This is what it's like to get shot, as told by a Marine veteran

In a shockingly honest and almost surreal post on Reddit, Marine veteran Matt McElhinney detailed what exactly it felt like to be shot in combat. McElhinney was patrolling through Afghanistan in 2010 near a school when a Taliban bullet struck him just between his armor plate and Kevlar vest, ripping through his lower abdomen.

The post, submitted to Reddit on Wednesday evening, begins with McElhinney disclaiming that he "can't make you really understand the feeling in my body that day." Nevertheless, he goes on to recount the experience, saying at first the impact "feels like a sledge hammer hitting you in the back" and describing himself as a "mangled side of beef." Within 45 minutes of the shot, McElhinney was loaded onto a medevac helicopter:

McElhinney also describes the moment he realized he'd been shot, the unimaginable pain he felt, and the experience of watching his fellow Marines frantically tend to him. Read the full account, which he titled "Almost", here.

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