When Gen. Petraeus almost died

This fascinating tale is revealed by Michael Yon:

A couple weeks ago, LTC Fred Johnson told me a story about General
Petraeus. Back when LTC Johnson was Captain Johnson, and General Petraeus was
Colonel Petraeus, Colonel Petraeus was Captain Johnson’s new commander. They
were doing a live-fire exercise at a range at Fort Campbell when a young soldier
named Specialist Terrence Jones tripped and accidentally fired his weapon while
conducting a live-fire assault. The bullet from Specialist Jones’ weapon struck
Colonel Petraeus, slamming through his chest and taking a piece of his back on
the way out. Petraeus fell to the ground, bleeding out of his mouth. He nearly
died. We could have lost one of the most important and influential military
leaders in generations to a mistake. To a professional misstep.
The best that
Captain Johnson and Specialist Jones might have hoped for was a painless end to
their military service. I asked LTC Fred Johnson about the story of his own
soldier shooting David Petraeus, and I asked how it could be that Johnson was
still in the military. Johnson looked me in the eye and said something like,
“Mike. You know what Petraeus did?”
“What?” I asked.
“He gave me a second
chance.”

What a great story! And we might have lost the one guy who seems to be winning this war.

And Opinion Journal has an aftermath. Read how a future Senate majority Leader operated on the future general!