iPod takes bullet for soldier
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 5th 2007 6:36PM
posted April 5th 2007 6:36PM
Kevin Garrad of the 3rd Infantry Division looks to have gotten a little assistance from an unexpected source while on a street patrol in Iraq recently, when the iPod in his pocket got in the path of a bullet fired at close range, slowing it down enough that it didn't pierce his body armor. As if that wasn't a rare enough occurrence, as you can see above, the iPod in question was an HP iPod -- imagine the odds! [Via Digg]
This reminds me of a story from the first Gulf war about a Gameboy (this was back in the days of the original GB) that was in a tent which burned down. After the fire the soldier found the Gameboy and the case was melted and the screen broken but he flipped the power switch and it still turned on and beeped.
I know Nintendo replaced the Gameboy but I am not sure if anything else was given to the soldier or not.
The gameboy noted is actually on display at Nintendo World in NYC--yes, it is in pretty bad shape, but work it does.
I agree, regardless of what the back of the iPod looks like, it would have done virtually nothing to slow or deform an AK47 round.
Last summer we shot up an old bogey wheel out of one of our excavators with a .270 Remington and my .303 British (to test which penetrated deeper... I lost, the .270 won hands down).... both rifle rounds made half to full inch deep craters in the 2 inch thick steel; and that was with regular soft tip hunting rounds.
A fun test would be to see how many iPods or Zunes lined up in a row it would take to stop an AK47 round! Ha!
I agree with the previous people saying that this was probably some
immature prank to see how far it would go. Apparently, its causing
quite an impact at Engadget and if that guy reads this site, he
probably thinks he is a genius at accomplishing this. If Apple does
decide to give the guy something, it would probably be to make them
look good, "oh, we support the war, we're glad you took a bullet for
us, here's an ipod, a 1000 dollars, and a woman while we're at
it.""idle mind is the devil's playground" or something like that
All Zunes ever sold?
Dont be a Zune hater. After all, they are giving you all the songs purchased on itunes through urge for free. And there are hacks out there for the songs through wireless exchange, allowing you to actually keep the song instead of purchasing it in 3 days.
I bet a zune could stop a friggen rpg
Amazing !!! that guys was lucky !! it the same thing with that picture who is a macbook pro with a bullet : http://www.evenmobile.com/index.php/2007/02/27/350-le-macbook-a-l-epreuve-des-balles
Why the heck does he have an iPod on patrol? Convoy security, sure; but foot patrol? Your ability to hear is very important while on foot patrol. Geez! Only the Army ...
Now we finally know what the ipod killer is... A bullet!
iPOD: "Bullets! My only weakness..."
...but does it still work?
Mark Lord - you get the address, you get the iPod and I will FILL IT UP with music! Sounds like a great idea, Mark!!
It's a wonder the battery didn't get punctured and have the guy bursting into flames.
"Dr Chaos @ Apr 6th 2007 3:21AM
I bet a zune could stop a friggen rpg"
What role playing game did you have in mind?
I think he meant: RPG rocket propelled grenade.
Or RPG Rectal Polyp Gangrene... either way, both bad.
screw "Will it blend" let's see "will it stop bullets"
Matt, you are a jackass for arguing with a whimiscal article and interesting photograph. Go back to work.
Ipod users don't paid enough attention to the "details",where a details is to be stolent in the subway or/and to be shooted by a enemy.
Anyways, the armor stopped the bullets, not the ipod. You can see in the photo that the ipod did nothing, in fact the cheap component really helped to stop the fragmentation (it's not the same to shoot at a metalic surface rather a plastic one).
holy crap.....im carrying my ipod more now
in reality all the ipod did was probly slow it down and distort it liek someone else said, the second a bullet its a object it can throw off the trajectory big time even the smallest thign as a tree branch can throw bullets off which is why mullets can travel down walls sometimes which is why they tell you not to stand aginst them and chances are it was a 7.62mm round for a ak47 and when this event occurred it was when troops are now equipped with the interceptor body armor aka IBA which can stop a ak round the stuff from teh vietnam war was more ment for explosives and grenades since the vietcong used guerilla tactics since they knoew they couldnt win force to force