# Soldier has RPG Removed from Leg **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 5, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613 "2007-10-05T06:43:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/1 "2007-10-05T06:43:46Z")
[Video Linky](http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/rpg_surgery/) The video is safe for work, but has lots of medical gore. Just in case you thought you were having a rough day. This guy wins. (Once again, it is remarkable how video cameras are everywhere nowadays.) ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/2 "2007-10-05T11:36:58Z")
Just in case I am not the only RPG’er to do a double-take… RPG = Rocket Propelled Grenade. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/3 "2007-10-05T11:58:38Z")
[QUOTE=TPWombat] Just in case I am not the only RPG’er to do a double-take… RPG = Rocket Propelled Grenade. [/QUOTE] Or an old geek from the IBM Series I era… ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/4 "2007-10-05T12:14:55Z")
I had to have an RPG\* removed from my leg once \*RPG = Rolly Poly Girl ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/5 "2007-10-05T16:10:27Z")
Wow. Just, wow. With my limited knowledge of RPGs, they can be designed to only trigger after traveling a minimum distance, rotating through a set number of rotations, or both. Unless the round was a dud, which I doubt, whoever fired it was too close to the Humvee he was riding in to activate the detonator. Even without a detonation, that sucker went 8" into the guys leg! With a maximum diameter of probably 2.5". Pure craziness. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/6 "2007-10-05T16:12:35Z")
The warhead wasn’t on it though. It only had the detonator for the warhead, and it’s not clear just how dangerous that is. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/7 "2007-10-05T16:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] Wow. Just, wow. With my limited knowledge of RPGs, they can be designed to only trigger after traveling a minimum distance, rotating through a set number of rotations, or both. Unless the round was a dud, which I doubt, whoever fired it was too close to the Humvee he was riding in to activate the detonator. Even without a detonation, that sucker went 8" into the guys leg! With a maximum diameter of probably 2.5". Pure craziness. [/QUOTE] RPGs dud all the time. They are made all over the world to all sorts of quality standards, then years in storage all over the place rarely help much. Detonator? Humm? Never heard of such a thing. The rocket comes nailed onto the warhead. If it was fired (and it was) it had a warhead. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/8 "2007-10-05T17:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] Detonator? Humm? Never heard of such a thing. The rocket comes nailed onto the warhead. If it was fired (and it was) it had a warhead. [/QUOTE] The simulated video of it had the warhead breaking off when it hit the windshield. The big super-caliber warhead was gone, leaving just a straight piece in the soldier, the part that starts out inside the launch tube. They said it had the “detonator” left. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/9 "2007-10-05T17:39:46Z")
All warheads have to have detonators. Like \*\*Paul \*\* said, these things are of varied quality. I’m going to trust the animator this time and assume that the warhead did, in fact, break away harmlessly, leaving the rocket and detonator lodged in the soldier’s body. Consider that the detonator has to go off with enough shock to detonate the warhead – that’s still a pretty big bang. It would probably have killed the victim and almost certainly ended the surgeon’s career. I don’t care what anybody thinks about the war, these guys deserve our respect and admiration. Courage, professionalism, poise and compassion – that surgeon and his team have it all. I salute them. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/10 "2007-10-05T18:26:32Z")
Why do so many of these guys carry them around? It would seem to be a close quarter weapon only in Quake. Perhaps the RPG guys have some fellows with AK-47’s with them, and they aren’t photogenic. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/11 "2007-10-05T18:43:06Z")
[QUOTE=TPWombat] Just in case I am not the only RPG’er to do a double-take… RPG = Rocket Propelled Grenade. [/QUOTE] I was picturing someone throwing a copy of 1st edition AD&D\* **really** hard, like a big oversized shuriken. _actually, for some reason my mental image was of 1st ed. Fiend Folio. Don’t ask me why!_\* \*\*Gods, I’m such a geek. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/12 "2007-10-06T04:22:05Z")
I have to watch that again I guess. Are you folks saying the OR footage was a simulation? It looked like a huge thingee (I presumed the warhead) they removed. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/13 "2007-10-06T04:53:17Z")
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] Or an old geek from the IBM Series I era… [/QUOTE] Damn you. Damn you with fixed-format source code and input records, and then drop a 1960s-era DASD on your most favorite organ. I was gonna make that joke. :pout: ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2007, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldier-has-rpg-removed-from-leg/421613/14 "2007-10-06T14:02:43Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] I have to watch that again I guess. Are you folks saying the OR footage was a simulation? It looked like a huge thingee (I presumed the warhead) they removed. [/QUOTE] The big almost broken up guy explained that the warhead was not attached to the long bar. The newpaper article on it I saw yesterday said that as well and that they sawed the finned tail off of the bar so that they could pull the shaft thru in the forwad direction, like when they broke off the Indigian arrow feathers and pulled the arrow out the front end in the old western movies. Dr. Oh was great. Thank you all for your service! But I must ask why did the news of this get sat upon for the 19 months since 3/16/06?