Young soldier takes not one but two bullets in same week
John McClellan’s buddies call him lucky.
His mom looks above and thanks a higher power for her son’s relative well being. 2/3
http://www.showmenews.com/2005/Oct/20051030Feat003.asp
By TONY MESSENGER
Published Sunday, October 30, 2005
John McClellan’s buddies call him lucky.
His mom looks above and thanks a higher power for her son’s relative well being.
McClellan is a soldier. Surely, he’s become a man in the past year but still, all things considered, he’s just a boy.
He’s 19 years old, barely a year removed from his high school graduation. He’s a Marine now, fighting for his country in the rocky and violent hills of Afghanistan.
He’s lucky, his fellow Marine grunts say, because twice this month, he’s been shot.
Twice, he’s escaped with his life. Twice, his mother, Connie, has thanked God for his grace.
McClellan became quite the celebrity this week when his story graced the pages of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.
"Shot twice in a week, Marine dubbed ‘Lucky,’ " the headline reads in Wednesday’s edition.
Mom carries the article around proudly. She remembers when her son was 17, and she received the call that he was going to be a Marine.
Unbeknownst to her and her husband, Carl, McClellan had gone to the local recruiting office and told of his intention to become a Marine. He was just a junior at Hickman. He was not old enough to enlist by himself, so the recruiter called his home to talk to mom and dad.
Connie McClellan remembers seeing the caller ID of the "U.S. Government" and thinking briefly that the Internal Revenue Service was calling.
Oh, no, she thought. Not an audit.
On the other side of the phone was a soldier telling her that her son wanted to be a Marine.
She asked her son about it, and he told her he didn’t have a problem fighting for his country, she remembers.
"It was one of a mother’s most wonderful moments," she says. "I thought it might be a good thing for him. I thought he really wanted something … to have a purpose."
Her husband, a Vietnam veteran who was a Green Beret, was more fearful. He knew the perils of war.
Those perils were driven home this week in a nation that paused to recognize passing of a significant milestone in the war in Iraq. Two-thousand American servicemen and women have died fighting to free a country from the clutches of the murderous Saddam Hussein. In the meantime, the McClellans are thankful that their son dodged a bullet not once, but twice.
The first shot came on Oct. 11. McClellan, a lance corporal machine gunner with Company E, 2nd Battalion, was out with his crew checking for roadside bombs in Kunar province. His convoy came under fire and for five minutes or so, they engaged in a battle. Another Marine was critically injured.
When the firefight was over, according to the Stars and Stripes article, McClellan checked his body for wounds and found his right wrist bleeding. A day later, he underwent surgery. Less than a week later, he was back out in the field when his convoy took fire again.
This time, McClellan took a bullet to the shoulder.
"The only reason I knew I got hit was because I felt pressure on my arm and heard a ‘tink’ on the back of the turret shield. I yelled, ‘I got hit. I think I’m hit.’ I look at the back of my arm, and blood’s running down," McClellan told the military newspaper. After assessing his injury, he got back into the fight. "I grabbed my M-16 and started shooting. I figured the enemy is not going to stop firing just because I’m shot."
Back home, his mom wasn’t sure to believe him when he called and said he had been shot again.
"He’s just a kidder," she says of her son. But indeed, the story was true. The second bullet went in and out of his shoulder without causing any serious damage. She’s matter of fact about his ability to dodge the bullet of death.
"It was a miracle," she says. "It’s a testimony to all the people who are praying for him."
Her faith is strong, Connie McClellan says, and it’s why she’s able to keep up on the news in Iraq and Afghanistan without constantly worrying about her son’s safety. Knowing as the death toll rises that her son has survived two bullets only makes her faith stronger.
"The peace I’ve had through this whole thing is what gets me through," she says.
John McClellan is scheduled to return stateside in January. His two Purple Hearts might keep him out of further combat duty, though he tells Stars and Stripes he’s ready to get back out with his unit.
Whether he’s lucky or blessed, he’s still alive.
That’s all that matters to his mom.