Just Call Him “Cool Hand Jon”
That would be SSG(P) Jon King, at Fort Sill, OK. He’s a vet of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s now assigned to C Company, 434th Field Artillery Detachment.
Why call him that, you ask? Let’s just say the story involves a live grenade, a grenade range, a raw trainee, a potentially deadly error – and about 4 seconds to save a life at the risk of his own. Details are in this Army Times article.
Read the article if you want to understand why IMO “Cool Hand” is apropos. I think you will afterwards.
SSG(P) King received the interim award of an ARCOM for his actions on 14 April 2014. However, he’s also being considered for the Soldiers Medal. From what I read, sounds to me like this one should be the proverbial “no brainer”.
Well done, SSG(P) King. Damn well done.
Category: Real Soldiers
Dude has Iron Skivvies that’s for sure.
/to hold his brass cojones
If I ever had a grenade roll to my feet, you would see this fat girl set a land speed record into the next zip code.
I’d say this soldier deserves every type of recognition they can give him.
Most of those pit NCOs are crazy, or at least it helps if you are a little crazy. Or maybe the job makes them crazy. One of the things I remember from basic was going out to the pit, handing the NCO my second grenade and getting ready to throw my first. After I tossed my first and was crouched down, I felt this hard thud against my Kevlar. I looked up and the pit NCO was holding my 2nd grenade about two inches from my face. I though I had screwed up some how and he had thumped me on the head. He told me “Go on, take it” When I took me second grenade from him I realized what had happened. He had smacked my grenade against the lip of my Kevlar to knock off the safety clip. Total Jedi mind screw. For a second I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do. I wound up pretending to thumb off the primary safety clip that wasn’t there anymore, then pulled the pin and tossed it.
I believe that…I’ve been a pit NCO before. It definitely keeps you on your toes
Charlie COMPANY, 434 FA BDE is the only Infantry company in the brigade. Good on SSG King for keeping a cool head and saving that Soldier.
C Co, 434 FA BDE was my last duty assignment before I retired.
I saw in the picture he was wearing a CIB, so I knew right away he wasn’t gun bunny.
LebbenB…+100 That better be the Soldier’s Medal for sure! Meets all the qualifications and then some. The regs don’t say big steel balls are required but Cool Hand Jon had his where they needed to be. There’s a live trainee today because of him.
lol please
One of my lance coolie friends saved a butterbar from himself on the grenade range.
I think he was put on duty as a reward.
A friend in my Platoon took a Lieutenant to the ground when he tried to poke his head over the wall to see the explosion.
To his credit, the Officer said “Guess that was pretty fucking stupid of me. Thanks, Corporal.”
I remember a different design. Basically a 3 or 4 ft wall. If there was an incident you would jump or be dragged to the side that the grenade wasn’t. No chance to hit your hand on the back wall.
The bays at Sill have walls about 4 ft tall. directly behind each bay, there’s a small pit that if a Soldier mishandles a frag, the bay NCO throws the private and himself into (hopefully) prior to the explosion.
We had one Drill execute an almost perfect pile-driver on a kid who threw worse than most of the girls. The Drill actually picked the kid up before throwing him into the pit and jumping in elbow and knee first.
The grenade pits at Ft. Ord in 1970 had about four foot walls, but also had a six inch wide sump 3-4 feet deep inside the same U-shape of the walls. We were told in this event if one got away, just kick it into the sump and hug the ground. Ft. Sill needs to upgrade, IMO.
Irregardless, Cool Hand Jon it is, and a Soldiers Medal, or somebody is an idiot.
Well frickin’ done, Brother!
I was cadre on Malone 1 (Fort Benning’s grenade range) for 7 or 8 months in 2007. I’ve seen some “oh shit” moments there but nothing like this. Reading this article got my heart pounding because I can all too well imagine this with some of the noodle-armed privates that came through there
Pull grenade, throw pin. Ohh shit I got that…