Somebody send this man an iPod!

The iPod he had in his pocket apparently stopped an insurgent's bullet with his name on it!

My wifeâ€™s uncle works in a military hospital and told me about this. Its pretty amazing. Kevin Garrad (3rd Infantry Division) was on a street patrol in Iraq (Tikrit I believe) and as he rounded the corner of a building an armed (AK-47) insurgent came from the other side.

The two of them were within just a few feet of each other when they opened fire. The insurgent was killed and Kevin was hit in the left chest where his IPod was in his jacket pocket. It slowed the bullet down enough that it did not completely penetrate his body armor. Fortunately, Kevin suffered no wound.

Link [Flickr] via Digg.

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As long as we don't start shooting each other here on this thread I think that discussing the hows and whys of the situation is legitimate.

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So, um, what's the worst thing that could happen if this *is* a hoax... a guy fighting in Iraq gets an iPod?

I'm not seeing a downside either way.

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uh.. discussions' getting out of hand pretty fast. I think we ought to try and keep it on what happened, and leave all the politicking out of this.

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@ Anthony: I guess you are correct re: entrance and exit damage. Nonetheless, I think it probably did happen. I would venture a guess that given the number of iPods out there that eventually someone will get shot in the exact same area that their iPod is in and that this is probably what happened here. You are correct that it offered essentially no ballistic protection. Hell, let's be charitable and say it slowed it by 20 fps.

@Sky, rek, etc.The soldier was shot because he was in the wrong place (Iraq) at the wrong time (now). I'm glad we have soldiers willing to protect our freedom, I just don't think that's what's going on in Iraq. Yes, yes, Saddam secretly hid all his WMDs and was a very bad man who posed a terrible threat to the US and if the Iraqis would only realize how much we (tough)love them they would stop shooting and blowing up the foreign soldiers in their country. I know, it doesn't matter what I say, the US is A Number One and can do no wrong, ever. Forget I said anything.