When Chief Petty Officer Douglas “Mike” Day entered a tiny room in a raid on high-level al Qaeda militants in Iraq’s Anbar province, a bullet slammed into his body armor from less than 10 feet away.
“After I realized that I actually was getting shot, my second thought was, ‘God get me home to my girls, and then extreme anger,” Day told Fox News. “Then I just went to work. It was muscle memory. I just did what I was trained to do.”
But the bullets kept coming, and Day’s armor couldn’t stop them all. The enemy rounds eventually tore through every part of Day’s body, including his abdomen, all of his limbs, his groin, and his buttocks. Even the bullets that were stopped by his body armor damaged his ribs and lungs.
By the time that day was over — April 6, 2007 — Day had been shot 16 times from a distance of within 10 feet, not counting the 11 rounds stopped by his body armor. He also suffered grenade shrapnel wounds that knocked him unconscious.
Related: UNSUNG HEROES: This SEAL kept fighting after getting shot 27 times.
In this original comic, Task & Purpose presents Day’s incredible story of survival.
