Army Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell was burned on more than 60% of his body, yet he survived, returning to the Pentagon today to share his experiences with a packed auditorium.
From the Department of Defense:
While lying on the floor after the explosion, waiting to die, “Instead of hearing ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” all I got was just more well done,” he joked.
But the humor was no cover for the emotion in his voice when he earlier described lying in the darkness and screaming to Jesus, saying “I’m coming to see you.”
Birdwell said the blast was not like those pictured in Hollywood movies, in which characters are able to see a ball of flame coming toward them and make a conscious decision to evade its blast.
“There was just that nanosecond between hearing the sound and then the concussion, the blast, the fire,” Birdwell said. “I was tossed around like rag doll. The next thing I know is I’m trying to get up. It’s black except for the ambient light of fires. I’m on fire. I got to my knees once.”
After the blast, unable to stand and unsure of which direction in the darkness to take, Birdwell said he collapsed to the floor and waited for “that feeling of the soul departing the body.”
“It didn’t come. I was like ‘Okay, Lord, I’m still waiting. I’m ready,” he said.
Instead, Birdwell said he started feeling cold water dripping on his face. It was coming from the sprinkler system and extinguished the fire on his body.
To what does he attribute his survival?
“An 80-ton, 757 came through at 530 miles an hour with 3,000 pounds of jet fuel and I’m still here and the plane isn’t,” Birdwell said. “You don’t survive that because the Army made you tough. You survive it because the Lord’s got something else in mind for you.”
HT to Free Republic.
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