'Me? I got lucky. I took it in the back, Hunter took it in the gut, but for either of us, it could have been worse,' John Gabrysiak said.
"Me? I got lucky. I took it in the back, Hunter took it in the gut, but for either of us, it could have been worse," Defense Contractor who was injured in Operation Epic Fury, John Gabrysiak said.A few retirements later, he became a technical advisor for Lockheed Martin, contracting with the Department of Defense.
"The five of us, our team, we've all worked together on different projects here and there," Gabrysiak said. "When they put all five of us together, we just went."He said taking the job was a no-brainer once he learned Girdner was going.Little did the team of five know that the base they were positioned next to would take direct enemy fire. "We knew it was a possibility, but it wasn't something that was on the front of our minds," Gabrysiak said. "When the first missile came in, reality settled in, and it's like, crap, it's hitting the fan.""They said, 20 minutes. Yeah, we got maybe five," Gabrysiak said."Unfortunately for us, we can't be in the shelters and keep an eye on the system at the same time," Gabrysiak said. "We are actually out there monitoring, keeping track, making sure things don't go down so that we can continue to launch intercept missiles and protect the rest of the base, and that because we're the defense.""When the radar finally got hit, we went out there, and we saw there was nothing more we could do," Gabrysiak said."We were running as fast as we could," Gabrysiak said. "The missiles, they just kept coming in.""I heard the explosion, and all I know is I felt something hit me in my shoulder," Gabrysiak said. "My shoulder was on fire, totally numb. It knocked me to the ground." Shrapnel was working its way through his shoulder, his muscle burning him from the inside out, and shattering his bones."Girdner may have stopped to check on me, I don't know," Gabrysiak said."We were going to make it there, or we weren't gonna make it there at all. It didn't matter. I wasn't gonna leave him," Girdner said."I just feel like my inside just got ripped apart, like somebody just grabbed my rib cage and flayed me open," Girdner said. "The sheer amount of pressure that felt like it hit me." Even with Girdner's organs hanging out and Gabrysiak's shoulder on fire, the two made it out alive, along with the rest of their team."Girdner said he doesn't blame me, and I try not to blame myself," Gabrysiak said. "It still hurts to think that if he hadn't stopped, maybe he would have been okay, but then again, maybe he wouldn't still." "I'm glad I'm the one who had it the worst, because I would not want them to go through any of it," Girdner said. The truth is, no one knows how else that night could have turned out. All Gabrysiak knew was that when Girdner called him after they had made it home, asking for support in Florida this weekend, it was yet again another no-brainer. "When I got home, Hunter called me up, and he's like, 'Hey, they're doing this thing in Florida for me. 'I don't want to do it alone, and I told him I'll be there," Gabrysiak said. "I didn't think about saying no, I was in pain and all that, but I was like, 'I will be there for you, because you were there for me."It was an event that reminded Gabrysiak of the sacrifices made. One he'd do again and believes his team would too. "It's hard. I usually don't get emotional about anything," Gabrysiak said. "Just talking about this always right now brings me to tears. "It's just incredible how five guys who knew each other were good comrades," he added. "The things we did were so beyond what we needed to do."BE THE FIRST TO COMMENTOhio State got its resume win two weeks ago against Purdue, then won three straight games to step off the NCAA Tournament bubble. The only suspense left duringTeenager in custody after fleeing traffic stop, 2 victims identified A teenager is in custody following a crash that killed two people who were identified Sunday.Columbus police say the teen was fleeing from officers who had trieA man died after he was struck by an SUV on Columbus' north side late Sunday night.Abduallahi Farah was crossing Cleveland Avenue north of Green Apple Avenue ou'I love you. I feel kinda weird. I don’t know what to expect tomorrow. You’ve never done anything like this for me before.'
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