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Dodging Bullets |
THE MYTH: A young Pentecostal man is stationed in Iraq. One day, as he patrols a dangerous area, he comes under sniper fire. One of the bullets comes right toward him, but, as it reaches him, it curves around his body and continues on its way, leaving him completely unharmed. VARIATIONS: This story often varies in certain details, such as where exactly the young man is stationed. Occasionally, the young man is actually a missionary preaching the gospel in some dangerous area of the world. COMMENTS: This is a story that has been around for decades. In the earlier versions of the story, the young man was serving in Germany during World War II or in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Recently, the popularity of this myth has surged again, this time placing the Pentecostal soldier in Iraq.
But this story is nonsense in any war. Bullets travel at more than 1,000 feet per second--much too fast for their path to be detected by the human eye. So even if this event had actually occurred . . . how would anyone know?
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