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iPod saves soldier, but now won't show up in iTunes (Updated!!!)

iPod not good at life-saving after all, but the pictures are still damn cool.

Oh man! What a scary-cool picture. U.S. Army soldier Kevin Garrad got some help from his iPod in Iraq. An AK-47 round, shot at point blank range, could (possibly) go right through most body armor. Garrad's iPod took the brunt of this bullet and slowed in down, his vest stopped it completely.

Here's the description by tikigod on Flickr:

Kevin Garrad (3rd Infantry Division) was on a street patrol in Iraq (Tikrit I believe) and as he rounded the corner of a building an armed (AK-47) insurgent came from the other side. The two of them were within just a few feet of each other when they opened fire. The insurgent was killed and Kevin was hit in the left chest where his IPod was in his jacket pocket. It slowed the bullet down enough that it did not completely penetrate his body armor.

What are the obvious jokes to be made?

    - I hope he's still in warranty. Oh wait, Apple will say it was misuse.
    - He must have a lot of heavy metal music on it.
    - I hope he backed up his music library on his computer.
    - If a bullet can find his iPod, why can't iTunes find mine.

You can see the pictures on Flickr here.

[via iLounge]
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Updated April 9th, 2007

Okay, there were some comments here and there around the web. Some saying "the iPod saved his life" (like our title, so that's our bad) which was misleading. Others saying "you can't carry an iPod on the outside of the jacket" which doesn't sound right to me (a US soldier can carry an iPod where ever they want!!!!!). But there was a clarification that seems to be most credible, so in the name of journalistic integrity (note to self: look that up on Wikipedia) we're referencing Nik Wilets’ blog here:

I talked to Kevin Garrad this afternoon and here’s the story firsthand:

The armor stopped the bullet.

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. 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. He said the upgraded armor he was wearing could stop the AK-47 round. It was not the newest armor that is in Iraq now, but it was an upgrade.

So there you have it folks. The iPod didn't do anything special. But 2 pieces of decent equipment will keep your troops alive and rockin'. [cue music: Pearl Jam "Alive"]