Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The closest you've ever been to death?

we aim to please. Most of the grapes in the Columbia Valley and Willamette Valley Vineyards have some jet fuel dumped on them for added flavor,

We hired a apprentice that was color blind he wired the ground to the 480 tap of a transformer and I got hung up on it for about 10 seconds, I had a bleeding ulcer and ended up having a quart and a half of blood pumped out of my stomach. Most recently lost 3 fingers in a firewood accident. Lost a lot of blood

Oh yeah...I forgot about the night initial at Fallon...more than 1 close call. sheesh, belly up inbound with 35 other planes doing the same thing trying to get back and get their Chit together for the debrief.

we got shot at over northern Iraq, nothing really came close but the first time you see missile trails in the air you just kind of assume they're after you.

Shotgun blast left a two inch hole in the side of the cowboy hat I was wearing...Picked bb's out of my skull for about a year...

Plenty of times.
Part of the old profession I did for a living.
Still a O2 consumer.....








However their is someone who has cheated death many times and posted said stories, let us not forget our boy.....
Billy/ Crappy Hamster oughta chime in with his hand of God intervention near death experiences he has posted on here.....


Yup.....

Thats the person we need to hear about.
He is honest and has zilch to hide about.
And he is religous and quotes scripture too.
So someone like that, obviously his moral fiber can never be questioned on here.....

Hit a RR track at about 85 mph in my Datsun 260Z, and went airborne. I was lucky to control the car after we hit the ground. That was 1977.

40 years of LE , 25 yrs. knocking down doors, a series of heart attacks and all the crazy stuff a boy does and I never felt close to death.

A couple of times fishing offshore have caused me to make my peace with God. When you hear the lightning before the thunder, your priorities get straight.

Probably when I got thrown out of Eyeball's truck, luckily only broke and dislocated my collar bone and not my neck, my collar bone healed dislocated, never went to the hospital. Don't try to shoot a shotgun after something like that, one shot was enough for me to decide I was done hunting quail. Long drive home from New Mexico that night.

Been shot at a few times but closest I actually came was in 99 while fighting an apartment building fire with the volunteer department. Middle unit in building was well off and I pulled a hose to the rear and was attempting to make entry into the most involved unit via a burnt out sliding glass door. Was knocking down fire with the hose and got about a foot in and the hose got caught on something behind me and stopped me. Had a rookie as my backup and was yelling at him to get me more line. He was all bug eyed and scared and it took him a bit to comprehend what I was telling him. Finally he left to go free the hose and I was still stuck about a foot in spraying at the visible fire. Suddenly a loud Crack and it seemed like instantly I was surrounded by fire then darkness then remember seeing the sky. The entire roof, cockloft and second floor of the section were now collapsed and laying in front of me. I quickly hosed down the pile and attempted to back out but had debris around my legs from knees down. Handed off the hose and freed myself and got out. Had the rookie been just a bit faster at getting me more hose I would have been farther in and directly under the collapse!

Most of you know I had a stroke in 2008 . That is the closest I’ve come! Had to learn to walk, talk, and use my right arm all over.

As a kid I ran head on into my HS coach while I was riding my bike home from a friends house. Steep downhill ride and I guess it happened on the steepest part right after a really sharp corner, I woke up the next morning with my arm in a cast and no idea what happened. Lost about 10-12 hours worth of memory.

Couple of 55 MPH + motorcycle wrecks that easily could of did me in.

Rollover car accident while in the passenger seat while not wearing a seatbelt and an open passenger window.

Got hit right across the shoulder blades by a good sized widowmaker while cutting timber. Got face planted hard.

Was about 15-20 feet from an explosion in Afghanistan that blew out my ear drums and rocked the crap out me. No wounds though.

Had a mortar round land right on the other side of a T-wall from me in Iraq. Another 3 or 4 feet or no T-wall and I would of been toast.

Early 1980’s. B52H IR low level training route at night in the Rockies. Aircraft Commander Pilot (Major at the time) was a complete idiot and incompetent pilot who was eventually grounded and put behind a desk. Low level at TA (terrain avoidance) level all equipment working fine. Bombing / TA radar then fails which immediately requires a climb to safe IFR altitude. Pilot instructed to climb to IFR (safe) altitude but replies that he has good visibility and wants to stay at TA low level (so he can log and get credit for the low level time I suppose). We are in rapidly upsloping terrain at approximately 5000 to 6000’ MSL (mean sea level) with 12,000 to 14,000’ ridge lines about 10 miles out. Aircraft goes “Popeye” in total obscured clouds. Radar Nav commands the Pilot to immediately climb. We are at approximately 6000’ MSL & about 500’ above rapidly rising terrain heading for those 14,000 ridge lines about 10 miles away. B52H put into full throttle max rate climb while in totally obscured clouds with no radar. Aircraft breaks out of clouds in a maximum rate climb just as we have an 80’ crossover on the snow covered ridges. Nobody said anything about this after the mission because the Aircraft Commander was the one who was writing our OER’s (officer evaluation reports). He got his just due though after a later flight with the Squadron Commander flying with us as an observer in the jump seat. Another unsafe thing he did but that is another story.

The closest I came to death was helping my Grandfather during spring break on Friday the 13. Took my shirt off to get a little tan while spraying herbicide on just planted cotton. Went back to the house to refill the sprayer left the tractor idling to run the pump attached to the pto so the herbicide could mix while filling. Had my shirt off while working and put it back on and left the shirt unbuttoned. Had to grease the pump as I reached over the pump to grease it the cotter pin attaching the pump to the pto caught my shirt and dragged me down I raised up and it dragged me down again. The bracket holding the pressure gauge was in arms reach and I grabbed that and pulled as hard as I could and came loose. Since my Grandfather was plowing behind the feedlot with diesel tractor and my Grandmother had gone to town shopping, I was by my self, no help. Over half the shirt and some of my hide was still spinning on the pto. Doctored myself up and went back to work. That night at supper I told them what had happened and I will never forget the look on their faces. To this day I rarely if ever wear my shirt tail out, even t-shirts.

Probably the time a 7.62x39 grazed the back of my neck. It was just a little kiss, but.....

Asleep in a pickup bed that rolled on I5 outside Coalinga California. Canopy got torn off and I ended up in it. Just had a couple scratches.

Roof of the cab was crushed to the steering wheel. Buddy wasn't wearing a seat belt and got thrown to the passenger side. Also only scratches.

Tow truck driver came up to me an asked how many people were killed.

This last January from double pneumonia. The report claims my oxygen level was below 50% when the EMTs hauled me to the hospital.

I got bum rushed by 6,7 goats coming out of the double-gate turnstiles at Opryland once in the petting zoo area.

I’ll never forget those sounds

November 1st 2021. I was asleep in the hospital and was very rudely awakened by a nurse's assistant about 4am.
He was shaking me and saying "wake up!!! wake up!!!"... Your blood pressure is REALLY LOW!!! He told me to sit up
and said that he was gonna get in trouble. I sleepily ask him why he was going to get into trouble. He said "because
your blood pressure,it's really low".
I said that I'm the one with the low blood pressure. Why the hell would you be in trouble?
I remember the date because a couple of days later, on November 3rd, I was in surgery.
I woke up a couple of days later with someone else's liver.
It's still kinda hard wrapping my brain around it. Someone died so I could keep on going.
The strange thing is, my family kept from me,how sick I actually was. My kids said that I
should have known because they weren't letting me out of the hospital.
And before someone says something derogatory about my situation...
The reason I needed a transplant wasn't alcoholic cirrhosis.

I was leaning against a door jam and a 25 auto bullet landed next to my head.

Super Cub Crash .. 75 miles from the Nearest Help.
Just missed the Rocks..