Wounded soldier says "the world was put on pause"

Wounded soldier recalls the moment 'the world was put on pause'
BY STEVEN MAYER
Californian staff writer
December 15, 2012

He remembers his 10-man platoon was in "an old corn field, hunkered down in the half-flooded furrows."

He could hear in the distance the sound of small arms fire and the distinctive "womp, then the BANG of impact" of rocket-propelled grenades.

Originally hailing from Bakersfield, 1st Lt. Samuel Van Kopp had graduated from the Army's elite West Point academy two years before. Now he was a leader of men -- a platoon leader -- "hunkered down" somewhere in Afghanistan. It was Sept. 26, 2012.

"I hesitate (to tell this story) only because I fear my recollections give the impression of the 26th being an unusual event, like the battle scene in some old movie," he wrote in an email.

But it wasn't unusual at all, said Van Kopp, who turned 25 on Friday. On the contrary, being engaged by the enemy -- a polite term for taking lethal mortar fire, pot shots from hidden machine gunners or threats from improvised explosive devices -- was almost an everyday occurrence.

Once or twice a month, Van Kopp said, his crew would share what he called a "communal 'near-death experience'" that shook people up.

"I'm not talking about striking an IED in a vehicle -- that's a 'non-serious engagement' because though people get concussions, the gunner might get bruised up a bit and it's all very exciting, and certainly the vehicle is rendered non-mission capable for a bit, no one dies or is in danger of dying from the blast alone.

"A 'near-death experience firefight,'" he continued, "is one that starts as an ambush, when by all rights you should have died, when you can literally see the 7.62 rounds ricocheting off the mud brick in front of you, when a mortar round or RPG with your name on it rams into the hill right next to you, when you run like hell to the nearest cover."

Unfortunately for Van Kopp and his men, Sept. 26 would turn into that kind of day -- and worse.
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