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What is the closest you have come to death?

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    Saw him (death) in an airport once. Woulda stopped to get his autograph but I was already late for my flight.

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      Dated a psycho gal for a few years in the mid 90's. We broke up in '96. Good thing cause I would have had to commit suicide had I hung around any longer!!!....Does that count????

      Dave

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        Iraq 2003-2004

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          Closest for me was bringing my girlfriend home one night and her shirt was on inside out. Her dad wanted to know how that happened. He told me the first time I took her out he would kill me if I touched her. It was a tense moment but I'm still here.

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            Originally posted by bsimm78 View Post
            Iraq 2003-2004
            Thank you for serving our country SIR!

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              Just thought of another close call with death that's worth mentioning. This incident occurred when I was in the 8th grade. My dad picked me up from school that day and on the way home I could see that a storm was approaching with a dark low hanging wall cloud. We almost always had a vegetable garden and since it was during the spring we had several tomato plants left in containers that still needed to be transplanted.
              As soon as we got home we hurredly starting putting the plants up and also there were some bicyle parts I needed to put up as well before the expected rain and wind arrived.

              After all the plants were safely placed in one of the storage buildings, I made one last trip to pick up two expensive bicycle rims that I had left out the day before. Before I reached to grab them, I looked up into the sky where there was a paper bag being tossed around with some other items. It was very obvious that there was a lot of turbulence in the area with the approaching storm. Suddenly, a roaring noise was heard to my left. It was a twister and appeared over the tree tops directly above the creek. Without any doubt, I knew what it was even without turning to face it. I saw it from the corner of my left eye. There was no time to turn around to look directly at it. All I could do was try to run.
              As I tried to run, the suction from the twister pulled me backwards. Thankfully it was probably only an F1, otherwise, I wouldn't be typing this post. My dad was yelling for me to run to the house where he was clinging to doorway, but it was useless for me to do anything else except drop to the ground. At that point, it was hard to see much with all the dust blowing around and plenty of it went in my eyes. I could barely even hear my dad yelling with the roaring tornado behind me. There was a tree nearby that I was able to drop to base of and hold on tightly to the trunk as hard as I could. Things happened so fast and I do remember having a feeling that my life may be about to end. God was most definitely watching over me that day. The tornado turned and as it did, I heard a boom as one of the storage buildings was picked up and dropped. I got up and ran as hard as I could towards the house. As I made it to the back porch, there was a whirring noise that passed directly to the left of my head and something slammed into one of the gates. I dove through the back door way where my dad was still clinging to.

              My mind was almost numb, trying to make sense of everything that had just occurred. My mom and sister were inside and had no idea that I was out there trying to stay alive. We all heard a loud bang and later found out it was the larger shop building exploding from the vacuum, since the door and windows were all shut. After the twister had passed, we all went outside to inspect the damage. The roof and siding on the shop was all gone. We knew that it was about to rain hard and could see many of the tiwsted pieces of metal roofing laying out in the field. There were a lot of expensive tools in that shop and we were hoping that we could get the roof covered before the contents got wet. We got most of the roof covered in time before the rain hit.

              I later found out what it was that had nearly hit me in the head as I was running away from the twister. It was one of those bicycle rims that I was in the process of putting up when the twister hit. The tornado had picked it up and it became airborn. Stories like this may seem hard to believe, unless you've been through a tornado before. My mom, dad, and sister will confirm everything I've said here. I'm very forntunate to be alive and I thank the Lord for his protection.
              Last edited by 12 point; 07-19-2012, 08:00 AM.

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                Actually the wise guy answer to this question is "right now"

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                  Originally posted by Encinal View Post
                  Actually the wise guy answer to this question is "right now"
                  ....and now. and now

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                    Originally posted by crow View Post
                    flipped a 1/4 mile drag boat over in Waco back in 96. running around 130mph hit a small gust of wind and it stood up and took off like a rocket about 60 foot up in the air. when the boat hit the water I was thrown thru the side of it. almost cut a leg off on the dash.
                    Crow was your boat named Quicksilver was it

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                      97' the day seniors got out of school. We were at a party and my best friend and I were gonna go grab a pizza (far enough out where you had to drive about 12 miles and meet the pizza guy at a convenient store). Well the two of us quickly turned into 5, and his old ford 3/4 ton quickly turned into one of our other buddies jaguar. I got out when the backseat got a little too full for my liking. They all four were killed in a high speed, single car accident shortly after. That was the first and only time since childhood he or I ever asked the other to go somewhere, and one of us turned it down. Without giving the hole biograghy, that day changed the course of my life. Still wonder why and think about him/that everyday.

                      These stories are all great testimony in their own way. All of them happen just like everything else...cause and effect...action and reaction, and those circumstances have left many of us better peolple. You men and women that are military, police officers, fire fighters, coast gaurd and maybe some that I failed to list; you guys strap it on everyday knowing all hell could break loose at any moment. I could only imagine the situations you find yourself in due to your service. Thank you for what you do to keep this country safe.

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                        I've nearly drowned 4 or 5 times now. Surfing huge waves in Northern California.....20-30ft + faces.....during my 20s. Wipe outs on waves that measure vertically 2 or 3 telephone poles in height.....scars and stitches in my face and skull from 2 of them.

                        Slipped on a icy, wooden mooring dock in Kodiak Alaska and slipped over the side of the dock...falling vertically 30+ ft before cracking my skull against a rock at the waters edge....knocking me completely out and my body sank down the nearly veritcal wall to the bottom...literally 35ft + below the dock in super cold water. I came too staring face up..bubbles and blood marking my decent to the bottom below. I barely made the surface before I gulped air.....cracked skull.....cracked left knee cap.....stiches in the head and knee with a concussion. All alone......him and I......he was all I had - thank you ..........Thank you Lord! I stumbled up and out onto the near by highway...blood streaming down my face and eyes....all over the ground...soaking wet and staggering from the crack...a Kodiak local fisherman picked me up and hauled me to the Coast Guard hospital emergency room in Kodiak.

                        Riding a 15 speed bike down Telegraph Avenue from the Berkley campus.....downhill 4 lane street hauling butt with a friend following on his bike, a VW bug pulls out in front of me...I snag brakes and the front brake locks up..flipping me over and onto the VW's windshield and hood crushing the cars front hood in like a pancake..as the VW is still rolling....my body flips down in front of the car and right before the woman runs me over....the brakes engage and I'm laying flat on my back staring up at the VW's front bumper covers my head and stops! The entire time...time stands absolutely still....kinda goes into slow motion.....and I still remember her scream..blood curdling scream of pain...she thought she killed me and ran me over...couldn't even get out of the car. I was saved from major injury due to a back pack stuffed full of pull-over baja jackets that padded my impact onto the VW's hood. The entire windshield was crushed and in pieces everywhere...hood smashed flat....some of the roof of the car crushed down from my body as well. Walked away without a scratch but...those that witnessed it from the street and stopped cars stated it was an absolute freak show...couldn't believe I didn't get hurt much less killed.

                        I rolled my truck in Austin.....burned up...totaled loss....went around a wet corner..back end popped out and off a cliff I roll...at around 40 mph. Truck caught fire as I sat there upside down in my seat belt. Popped the back door open...pulled my two bows out and saved them as the truck burned up. The cliff and drop was roughly 30 - 50ft down good old Texas hill country caliche rocks.

                        I saved a bridge jumper from jumping to his death from the Oakland - San Francisco Bay Bridge. He was standing on the span between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland behind one of the bridge support spans...6 lanes of freeway traffic headed west bound to San Francisco - dual deck bridge - top deck. I'm driving west bound....in the far left lane when something makes me stare immediately left as I pass one of the bridge's huge towers...he's standing behind the tower...out of view of all the cars zipping by. No shoulder on this bridge...just a steel wall and curb....with the lane up against that wall...6 lanes wide. I come up to the Yerba Buena Island exit...my Coast Guard Station is down below on the Island...headed to work and I spot my jumpers car, parked neatly off the exit with his flashers on for safety? I pull my truck in behind his car and start my run up the bridge and 6 lanes of Sunday afternoon traffic...running on the deck to the jumper.....roughly 400 - 500 yards away....away from safety and anything sane. As I run...cars nearly hitting me...horns blaring...brakes locked up...swerving and skidding...I run dodging cars to the jumper. A California Highway Patrolman spots me on the freeway and see's all the cars going nuts nearly having major wrecks...well over the San Francisco Bay......he gets on his PA as he rolls by yelling at me like I'm a nut....on a suicide highway jog against traffic. He pulls in behind my truck....well down the freeway and starts running at me absolutely bent on taking me down. He's scared....he's yelling at me....I'm there trying to wave cars off the Policeman so he doesn't get nailed and right as he's about to take me down...I start yelling at him "Jumper up ahead....he's on the rail...I'm US Coast Guard...I'm going to save this man....are you coming to cover and cuff?!?!?!? The cop blinks and freaks out realizing we are both now committed to saving this jumpers life in a very bad place and we have about 150 yards to go before we get to him. I got to the jumper, nearly had him in my hand talking to him about not jumping, family and friends care for him....I'm here to help you please take my hand.....the jumper reaches for my hand for a moment..spots the cop and turns to jump leaping as I grabbed his pants..the cop grabs his pants and between the pair of us we somehow counter his body's weight as he tries to leap...we pull him back and over the rail onto the pavement in the far left lane....nothing blocking traffic for us...cars swerving at last minute before blowing over us...we make the cuff! This dude is now POd and he's not moving..forcing us to drag his body down the freeway in the left lane...the 400 yards back to our neatly parked cars. I still remember the last image of this scene....CHIP and I both stare at each other and at the same time we simply say THANKS! I don't know his name...he doesn't know mine but we saved a man from himself that afternoon....on the top deck of the Oakland Bay bridge......between Yerba Beuna and Oakland California....130ft above the San Francicso Bay. I later watched this same man jump to his death a few weeks later.....further out in the same spot....we found his body about 2 weeks later.

                        Dutch Harbor Alaska...we get a mayday call notification from Coast Guard Rescue Kodiak. An 800 ft Japanese Factory ship is 180 nautical miles NW of Dutch Harbor Alaska.....caught in a major arctic storm in the Bering Sea - we are directed to assist. We sail out of Dutch Harbor at 35kts - gas turbine engines - 378 ft Coast Guard cutter....150 man crew. Into the teeth of the storm in the Bering Sea we go......the seas go to 60 - 80ft with winds over 120kts in gusts. Freak waves over 100 ft high hit us every 4 - 6 hours....for 5 days we are now caught into the nastiest storm any of us have ever endured. The ship we were called out to rescue snapped in half....26 men die......800ft ship now in pieces at the bottom of the Bering. We are running 3kts forward engine speed and for 5 days we were pushed backward, 1 nautical mile every hour....freak waves blasting into our ship...buring the bridge under water.....70ft above the water's edge. The entire ship would get airborn jumping over these huge freak waves..burying the entire stern.....underwater. Over the mountain we would go....looking out of the bridge forward...all you see is sky and this huge gray wall growing higher and higher above the front of the ship before we go underwater....staring at bubbles and our windshield wipers as the ship is now underwater and trying to plane up and out the back of the monster wave. We lost one gas turbine jet engine - 30,000 shaft horsepower per engine, we had two, the port side is ripped out of her engine mount. The crew chained, blocked and pressure jacked it into a spot to keep the jet engine from flying around tearing a hole in our ship. The starboard side main diesel engine super charger detonates and we explode that engine due to oil loss. Two engines gone from a total of 4.....we can't turn the ship around...if we try to...she's only 40ft wide and she will roll tossing us all into 28 degree arctic water. We finally had our chance to turn the ship around in our 6th day. With huge heavy ground swells now on our stern we limp southward to the lee of an island and chill for another day before limping back to Kodiak...800 miles away. We trashed the ship.....her keel bent 2ft and the only reason why we didn't snap in half....like the lost souls we tried to save was....our ship had an expansion plate designed to relieve hull stress...in super heavy seas. The walls were floors and the floors were walls....for literally a week. Many men stopped functioning...we had several hospitalized in Kodiak...dehydrated, broken bones...lacerations.....it all went with a lot of broken equipment and gear.

                        I still remember us sailing back into Kodiak.......the entire town was out...the Mayor.....the Admiral.....families of watermen and Coasties......all there to welcome us back to shore knowing....we escaped death ourselves.....unable to save those we were tasked to save. Many tears were shed.........I still water up to this day thinking of this one case...... I wouldn't wish this week on anyone......we shouldn't be here but we survived.

                        I have several more but I'm stopping here.....i

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                          Hog hunting at Granger WMA with a buddy 10 years ago. We had split up and I decided to cross a recently dried up creek. It was about 10' across, and the bottom has a dried top crust on it that looked firm enough. The first step was fine, but the second step I sank over my knees. The more I struggled to get out, the deeper I sank. I was up to my waist in less than a minute, and could no longer move. The creek was a wet weather creek that drained a lot of farmland, and the silt it washed down was like being stuck in thick glue. He found me that evening, after I didn't show back up at the truck at the pre-determined time. I heard him yelling my name, and he heard me. This was a good two miles from the truck at a very seldom used part of the WMA. I've often thought about how it would have ended if I'd been alone. No way was I getting out of that mess by myself. I usually went by myself, and never told anyone my plans or when I would be back. Now I always make sure someone knows where I'm going just in case. I don't want to end up a hog's dinner.

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                            Having been shot twice, and shot at a few more times, stabbed once, and involved in 3 major car wrecks, its hard to pinpoint the "closest" I ever came. Perhaps the most dramatic was a response to an officer needs help call, and my driver/partner was hitting about 120 with full emergency equipment engaged when a drunk pulled out in front of us. We knocked his car about a block into the grand opening sign at a new Pizza Hut, my partner was scalped, and I was pinned in. None of us had on seat belts (not required at that time). My partner and the drunk were both admitted to the hospital. Once the car was pried away from me by emergency services I walked away with nothing but some bruises on my shins. Talk about not my time. God has watched out for me in spite of stupid things I've done throughout my life.

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                              Several near misses, too many really... but a few notable ones... been shot twice (22 in the leg, 25 auto in the neck) stabbed twice (once in the back and once in the arm) been shot at a few more times, rolled a couple of cars at high speed (one on my wedding night) and been pronounced dead in a head-on at 70+ mph... (that one was in my CJ-5) only to have them figure out I wasn't dead … woke up 11 days later in traction... in 2010 the doc misdiagnosed a gallbladder as pancreatic cancer and it almost cost me my life.. surgeon said my liver and kidneys had shut down and I was on my way to checking out when they finally decided it wasn't cancer and started looking for something else...

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                                my back had been giv'n me fitt's "putting up a tower blind by hand" and was heading back out to hunt, took one "1" aleve tab to help with the pain. on I20 between arlington and fr. worth i found out i was allergic to the stuf. "very allergic". tryed to tear the skin off my arms. throat and eye's swelling shut, i got pulled over in the middle and was hangin out. my god send was a guy going east bound he saw me and came around to see if something was wrong. he saved my life.... when the medics showed up i was blacked out, couldn't breath thay hit me with a eppi pen.
                                not only did he do all this he stayed with my truck till my wife showed up , I was going for a week hunt and was loaded to the hilt..
                                i can remember lay'n there think'n lord who's gona take care of neetz and the kids.
                                and all the crap i'v been through a stupid little pill is gona do it...
                                car/ bike wreck's navy days, head crushed in. that was all easy.

                                yes sir there are angel's. god send's ya one when ya REALLY NEED IT.

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