Posts Tagged ‘inventor’

They say what you don’t know can’t hurt you. But that didn’t quite prove true for Monty Reed.

In 1986, Reed was conducting night parachute training as a member of the U.S. Army Rangers. Suddenly one of the other jumpers glided too close, coming underneath Reed and cutting off the flow of air to his chute. The chute collapsed about 100 feet from the ground and Reed plummeted to earth.

After the impact, Reed had trouble breathing, but the worst pain was in his broken ankle. He managed to wrap some tape around it, get to his feet, and grab his gear. Rangers are taught to suck it up and keep going, and that’s what Reed did. He walked eight miles to the helicopter.

The next morning Reed couldn’t move. What he didn’t know when he made that eight-mile walk was that he hadn’t just broken his ankle. He’d also broken his back in five places. Doctors told him that walk to the helicopter was likely the last walk he’d ever make.

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