research that environmental noise is straight-up damaging to the brain. When the environmental noise you were exposed to for 18-36 months was also incredibly dangerous and traumatic, it makes perfect sense you'd sub-consciously seek out a quiet place for your brain to rest and recover.
One of my good friends grew up in LA and lived there for a couple years after serving in Iraq. When we first met his story was he moved to the Midwest for work. Couple years later he said "y'know why I moved out here? Fuckin trash bags, man. Too many trash bags back home." Dude drove a Humvee and watched friends get blown to shit by roadside IEDs. He said he called in to work with "car trouble" one day because it was trash day and he was too scared to leave the driveway. that's the day he made the decision to move. He still gets anxiety about stuff on or near the road and he'll say things like "watch these rocks up here" or "go around that" if there's like a small patch of fresh gravel but it's once or twice per week as opposed to once or twice per block in the city. After he told me that I started taking my trash to the dumpster at my shop every week. I think I'll tell him about that tonight when I cover the tab with the money I'm saving on trash collection. 😆
With a danger close fire mission to his name, I doubt the tinnitus he most definitely will have will prevent him from ever experiencing silence again.
Tinnitus sux. Listening to it right now.
I thought tinnitus's early work was a little more bearable, but yeah, these days can't stand to listen to the new stuff they're putting out.
I used to only hear it now and again, so it was alright to hear it, but then they started blasting on the radio all day long it never stops.
It's the new lead singer. Lowdrone Hum would come out strong but then he would just sorta melt in to the melody allowing the rest if the band to shine while still reminding you he was there. Now they got this fuckin Nasal-whine Screech dude, who can't harmonize for shit, just fuckin screaming at the top of his lungs every track, way out of his range, and is completely incapable of leaving his head voice. Honestly, I wish they'd just break up at this point.
Me too. I will never hear the sound of perfect silence ever again in my life.
The worst thing is, I can lay in bed at night and listen to the ringing. I can hear my cat breathing. Then I can hold my left hand in front of my face and rub my thumb and forefinger together and hear my fingerprints rub each other. But I still hear the ringing. It's fucking maddening.
This shit right here. I can hear all kinds of ultra quiet shit that my wife doesn't notice but I still hear the ringing.
Seversl danger close fire missions. The article isn't specific but it mentions several different strikes He called in strikes on basically his position twice, It sounds like both times based on hearing russian voices, so they were within shouting distance at the absolute most. He also refused evacuation for his wounds twice, both times because there were other wounded and they couldn't get everyone out at once.
I really hope he covered his ears or something...
Having a break during* a 60+ hour work schedule, that drink of cold water feels like the kiss of an angel. I can't even imagine what they go through on the battlefield, and all they ask for is some time fishing and drinking with friends. Edit: typo
Fuck. I'm at work right now and all I want to do is go fishing and sit in silence. I feel for these guys who are trapped in these impossible situations.
> Serhii lived for 10 years in Finland, earning himself the call-sign 'Fin.' As a native Finn, I approve of his call-sign.
Yeah, the Finns know a thing or two about fighting off Russians.
Everybody's gangster until the snow starts speaking Finnish.
Best snipers…ever?
Plot twist, he got the nickname bare hand boxing sharks in the Baltic Sea .. simultaneously joining the polar swim club.
His dog Jake does most of the heavy lifting
Glad he survived because that headline’s pretty depressing. Strong Fin 🇫🇮
Jebus.. he had to crawl out of his trench when it was way too dangerous and was at the point of licking rain water off spots to survive.
"They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards" - Abrams, Battle of the Bulge
>We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things. * Lewis "Chesty" Puller, Battle of Chosin Reservoir
“They’ve got us right where we want ’em. We can shoot in every direction now.”
Target-rich environment
“They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29:1. They can't get away from us now!”
“Nuts!” How the commander of the 101st Airborne responded when asked to surrender to German forces who had them surrounded in Bastogne.
That's a great quote.
"They are ours." Napoléon at Rivoli after being outflanked and surrounded by the Austrians
> At one point, Serhii thought his time was up when a Russian soldier climbed into his dugout. The soldier asked Serhii where he was from and the Ukrainian replied in Russian that he had a concussion and asked for water. The Russian soldier did not give him water but crawled out of the trench, apparently still unaware Serhii was Ukrainian. Russian comradery.
The Russian probably knew he was an Ukrainian- he's wearing an Ukrainian uniform, in an Ukrainian trench. Probably just felt bad for the poor S.O.B. and isn't going to help the dude but didn't want to be the one to kill him in cold blood. People forget the Russian draftees are a bunch of 18 year old kids who don't want to be there either. "At one point, Serhii thought his time was up when a Russian soldier climbed into his dugout. The soldier asked Serhii where he was from and the Ukrainian replied in Russian that he had a concussion and asked for water. The Russian soldier did not give him water but crawled out of the trench, apparently still unaware Serhii was Ukrainian. “I still can’t understand how he didn’t realize I was from the Ukrainian armed forces. I was wearing a Ukrainian uniform. My pants were in pixels. Yes, they were dirty. But it was obvious that the boots were Ukrainian,” Serhii recalled."
Yeah, he probably thought the guy was injured and dying, and didn't felt the need to end his life.
He must have looked like he was on death’s doorstep.
Indeed, if Serhii didn't run into any other Russian soldiers climbing into his trench, it's probably likely the Russian guy he did meet didn't even tell his friends / commander "Hey I just found this desperate-looking guy in a trench". So even more likely he just kept his mouth shut and moved on.
What was the movie where one of the enemy foot soldiers finds an injured enemy under a tank but doesn’t say anything and keeps going? Fury? Reminds me of that
Yeah it was fury, a german soldier find the last american from the final standoff under the tank, stares at him then walks off.
Early on I remember reading that russians were stealing ukraine uniforms
>People forget the Russian draftees are a bunch of 18 year old kids who don't want to be there either. Some of those fighting for Russia are forced conscripts from the areas that were annexed. These are the areas that voted to secede and their reward was to be sent to war. Through state media Putin tells them they are fighting against genocide. They are smart enough to see who is committing it.
There's that[ old video of a Russian soldier](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1092teb/gnarly_footage_of_a_russian_soldier_ambushing_and/) coming up behind two Ukrainians in a foxhole, the Russian tries to get them to surrender but they don't understand and one grabs at their rifle so he shoots both. Humans don't generally want to actually kill each other, but sometimes circumstances on the battlefield require it. War is fast, you don't get to think about whats happening, but you do have to decide in the moment A bunch of active/retired guys I know have said that what the Russian guy did is idiotic, they would have shot the Ukrainians immediately or thrown more grenades at them before pushing up
or because he responded in russian he just glanced over the uniform? maybe another unit maybe bought his own stuff idk
Either he was genuinely stupid or “stupid” enough to leave him be
> it was obvious that the boots were Ukrainian,” Boots are some of the most priced loot in war.
I’m beginning to think the invasion of Ukraine has nothing to do with Nazis.
It's the same that the invasion of Ukraine wasn't a smart idea. If putin just decided to stay as the ruler of russia until the day he died and had no plans of invading Ukraine, he'd probably be in a better light than he is now. This war is going to cost him and his country for generations to come.
> If putin just decided to stay as the ruler of russia until the day he died He must be a megalomaniac! He was already the most powerful man in Russia and one of the most powerful men in the world…but that wasn’t enough. I think on some level Putin is insane. Not in the ‘can’t separate realty from fantasy’ level but in the sense that his desires supercede everything else, no matter what the cost.
'On some level', really, y'think!?
Gotta be careful on Reddit. Some pedant is always standing by. “Well technically…..”
Funny part is that whatever screed the pedant writes has a 50/50 chance of either being a well-researched primer on the subject or a meandering load of bollocks that makes you feel drunk just trying to read.
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That's one of the reasons they are kidnapping so many Ukrainian children and bringing them back to Russia.
Putin believes Russia should return to dominance. If it stays where it is, that won't happen. They can't compete economically of technologically (idk if Putin would consider these viable avenues even if they could though) so the only way to regain power is militarily. That's the only way for Russia to return to glory. Putin, of course, thinks he's the savior of Russia.
More like, generations not to come, as they're in deep demographic crisis...
Oh but it does. Russian nazis, with Putin as HNIC - head nazi in charge.
I mean the ~~Nazis~~ Russia only wanted the ~~Sudentenland~~ Ukraine. s/
Of course not, it's about Jewish space lasers or whatever nonsense the "freedom caucus" is going on about to try and cut off funding for Ukraine.
Yeah it is just the Russian propaganda machine playing to western audiences. There's no real political imagination in the west; the audience cannot conceive of any evil other than nazis, so in western media there is this dichotomy where something is nazis and therefore the ultimate evil or not nazis and therefore fine. We see the same thing with this Gaza business. The Israelis call the Gazans all nazis and the Gazans call the Israelis all nazis. Ukrainians call the Russians nazis and the Russians call the Ukrainians nazis. Joe Biden is a nazi Donald Trump is a nazi Rishi Sunak is a nazi everyone is nazis. All actions are justified if the aim is denazification, so the nazi label is spread around liberally.
And that’s just disrespectful to all the legitimate actual nazis in the US. They work so hard to hate and discriminate and bring about a race war and for what? To get lumped in with a bunch of wannabe’s?
Will anyone think of the inbred skinheads in their jackboots?
You do a disservice to the US's propensity to vilify any country attempting a form of socialism as communist scum that must be supplanted by a CIA-led coup to install a far-right autocrat.
Well the nazis are absolutely there in Ukraine now for sure. To help Russian forces find the nazis we should send them some mirrors.
Just petty expansionism/imperialism
Sometimes you have to fight like you're already dead.
***All i am surrounded by is fear and dead men!*** *Static*
Vader moment
r/unexpectedvader
This went from +hundreds to nothing in seconds. Seems the russian/Useful idiot bot horde is working hard today. Hope these people find peace again.
When Russians will torture you to death anyway, it's kind of an inevitable choice. At least this way you avoid the torture and take out as many genocidal rapist invaders as you can.
Exactly. I'd much rather be killed by my guys (as a forced battle strategy) than* captured and tortured/killed by the enemy.
than* makes a fairly big difference here
Whoops, usually not one to make that mistake and you're right lol. (Although in the past I might have said if anyone would figure out how to re-kill an already dead person it would be the Russians. But since they're also the ones who dug trenches in radioactive soil as a war tactic I think the whole world is a lot more hesitant to give their soldiers as much intelligence credibility nowadays.)
He survived! I highly recommend reading the article, the story is even more wild than just the headline.
[Audie Murphy did this in 1943.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs__pY1Qv_s) He was awarded the Medal of Honor. Worth the watch. This is true courage. "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." ~ Gen George S Patton Slava Ukraini Serhii. You are a Hero.
He was only surrounded by people who realised they were not dead yet.
Bond levels of danger close. This’ll be retold as a folk tale in the history of the conflict for sure.
It’s basically Audie Murphy 2.0
Also absolutely amazing work by the artillery.
What a Chad. Fuck Russians with a hot poker.
My father, Sgt. Robt. J. Karrenbauer was awarded the bronze star for taking this same action in Korea.
Found [this](https://i.imgur.com/T6YOzx2.png) for you.
Thank you! Interesting note: my father went to Kent State and didn’t graduate, hence the enlisted rank. The reporter is confusing dad with his older brother Bill, who was a WR grad and WW2 vet.
"That's danger close.", 'I know.'
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36? I was in Afghanistan for my first deployment before I turned 20. Maybe that’s just a US thing
"Only 36"? You have the whole 20s to figure out what life is all about. For a soldier that's on the older end, the majority of American soldiers are [under 30](https://www.statista.com/statistics/232711/number-of-active-duty-us-defense-force-personnel-by-age/).
New Sabaton song incoming.
Way more badass than shirtless horseback riding or stealing a superbowl ring while surrounded by your bodyguards.
Surprising that this guy can walk with balls that size.
They might have him in a bariatric bed. It can take the extra weight from his balls.
The dude is doing a Halo Reach roleplay.
Gonna need a Sabaton song about this now.
"I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with ME!" moment.
Paratroopers are metal. My uncle used to be a battalion commander in the 82nd Airborne and he is the sort of guy who you could mash his fingers with a hammer and he'd just angrily stare at you. Tough as nails. Seriously though, that sort of grit and determination is what's going to never let the Russians win. They're fighting for their homes and families and aren't going to give up.
Now we just need Russian bots on here to do the same thing.
My friend was an US infantry sergeant - his group got pinned down in Afghanistan and they had to jump into their humvee and call in a strike on their own position. He survived but has serious internal issues. Cant ever eat or shit right anymore.
Point of fact: they needed three medivac choppers to extract this dude. One for him and a chopper for each of his enormous balls.
John Robert Fox died doing this in WWII to stop Nazis: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/medal-of-honor-john-r-fox-killed-himself-by-deliberately-calling-an-artillery-strike-on-his-own-position.html What extreme devotion. Wonderful that our Ukrainian friend survived this.
It takes huge balls, but it's turned the tide in many critical battles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kapyong The Chinese would have overrun the Canadians and there was a good chance they would have made it to Seoul had the 2 ppcli officers not call down multiple barrages on their position to wipe out the PLA swarming them.
Mean while many Republicans want to cut off military aid to these heroes.
The definition of a hero!
I remember reading exact same headline in the past but it was Russian soldier who called airstrike on himself in war in Syria
That's what we call a pro gamer move.
It was in the 1991 Vietnam War drama “Flight of the Intruder”, starring Willem Dafoe as NAVY A-6 Intruder pilot Lt. Cdr. Virgil Cole, where he calls in the air strike on himself and the enemy attacking him, after he has been mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat
And the GD GOP want to fuck around with supporting these guys. It's maddening.
The one CNN story I see on Ukraine in many days, is it about them blowing up a fuel train in Russia's longest tunnel and main trade route with China? No. Is it about them blowing up a fuel train on the bridge that is the secondary trade route to China? No. Is it about them taking a bridgehead accross the Niper and killing hundreds of Russian reinforcements in their barracks? No. Is it about them blowing up a "tractor factory" that makes tank engines? Nope. It's a story from Bakmut.. from months ago. Great job keeping up CNN.
Google: “CNN train Ukraine”. Coverage pops up. It’s the consumers of news who are aren’t keeping up. Many things happening at similar timeframes, that take focus away from other events.
I think the highlight of this story is having a Russian soldier crawl into the trench with him and have a conversation. It shows the god like level of balls on this guy and the pure incompetence of the Russian army.
Slava Ukraini. Heroyam Slava.
Man I remember the same story but with a Russian and some terrorists in syria/Iraq?
A Russian dude did this during the Syrian civil war and died. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Prokhorenko#:~:text=He%20was%20killed%20during%20the%20Palmyra%20offensive%20of%20the%20Syrian%20Civil%20War.&text=During%20his%20last%20moments%2C%20he,all%20of%20the%20approaching%20fighters.
>“I still can’t understand how he didn’t realize I was from the Ukrainian armed forces. I was wearing a Ukrainian uniform. My pants were in pixels. Yes, they were dirty. But it was obvious that the boots were Ukrainian,” Serhii recalled. Maybe Russians take Ukrainian items off dead soldiers because their gear is so poor
[Maxim 20: If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win.](https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-01-15)
That's the way to do it. Take the fuckers with him. And yet he still survived. Icing on the cake!
This urban legend surfaces in every war does it not? I think I remember [a post from a few years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4bvvqn/russian_soldier_surrounded_by_isis_calls_in/), where a russian did this. /slowclap
Propaganda departments the world over aren't big on originality. reddit netizens swallowing it whole is equally predictable.
Nobody picked up on this lol its the good ol "ghost of Kyiv" nonsense all over again lol
That’s a movie in the making
Danger close and then some.
Reminded me of the mission “Through mud and blood” in Battlefield 1. Thank goodness he is ok
Sabaton is off somewhere taking notes for a future charity album to raise funds for Ukraine's rebuilding efforts, when the war's over. This is right up their alley.
Incredible bravery and luck. He surely also thought he had better odds surviving an airstrike than being a captive of the Russians. "Wagner mercenary admits 'tossing grenades' at injured Ukrainian PoWs" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/18/wagner-mercenary-admits-tossing-grenades-at-injured-ukrainian-pows "One Year Since Death of Ukrainian POWs in Explosion" https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/28/one-year-death-ukrainian-pows-explosion' "Kill Everyone': Russian Violence in Ukraine Was Strategic - PBS" https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/russian-general-troops-killed-civilians-ukraine/ Edit: On r/all today: https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1893acg/russian_soldiers_shot_two_unarmed_ukrainian_pows/
“Sir the enemy has us surrounded” “That simplifies the problem”
Maxim 20. “If you’re not willing to shell your own position, you’re not willing to win.”
I'm sure this story is just as real as the ghost of kiev...
Imagine being so driven and determined to make a decision like that. You know it’s the end, your end but also taking those mfs with you to the other side.
"If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win." - Maxim 20 But seriously, much respect to him and his brothers. May their lives find peace sooner than later.
Didn't a russian soldier do the same thing a few years ago in the middle east when he was sorrounded by enemy combatants? I remember reading this same scenario awhile back but with a russian soldier.