AARP Hearing Center
Troops have always carried personal items and keepsakes in battle. Occasionally, one of these will intervene to save a warrior’s life.
Getty Images/AARP
You can subscribe here to AARP Veteran Report, a free e-newsletter published every two weeks. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.
Recently, a Samsung Galaxy saved a soldier in Ukraine when a 7.62mm round hit his upper thigh and embedded itself in the smartphone in his pocket.
Whether such incidents are down to fate, chance or some higher power is hotly debated.
Here are 23 other random objects that stopped bullets in wartime:
1. Zippo lighter
Capt. Harold Fritz felt a blow to his chest while charging the enemy at Quan Loi in 1969. The next day, he found that his Zippo lighter — a gift from his wife — in his breast pocket had been hit by a bullet that would have killed him. Fritz was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery; his wife earned his undying gratitude.
2. Coin
Confederate soldier Lt. George Dixon was hit by a musket round during the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. The bullet ricocheted off a $20 double eagle gold coin in his pocket. Dixon died in the submarine CSS H.L. Hunley when it sank in 1864. When the Hunley was raised in 2000, a bent $20 coin was recovered with Dixon’s skeleton. On it was engraved: “My Life Preserver.”
3. Bully beef
In Italy in 1943, 2nd Lt. Farley Mowat was hit by a volley of rounds from a Schmeisser submachine gun and thrown to the ground. The Canadian was uninjured because the bullets had lodged in the cans of bully beef in the pack he was carrying.
4. Cigarette case
Smoking can be good for you. 2nd Lt. William Lytle was saved by a silver cigarette case in his tunic during World War I. The case had been given to the British officer by his wife when they married in 1916.
5. Bible
Trust in the Lord? In 1944, Pfc. John Lewis Pitts of Mississippi was hit in the chest by a German bullet and knocked backward. He found the round embedded in his military-issue New Testament, in his breast pocket. It had stopped on the 91st Psalm, which says, “Under his wings shall thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
6. Spoon
During the Battle of Antietam in 1862, Union soldier Pvt. David Stevens was saved when a spoon in his haversack deflected a bullet about to enter his chest.
7. Belt buckle
The life of William Catlin, who served with the U.S. Colored Troops during the American Civil War, was apparently saved by his belt buckle, which deflected a bullet. His great-granddaughter found the buckle during a house cleanup more than a century later.
