SOF Operator Shot 3 Times

About this video

A Special Operations Forces operator recounts a firefight in Afghanistan where he and a small team fought through an ambush to rescue a wounded Afghan soldier. The guest describes being shot three times by a PKM machine gun—in the leg, shoulder/back, and buttock—while attempting to drag the wounded Afghan out of the kill zone. Despite severe injuries and intense pain, he continued fighting until other team members could help extract them, and he later bled out and crashed on the operating table multiple times.

Key takeaways

• The guest emphasizes that winning in combat requires accepting calculated risk rather than only trying to mitigate it, arguing that excessive risk mitigation leads to stalemate.
• The operator was shot three times by PKM rounds during a close-range firefight (approximately 15 meters), with the shoulder wound severing an artery and damaging nerves, causing him to bleed out later.
• The guest describes maintaining combat effectiveness despite severe injuries, continuing to engage the enemy and attempt the rescue even after being wounded, though he ultimately needed assistance to complete the extraction.

Episode details: published June 12, 2025 · 10.4K views · 8:17 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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