And I thought my doctors were amazing

I'll be writing a wrap-up of milblogcon 2010 later this week.

There's someting else to get my head around, namely, this:

That, my friends, is a 12.5mm bullet.  The incendiary kind.  The kind that, usually, when it impacts your nugget, you no longer have to worry about... anything.

This particular bullet, however, found itself embedded in melon of a member of an Afghan National Army soldier, after a firefight with some Taliban.

The man was taken to the only place in the world where you would expect he could be treated, if at all:  to a U.S. Army hospital.

The round could have exploded at any minute, killing the man and his entire surgical team.  The team worked for hours removing the round, which could have either ignited, killing the patient, or esploded, killing the entire surgical team.  The medical team wore body armor and completed the surgery, one of fewer than 50 such possibly explosive surgeries in the last half-century.

Next time you wonder if our soldiers forward get the best possible care, remember this.

--Chuck