On April 6, 2007, Navy SEAL CPO Mike Day was the lead man of a raid against an al Qaeda cell that had been attacking US troops in Iraq’s Anbar province.
As Day breached the door, a barrage of gunfire hit his rifle, knocking it out of his hands. He immediately transitioned to his pistol and killed one insurgent as he fell to the ground next to the dead terrorist.
As a second insurgent pulled the pin on a grenade and ran toward him. Day shot him. The insurgent dropped dead. The grenade exploded not far from Day, rendering him unconscious and peppering him with shrapnel.
He regained consciousness and killed 2 more insurgents with his pistol.
More terrorists returned fire from approximately 10 feet away with AK-47 rifles. One of the rounds hit the bottom of Day’s magazine well, blowing the grips off the pistol and causing a malfunction. He cleared the malfunction and reengaged the insurgents, killing them both.
Day rounded up three Iraqi scouts who had been unable to get out of the target building. He directed one to cover the front door, a second to guard the women and children they had located another room.
Day’s team cleared the target building and when they got to him, he had been shot 27 times.
Day had taken 16 gunshot wounds to his body — both legs, arms, abdomen, buttocks, and scrotum. He was shot 11 times in his body armor. He had also taken a lot of shrapnel from the grenade the terrorist set off in the room. His team called in a MEDEVAC helicopter right away.
Day walked to the helicopter without any assistance. “I wasn’t being macho, but I was afraid if they picked me up, it would just hurt more,” he said.
He was then flown out to Baghdad where medical teams stabilized him overnight.
Despite the severe injuries, he would survive and would receive the Silver Star for his actions.