Former Navy Seal reveals first thing he noticed after being shot in the face
A retired Seal lieutenant has recalled the horrifying moment he was shot in the face during an ambush in Iraq.
Jason Redman, who served more than two decades in the US Navy, was nearing the end of a deployment in Iraq when his team received intelligence about the location of a senior Al-Qaeda leader in the Anbar province.
What appeared to be a routine raid quickly turned into a devastating firefight after his team unknowingly walked into an ambush on 13 September, 2007.
“It hit me right in front of my ear, travelled through my face, took off my nose, blew out my right cheekbone, it broke all the bones above my eye, vapourized my orbital floor, broke the head of my jaw, shattered my jaw to my chin and it knocked me out,” Jason told LADbible’s Minutes With.
Advert
“The guy saw me fall and thought I was dead. And we don't know how long, I was probably unconscious, five or 10 minutes.”
Jason revealed that the entire gunfight lasted around 40 minutes.
“Fast forward to the hospital when I finally passed out and I didn't know if I was gonna wake up again. So when I woke up, I was elated. I tried to talk and just air came out and the nurse came up and was like, 'lieutenant, you're not gonna be able to talk',” he explained.
Unable to speak, Jason instead asked for something to write with.
"I wrote to my commanding officer, I said, 'Hey, are the guys okay?' And he said, 'Yeah'," he continued.
"I said, 'Okay, has my wife been notified?' He's like, 'Yes. I talked to her myself'."
Despite the severity of his injuries, he tried to lighten the mood: "I said, 'Okay, do I still look pretty?' And they were like, 'No,' they made fun of me."
Shortly after, Jason was transferred through several military hospitals while undergoing life-saving treatment.
He said he was moved from Baghdad to Balad before being flown to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and eventually to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Along the way, Jason underwent almost 40 reconstructive surgeries over four years before medically retiring from the Navy after completing 21 years of service, regaining the ability to speak during his recovery.
"I don't understand people that have been through combat or they lose somebody and they lose themselves and they allow grief to stop living and they're a shell of the person they used to be,” he added.
“I think we owe it to the people that are gone to be the best version of myself. I wanna be the elite version of Jason Redman. I got a second chance. And so many people don't get that.
"Bad things are gonna happen to all of us. That's the reality. Every one of us are gonna get hit by life ambushes. Every one of us are going to struggle... But the greatest gift you have as a human... is you have a choice."
Anish Vij