Video footage of US Medic being shot by sniper

Link to the Army time Article. Amazing video footage, hooray for SAPI plates!

Armytimes Article

During a routine patrol in Baghdad June 2, Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was filmed by the insurgents.

Tschiderer, with E Troop, 101st “Saber” Cavalry Division, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was knocked to the ground from the impact, but he popped right back up, took cover and located the enemy’s position.

After tracking down the now-wounded sniper with a team from B Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade, Tschiderer secured the terrorist with a pair of handcuffs and gave medical aid to the terrorist who’d tried to kill him just minutes before.



[Edited on Jul 16, 2005 by GhettoBlaster]

INCREDIBLE. I knew those things had to be worth the extra weight carrying them around.

luckily I never had to test their effectiveness.

you gonna post this in the military group?

I cannot view the video with Windows Media Player 10, current version. Suggestions, anyone?

Sure thing. I like to let these kinds of stories simmer a little in gen pop first though. I have article from defense review about Pinnacle's "Dragon Skin" armor and its effectiveness I'll post too as soon as I fact check it a little more.

It's essentially an AAR from a PSD who got blasted with 7.62x39 API in the back with it on.

Another link to video

Reminds me of that scene in Three Kings.

Just out of curiosity, how easily identifiable are Medics in contrast with the other soldiers in uniform

medics in past conflicts used to wear white armbands with red crosses on their arms and helmets as not to be targeted by the enemy...it doesn't apply in this conflict.

If everyone on the planet were this awesome, we would have no war.

I don't think the insurgents who shot the soldier knew he was a or targeted him because he was a medic. Just wrong place wrong time kinda randomness. Medics are not easily identifiable. Not that it really matters Medics seem to have been fair game all along unfortunately.

somehow i doubt that insurgent snipers would care very much if they knew it was a medic.

our corpsman rejected being issued the cooler M4 rifles over the regular M16A4 rifles because it seemed that people who carried M4's (corpsmen, officers, platoon sgt's etc.) were recieving a higher volume of fire. most of the time there was no way at all to distinguish a corpsman from the regular grunts unless he was carrying his big ass medical kit.

How right you are.
After all, an infidel is an infidel - no matter what their job is.

That was amazing video footage.

Yep, I will add that wearing a white cross only helps if your not fighting animals.

I had a relative that was a medic in the Pacific campain during WWII and he said the Japanese would target medics. He landed on some island (One the famous campains) and of the 36 guys in his medical group, only 3 lived. The rest were targeted because of their white and red cross helmets.
After being in combat for about 20 days, he said he would not fix up Japanese's if they caught them alive but wounded. He was kinda pissed they targeted medics.

Okay, finally saw it, and I have to say that was truly pathetic shooting. He had more than enough time to get off a second shot on the soldier before the soldier made cover. I wonder if he was trying to avoid revealing his position.

Musings on marksmen aside, Horray for body armor, quick witted medics, and sound training.

i wonder what they're saying, it almost sounds like the guy is praying for kill on the soldier with that allah mantra he's doing.

also this is a physics question i guess but how come you hear the shot noticeably before the guy falls down, it's almost like he get's shot stands around, falls and get's back up instead of being knocked of his feet.

allah ackbar (sp) = "god is great"

It's a ritual blessing. Something you would say if you wanted Allah's blessing, such as if you were in danger, about to die, or going into combat..

I could be wrong, but I believe that it's ideally the last thing a good Muslim says before they die.

[Edited on Jul 17, 2005 by Keith]

Just amazing.

Just a bad rip of the video. The sound doesnt match up exactly.

i should have thought of that

This sounds like a SVD Dragunov sniping ... the video/oberserver guy says "I have the target... hit him" the sniper says "God is great" numerous times while he cleans up the hide... the casing is heard coming down a good distance away. The observer says "Is he struck?" The sniper says "No he's not..."


Pathetic shooting? He did hit this guy square in the chest. A buddy of mine saw this guys chest, the SAPI was one of the lower quality ones and there was massive back face deformation of the plate.

The sniper team was busy trying to get out of dodge rather than get a follow up shot. If it had been a high priority target they would have employed two teams or more that would shoot at the same time or stayed for a follow up shot. But this is indescriminate harrasement/morale damage.

Snipers don't stick around long after they shoot if they want to live.

On another forum I saw this on a guy commented that the accents were probably Saudi or the gulf states he said he studied Arabic for 4 years and lived in Rydail for 5

All I heard was Allahu Akbar over and over again, which is 'God is great' or something very similar.

And as for getting shot, I'd offer that if they were using a slower round and the camera was right next to the gun you would here the shot immediately and not see the visible impact until a moment later.

And the soldier's reaction may have been a combination of being struck by the rifle round and automatically going limp in response to being suddenly struck with great and unexpected force.

Good point. My thinking ran that they would have been better served taking a follow up shot, as from the soldiers reaction he seemed to have a good idea of where the shot was coming from.

And I really don't know what I'm talking about, here.