# His head just popped right off! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386 "2015-01-09T12:39:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/81 "2015-01-12T19:58:41Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > He was wounded in nine separate engagements. There is no mention of how many he had where he didn’t end up with a wound. I am curious why there is no mention of any Purple Hearts though. According to that statement, he would qualify for 9 PHs. If you read the one I posted it says he did get nominations for several purple hearts and he ever so graciously turned them down. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/82 "2015-01-12T21:00:20Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Also, bullshit on pulling a mans head off. Try just pulling one of your fingers off. You can’t do it! No, but I’m farting up a storm! ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/83 "2015-01-13T05:42:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yeah but _if the US Army posted a website about them,_ I’d be less inclined to say “Bullshit”. > > Read **obbn** ’s post #4. > [@](#): > > “We lost 60,000 troops, but we killed over eight million,” O’Neal said. “That’s almost a nine to one ratio.” Apparently he took a blow or two to the ol’ melon over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/84 "2015-01-13T15:32:55Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > Apparently he took a blow or two to the ol’ melon over the years. Yeah, how did that pass the editors? Total fail all around. Actual NVA deaths were (at max) 1,100,000, and the US lost 58,000 troops. Meaning a ratio of about 18:1. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/85 "2015-01-13T15:58:26Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > No, but I’m farting up a storm! Snerk. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/86 "2015-01-13T16:19:29Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > Yeah, how did that pass the editors? Total fail all around. > > Actual NVA deaths were (at max) 1,100,000, and the US lost 58,000 troops. Meaning a ratio of about 18:1. And one would hope he doesn’t even want to count the additional million plus civilian deaths in the war. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/87 "2015-01-13T16:56:35Z")
Having check around the net, it looks like the amount of force needed to break a neck is around [700 lbs](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19388771). Other sites say that hangings used to try to keep the force under 11000 lbs to avoid decapitation. I don’t think there is any way a human could generate that amount of force in a fight. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/88 "2015-01-15T01:37:13Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Ummm… isn’t a warrant officer made by warrant because if he had a commission he’d be a commissioned officer. A commissioned warrant officer does have a commission and is a commissioned officer. Also, a warrant, and is a warranted officer. Or at least, he/she had, and was, before being promoted. Dunno if the warrant is withdrawn when the officer is commissioned. Commissioned Warrant Officer is a career path for very powerful Warrant Officers. They have a special title because they remain “specialists” rather than general officers. ---
**Author:** ![ScrapStitching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@ScrapStitching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScrapStitching)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/89 "2015-01-15T17:55:49Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > tl;dr version - BS. > > Regards, > Shodan Excellent tl;dr I’d want to know the ‘using his weight’ and ‘torque’ that made this possible. There’s a lot of stuff to tear and break before a head comes off. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/90 "2015-01-16T08:18:57Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Also, bullshit on pulling a mans head off. Try just pulling one of your fingers off. You can’t do it! Of course you can. It’s why I don’t wear a ring. Happens when your ring gets cought on a truck, or a fence, or a machine. Happens to kids when their ring gets cought on a merry-go-round. I’ve never hear of an industrial accident where a mans hand is ripped off: typically, a hand does NOT come off: the machine sucks your whole lower arm in and mangles on it. For heads, the nearest I can think of is hair: all to easy to have a chunk of your scalp ripped off. Never heard of a head getting popped off except in band-saw accidents, and those are just old war stories machinests tell. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/91 "2015-01-16T14:54:13Z")
I am currently litigating a case where a man’s hand was ripped off by a drilling rig. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/92 "2015-01-16T18:46:29Z")
Are we talking shear or tensile? Fingers could be both, granted. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/93 "2015-01-16T18:47:38Z")
A bit of both, I think. Hand and drill were both in a borehole. Drill/sides of borehole won. ---
**Author:** ![Willcross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Willcross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Willcross)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/94 "2015-01-18T09:23:17Z")
Hulk Hogan would often use a razor to make a small tear in his shirt before the match. It’s much easier to rip a shirt off your body if you are just widening an existing tear, rather than starting from scratch. Perhaps this guy would secretly make a small cut in the enemies neck before battles so he could then rip the head off and look really strong in front of his friends? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/95 "2015-01-19T08:38:51Z")
> [@ScrapStitching](#): > > I’d want to know the ‘using his weight’ and ‘torque’ that made this possible. There’s a lot of stuff to tear and break before a head comes off. It reads like he held the head steady and spun the body around. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/96 "2015-01-19T09:13:54Z")
> [@Willcross](#): > > Perhaps this guy would secretly make a small cut in the enemies neck before battles so he could then rip the head off and look really strong in front of his friends? Well it would be the same technique as they use to pull a man’s beating heart out of his chest. You just have to sneak into the enemy barracks the previous night and make a small nick in the skin. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/97 "2015-01-19T09:40:36Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Well it would be the same technique as they use to pull a man’s beating heart out of his chest. You just have to sneak into the enemy barracks the previous night and make a small nick in the skin. Thanks you two, I snorted! Just what I need to read at 4:30am! ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/98 "2015-01-21T13:58:43Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Here in Minnesota, we even had one elected Governor who was a Navy Seal before the Navy had formed Seal teams! Jesse Ventura was a member of the underwater demolitions teams that predecessed the SEALs. All members of that team were honorarily classified as SEALs. > [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > He was wounded in nine separate engagements. There is no mention of how many he had where he didn’t end up with a wound. I am curious why there is no mention of any Purple Hearts though. According to that statement, he would qualify for 9 PHs. One of the write ups said he declined the purple hearts. > [@MrDibble](#): > > It reads like he held the head steady and spun the body around. :rolleyes: I have decapitated a chicken with my bare hands. That is exactly the technique. You hold the chicken head in one hand and the feet by the other. Then you twirl the chicken like twirling a lasso, holding the head and swinging the body around. It comes clean off, and the chicken body runs off across the yard. (Yes, that really happens.) His description implies he was doing something of the sort, using the person’s body weight and inertia to counter the twist he applied to the head. I don’t think it is the kind of thing you could do by reaching out with two hands in front of you and twisting the head. However, grabbing an arm around the head and doing a full body twist like a judo throw… It still seems unlikely. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get any volunteers to help me test this out. Maybe I can remember this the next time I get attacked by a mugger or a home invader comes crashing in my door - I can think, “I need to test pulling a guy’s head off” and try some different techniques. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/99 "2015-01-21T15:46:54Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I have decapitated a chicken with my bare hands. That is exactly the technique. You hold the chicken head in one hand and the feet by the other. Then you twirl the chicken like twirling a lasso, holding the head and swinging the body around. It comes clean off, and the chicken body runs off across the yard. (Yes, that really happens.) Well, there you go. Mr. Super Soldier was undoubtedly fighting with a chicken that was wearing the uniform of an enemy combatant, hence the mistaken identity. I’d run away too, if you threw a chicken’s head at me - that voodoo’s some scary stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386/100 "2015-01-21T22:20:32Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I can’t think of any better way to “respect your enemy” than to rip their head off and throw it at somebody. If I’m your enemy, you also haven’t shown me much respect by ripping off my buddy’s head OR by throwing it at me. :eek: > [@obbn](#): > > I would think am infant head would be relatively easy to detach. This guy is claiming he took a full grown man’s head off, like he was removing a twist cap off a bottle. Not just a full grown man, but a trained enemy combatant – with neck and shoulder muscles built up from months and months of physical training. :dubious: I wouldn’t even believe Mr. Nationalism used a hidden wire to make the job easier. If I understand correctly, properly placing a wire garrotte isn’t easy when surprising an unsuspecting target, much less in the middle of a multi-assailant fight to the death. It would most likely get snagged on bone. > [@](#): > > Tailoring the techniques to military combat, he developed what eventually became his own school, the American Warrior Free Fighting System for combat, in which he holds a 10th-degree black belt Any time you create your own style (or steal collections of techniques from other styles and give the whole bundle a new name) you’re automagically the GrandMaster of the style. And GrandMaster rank is often assumed to be 10th degree black. The stupid thing was a former student of mine who had three left feet (yeah, even clumsier than the typical klutz) decided to drop out and create his own style – and gave himself only a 5th degree black belt. :smack: > [@](#): > > Chief Warrant Officer Gary O’Neal is no ordinary soldier. For nearly forty years, he has fought America’s enemies, becoming one of the greatest Warriors this nation has ever known. Part Native American, O’Neal was trained in both military combat and the ways of his native people, combining his commitment to freedom with his respect for the enemy, his technical fighting skills with his fierce warrior spirit. Really? How did he reconcile the fact that the Great America he’s grandstanding for used its military to steal every inch of ground from beneath his ancestors’ feet and relegate them to wastelands (until useful metals and minerals were discovered underground)? By acting as that military’s reaper against other cultures? Even if we somehow believe his tales, he’s selling a brawn-without-brains idol. That’s not what we need in our populace or its leadership. –G! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/his-head-just-popped-right-off/709386.md?page=6)