IPod Didn’t Save Soldier’s Life — And It Was An HP Model
5:10 pm, April 8th, 2007, Pete Mortensen
Everyone is loving the story of the iPod that allegedly saved the life of U.S. Infantryman Kevin Garrad in Tikrit (read more at Gadget Lab). Though it seems like the perfect story, there is actually more to this tale than you might assume. First of all, the iPod didn’t save his life. His body armor did. And it isn’t even an Apple model. Click through for the rest of the story.
From Havana Lion:
The armor stopped the bullet.
The iPod was how Kevin Garrad found out he was shot. This is the real story.
Kevin said he got into the fight with the insurgent and afterwards he did not know he was even shot. He said he returned to his bunk after the patrol, put on his earbuds and began to clean his weapon.He said: “you get into a ritual out there.”
No music came on. He dug around in the pockets where he kept the iPod and pulled out the twisted hunk of metal that is in the pictures. He said that was how he found out that he had been shot during the fight. He was happy that his armor worked.
I’ve been surprised that Apple has gotten all of the press on this, as well, because this model came out during the very brief era when HP was selling iPods themselves, logo and all. I’m not surprised that Apple is taking advantage of this opportunity, including shipping Kevin a new iPod, but I am surprised HP hasn’t gotten in on the press push. After all — they sold the amazing machine, not Apple.
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Hardware Hacks | Comment on this article
Ummmm. Well, HP doesn’t sell iPods anymore and I doubt they really want to remind people that they did. Just because HP sold ‘the amazing machine’ (that Apple designed/built) doesn’t mean the story all of a sudden becomes about HP (any more than it should be about Best Buy or Amazon or wherever the guy purchased the iPod).
And as to whether the iPod saved his life, I think the gist of the story is that it helped save his life. No real way to know whether that particular bullet was gonna make it through the body armor (which happens often enough) had it not been slowed/flattened by going through the iPod first.
Kevin, on April 9th, 2007 at 9:56 am