Have you ever been really scared?

[Marcus Aurelius]

My father was a tank commander in WWII. Landed on a beach in the South Pacific....20 yards up the beach the treads were blown off. That was the extent of his combat. Served what little was left of the war as an instructor.

My son was standing in an intersection in Iraq for hours. Was relieved and later found out there was a 700lb IED buried where he was standing. The guys that relieved him weren't as lucky.

[Bluntman]

Originally Posted by DFW5Traveler

I wasn't scared when I was standing in the open door of the airplane. My jump was in the middle of a Navy Seals jump team training session. I couldn't let a bunch of sailors show up a Marine. I got up and jumped. It wasn't until I was in mid air that I felt a wave of panic. Then the adreniline rush kicked in and the lessons I had just learned earlier got me back in the right frame of mind to start my altitude checks and to begin breathing again. Accelerated Free Fall is the only way to jump

Yeah I was with about 15 friends half of which were girls so once they jumped I had to jump since I couldnt back down in front of them. I also had that second of panic in the air when you realize you are way the fuck up in the air free falling but then you calm down and its a great ride. as for Marines and Seals they are in a whole different category from me, I have extreme respect for anyone in the service and know they have much bigger balls than me

[Guest083011]

Originally Posted by Marcus Aurelius

My son was standing in an intersection in Iraq for hours. Was relieved and later found out there was a 700lb IED buried where he was standing. The guys that relieved him weren't as lucky.

Friends' kids are serving or have served in the sandbox. You wish and pray they all make it back home safely. FWIW, The New York Times publishes the name of those killed every day. It is usually in pages A5 through A10. I had posted this to some facebook friends who were surprised that a paper, let alone The Times did it. I try to read the names if nothing else to honor what they have given up and to think of those that know them.

[Valerie]

When I was living in Nice, I went to a bar called "Waynes"...they had tequila shots for 2 euro that night, I ended up getting hammered (really wasn't trying to)..anyways I blacked out and I remember waking up on a couch, it was really dark and all I could hear was a few men speaking Italian, I think I was still half asleep and dreaming because for some reason I had the idea in my head that they were drug lords and were going to make me get on my knees and kill me....I remember my heart pounding, I was crying because all I could think of at the time was that I would never see my son again....So after about 45 minutes of me "waiting to die", a light came on, and some random Italian guy was asking if I was ok?...I then realized I had been half asleep and was in no danger, but I remember that feeling like it was yesterday, it was sooooo scary...

Apparently I met the Italian guys at a cafe after the French police had taken me there to sober up! And they said after a bit I just passed out, so they took me to their flat until I woke....I was lucky they were good guys though, or I could have been raped!

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by Longshot

The past 10 years or so, with Afghanistan & Iraq....I thought I'd see more replies involving those conflicts.

Two IED's (roadside bombs)....not really scared until the next day when I had time to think about it.....at the time, it's more like "holy shit"...then the shakes shortly after from the adrenaline dump.

Getting shot at just pisses me off.

IDF or Indirect Fire....as in rockets & mortars.....pretty scary. Worst is when you hear the distant, dull boom of the launch, followed by the whistling scream of the rocket....mixed in with the siren of the counter-battery radar that hopefully picked up the launch to at least give you a couple of seconds warning. Run or drop? Usually drop, unless there is a bunker or structure really close.....even then, there is no certainty you are going to get there before it hits. It's the utter randomness of where they impact that is most scary...it doesn't help being so close to the structure they are always aiming at. Their aim isn't that good....which increases the fear that wherever you are is a bad spot. Unfortunately, I've been through well over 100 IDF attacks.....anywhere from 1-5 per day for several months straight. Had a 107mm rocket impact 12 yards away....no cover, completely out in the open....I got low, but not quite low enough....still have a piece of shrapnel in my calf....not a very big piece luckily, but it still hurt like hell. Could have been so much worse.

Exploding rockets in the night do tend to keep you awake and thinking. I know. I only heard the explosions and never the launches; therefore, I never experienced that anxiety that comes with wondering if it was going to hit me. At such times, I guess, the old saw “that ignorance is bliss” is true. I am grateful that I only experienced two such rocket attacks while I was deployed. Two or three times, random shots were fired in our direction, but the attackers were always swiftly dealt with by perimeter security. Unmarked Russian land mines were our greatest concern; IEDs were still in the future.

I’ve been in car wrecks and had motorcycle accidents, but I was never seriously injured. They all happened so quickly that I never experienced anticipatory fear. I’ve had guns drawn on me several times. One was an instance of “road rage” that happened so long ago that that term was not even yet coined. As I and another guy jockeyed for a lane, the other guy pulled and waved a Satin Stainless S&W 357 in his window. I yielded. Jordanian soldiers once leveled their submachine guns on a buddy and me. They detained us when they discovered we had cameras in a camera restricted area. When it was finally established that we were basically tourists and not spies, they let us go. The Panamanian Defense Force, a team of five with M16s, stopped me and interrogated me for about half an hour one night in Panama City, Panama. They thought my driver’s license was expired. It wasn’t expired (some state, if not most, driver licenses for service personnel have an extended grace period while posted out of state or overseas), and eventually I was able to make them understand. Their English, my Spanish – not so good. I wasn’t arrested. The PDF, under Noriega, was known for its harsh treatment of U.S. service personnel.

My most intense moments of fear came to me in various oilfield jobs I had around the country. One time myself and another roust-about were tasked to place a 25T chain hoist to do some heavy lifting. On flat, level ground, either one of us could carry the chain hoist alone. But we had to carry the hoist 50 ft across an I-beam 40 ft above a concrete floor. My buddy carried the hoist cradled in his arms with the chains trailing over his shoulder towards me. Keeping about a three-foot interval, I gathered the trailing chains over my right shoulder, behind my neck and then back over my left shoulder so that I could keep the chains from swinging and/or tripping us up as we crossed the beam. If either one of us had slipped or tripped, we both would have fallen. Those were some anxious moments.

Then there were the times I worked in the Gulf. When seas were rough, and the swells were 10 to 15 ft in height, we couldn’t use the crane hoisted “basket” to transfer from the boat to the rig and vice versa. On such occasions the crew boat would be pitching, yawing, rising and falling, and we had to grab a swing-rope and swing onto the rig’s lower catwalk. If you grabbed the rope too low, you’d end up crashing into or, worse yet, under the catwalk to be caught by the next rising swell. It was even worse swinging from the rig onto the boat. Sitting astride a single 2” X 6” some 120 to 160 ft above Gulf water, watching water spouts (tornadoes) moving across the water or looking at a multitude of sharks and barracuda swimming beneath was just an exotic experience when I was painting exposed metal with marine paint. But when I was tasked to work with a welder, who shared my single 2” X 6” scaffold, and when I was subsequently shocked and burnt by the welder’s electrode, well, that was quite an experience: torture might be a better word. There was the time we, me and five others, laid on our stomachs and foisted a heliport safety fence into place. We laid the 4’ by 6’ section of fence near the edge of the structure, and then we all lay down and began pushing the fence out over the edge until we could line up the fence posts with the holding sockets. All of us had our arms fully extended in front of us to hold of the fence, and our arms and upper torsos extended beyond the edge of the heliport until we could get the post seated. Each of us knew there was nothing to stop one or two of us being dragged off and over the edge if the others were to accidently lose their grip. I never ceased to be amazed at the risks we, common labor, were exposed to in order to install safety equipment. I no longer do that kind of work, but I still have the greatest respect for those men and women so employed. They continue to deal with dangers such as these on a daily basis.

[DFW5Traveler]

When we hit the northern med around Christmas 88, we had waves breaking the flight deck of the LPH we were aboard. They called for 5 pointing the aircraft (five chains per tiedown loop of the aircraft). On an LPH there isn't enough hanger space for all of the aircraft, so some would always be on the flight deck. One of our crew cheifs was tying down aircraft while waves were breaking. A rogue wave topped an aircraft and the run off swept his feet out from under him pulling him over the side of the ship. Another wave crested the flight deck grabbing him placing him back on the deck. The next day he was going around to every maintenance shop shaking the hand of everyone he had worked with thanking God he was able to shake our hands. I could never imagine the terror he felt as he was swept over the side.

[NinaBrooke]

Originally Posted by DFW5Traveler

When we hit the northern med around Christmas 88, we had waves breaking the flight deck of the LPH we were aboard. They called for 5 pointing the aircraft (five chains per tiedown loop of the aircraft). On an LPH there isn't enough hanger space for all of the aircraft, so some would always be on the flight deck. One of our crew cheifs was tying down aircraft while waves were breaking. A rogue wave topped an aircraft and the run off swept his feet out from under him pulling him over the side of the ship. Another wave crested the flight deck grabbing him placing him back on the deck. The next day he was going around to every maintenance shop shaking the hand of everyone he had worked with thanking God he was able to shake our hands. I could never imagine the terror he felt as he was swept over the side.

my god. that must have been almost unbearable -.......

[charlestudor2005]

I was swimming off the beach in San Juan, PR, when I was about 12, my Dad on the shore in street clothes. Dad yelled, "Time to get out." I got caught in an undertow and couldn't swim to shore, but was still in over my head. From shore, Dad yelled at me to swim parallel to the shore. I did so until I was almost exhausted. When I turned toward shore, I had passed the undertow area. Finally made it to shore.

BTW, Dad did the right thing. You never go in after a foundering swimmer.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Your dad was smarter than me. I would have told you to swim parallel to shore and then I would have immediately jumped in after you.

[Marcus Aurelius]

I've too have been in situations where adrenaline slows things to a crawl. I fell off a motorcycle at night and I saw light stroke the chrome spokes ever so slowly, ever so lovingly as they rotated by.

I remember racing a car and one of the axles snapped sending me to the wall at an unknown god speed.

Then I was in the darkness of a thunderstorm on approach to land in Midwest America. The radar hissed a wisp of smoke. The auto pilot whimpers and disconnects with a clack. No problem. My hands react without my command. Eyes are in flow, training comes into focus. Everything flows throughout. Then several bright flashes. She bucks hard left, then right and then down. I can hear the wind rush by. I can feel the strain on the wings. My shoulders ache as we are slammed into our restraints. The clouds bark angrily, defiantly. As I try to maintain a flight attitude I glance right but everything is in slow motion. I stare at my first officer. Instead of panic the young buck is calm. The vision gets fuzzy momentarily as we are hammered by the storm. He looks my way and smiles. Gives me a thumbs up. I smile back and reach for my coffee. Then Urrrrrrr! She limps to the right.
The “AAAAAT- AAAAAT- AAAAAT” warning blares all around us. I can see the red flashing light silhouetted on my first officers face keeping in time with the warnings going off around us. A Fire warning.
“You can't be fucking serious.” I say to myself. (Right throttle back.) “I have the aircraft, get the checklist!”I command. Words radioed to the tower seem muffled. I think of all of the people in back. What to say. Not much time. The warnings cease with the retarded throttle. The FO dings the lead FA. (Flight Attendant) “Blah blah blah” he muffles.

Not much time to calm everyone over the PA (Public address). The checklist is read aloud and responded to in kind. She (Aircraft) whimpers and bucks continuously because of the turbulence. The storm is assaulting her but I grip harder and don't give up. Rain makes a strange sound when it hits at 200+ mph. Stranger still when everything is on the line.
I manage to say something calming to the people over the PA. Before we land the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles pulsate in the clouds.

Then on the solid runway the storm knows it's lost this one but it still manages to slam a thunderbolt nearby to demand a rematch. The remaining turbine slows as I retard the throttle. We smile and take a breath. Some of the passengers thank you on their way out. Most act as if nothing happened at all.
Another day done. Then reality sets in because in 8 and a half hours we will be at it again.

[FatBastard]

After my undergraduate degree, I entered the Navy and went UDT. I was in a lot of interesting situations that I was not sure I would get out of. After that, I was in Kuwait during the Gulf War capping wells when a snipers bullet richocheted off a well head and I caught a few pieces in the ribs. Standing knee deep in oil I chewed some Marine ass, but I can do that being former UDT. But the absolute scariest, most horrifying moment I have ever faced was when I was in the waiting room at Texas Childrens Hospital with my 6 year-old son who was being tested for cystic fibrosis and seeing and being around all of those very sick children. From that day forward, I have been and will continue to be, a generous supporter of that facility.

[ClairJordan]

I have been backed up against a wall more than once but fortunatly the way I am wired I do well under pressure. I can feel my emotions detaching and my brain becomes hyper aware and in the moment. It's that feeling of...o-kay.
There's a situation here!! Handle it. NOW.

Near death: hum. What comes right to mind is when I was body surfing off Kauai, Barking Sands Beach. There were four of us around the point in a cove when a huge set of waves came up. They usually come in sets of seven. After going under for 3 or 4 of them it became obvious that my girl friend and I were getting exhausted. The shore break was horrendous. What to do? We were with a couple of surfers who were really strong in the waves. They told us they were going to throw us in to the break; the second you feel sand, get up and run like hell. Do not let yourslf fall down. And that's what we did.

Whew! It was over quickly but that realization that you are in waaayyy over your head and yes, it's life or death: MOVE!

[lil_michelle]

I have a few times unfortunately... but nothing that should be shared here. However, it is weird how slow everything moves and how quickly your mind begins to think. In one incident it was my fear that saved me... I passed out cold and he thought I was dead and left. I have have always wondered why I passed out then when other times the terror caused me to fight like a momma bear... weird.

Thanks for the memories Darth... lol

[dtguy]

I can say that I have looked at death in face four distinct times in my life. Twice because I was in fights in bars (other people started them - happened decades ago), once because someone did something stupid that put my life at risk, and one very scary almost car wreak involving an icy road, small car & literally a Mack Truck.

I would go into more details but someone could guess my identity with enough details because I have told friends these stories.

[69er]

I found the stories here very interesting...

I've jumped from a plane, but only found it to be a big adrenaline rush. Not that scary... but that was probably because I did it the weekend before finals in my freshman year... If I died, wouldn't have to take the finals!

The item that really shook me, took place just over 15 years ago. I was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor that was damaging the optic nerves, and would have eventually made me blind, and was beginning to affect areas of my brain that control breathing. The choices before hand involved a lot of discussions with surgeons that were mostly about which is the best of the bad choices. The surgeon said that my chances of coming out without major impairments were a coin toss. I never really got scared until the morning of the surgery, when they came in to prep me for surgery. It suddenly all hit me at that very moment, I was terrified, I was shaking uncontrollably, yet felt totally detached... at which point they gave me some sedatives via IV. I awoke about a day later with a really bad haircut, and a scar on my head that made for a great Halloween Costume that year. I have only small impact to my peripheral vision. Modern medicine is a miracle!