Joe Exclamation
The world is so big and has such an extensive history, that it’s easy for some amazing people to pass completely unnoticed. So here’s a list of history’s most badass people!
1) Roy Benavidez
After having recovered from stepping on a land mine in Vietnam, this U.S. Master Sergeant, heard the cry of help on the radio, from a 12 man Special Forces patrol surrounded by an enemy battalion of one thousand men. He jumped from a helicopter with only a knife and a medkit and managed to save 8 of his comrades. However, during the 6 hour rescue mission, he was stabbed and slashed with a bayonet, sustained seven major gunshot wounds and a collapsed lung. He looked so bad that the doctor was about to zip up his body bag and leave him for dead, when the Sergeant spat in his face; all he could do to prove he was still alive. After almost a year in hospitals recovering from his severe wounds he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
2) Simo Hayha
He was a Finnish sniper known as “White Death”. He killed 505 men during the Winter War, the highest amount in history, most of them in temperatures below −40 °F. His enemies targeted him as their main priority and tried to kill him several times, until in 1940 he was seriously wounded when hit in the face by an exploding bullet. He regained consciousness on the day peace was declared and made a full recovery several years later.
3) Juliane Koepcke
When she was 17, Juliane and her mother were their way to visit her father when their plane was struck by lightning and ripped to pieces in mid-flight, tumbling down into the Peruvian rainforest. Amazingly, she was the sole survivor sustaining only a broken collarbone, a gash to her right arm, and her right eye was swollen shut. After finding her mother had not had such luck, she headed out into the jungle with the only food she could find; some sweets. Following her father’s advice she waded into a nearby river and let herself be taken downstream, a natural path through the rainforest’s dense vegetation. After 9 days she found a boat, cured her arm of maggots using some gasoline and waited fro the owner to show up.
4) Hugh Glass
This 19th century explorer, was attacked by a bear in 1823, and he survived defending himself with a knife, but was severely injured. His group carried him for two days before leaving him for dead, taking his rifle and knife and covered him with the fur of the bear he had killed, like a shroud. When Glass regained consciousness he robed himself with the fur, set the bone of his broken leg and allowed maggots to eat the dead, infected flesh in his wounds. He began crawling the 200 mile trek back to Fort Kiowa, before fashioning a raft and floating downstream for six weeks.
5) Shavarsh Karapetyan
The ten-time fin-swimming World Record-breaker, had just finished swimming 20km in Yerevan Lake in 1976, when a trolleybus on the dam wall crashed and plummeted into the lake. It quickly sank 10 meters to the bottom by the time he arrived, and smashed the back window with his feet. He managed to rescue 20 people from the crash before passing out himself. The combined effect of cold water and lacerations from glass shards infected with sepsis due to the presence of raw sewage, left him unconscious for 45 days and was the end of his career. However, in 1985, he saw a burning building with people trapped inside and didn’t hesitate to pull them out, once again, ending up in hospital.
What’s the most badass thing you’ve done?
Comment below!