The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
“I slam the pedal to the floor, and it goes. It’s on fire, but it goes”, — recalls Sergeant of the armored group with the call sign “Passepartout”, describing the moment when, having been concussed twice inside a hit and burning M113 APC, he saw that the engine was still running and managed to get his crew out of enemy encirclement.
This battle was recounted on the page of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade.
“Passepartout” joined the brigade in the summer of 2022 as a Land Rover driver, and now he is in charge of all the armor in the 1st Assault Battalion. He remembers how, right after returning from leave, he immediately found himself in an assault.
“There comes a moment when one of the assault groups gets surrounded. And they need reinforcements sent in”, — he says. During the movement, his M113 was hit by an RPG, and he briefly lost consciousness. Just half a minute after coming to, the vehicle was struck again.
“Knocked me out again. I come to, and I realize I’m at the epicenter of some kind of fierce Vietnam. Mortars here and there, everything shooting, everything burning”, — “Passepartout” recalls.
He saw that his machine gunner showed no signs of life and thought it was the end.
“And then I look at the tachometer, and the needle goes ‘tick-tick-tick’”, — he recounts. He pressed the gas, and the burning vehicle started moving.
To see the road, he had to stick out of the hatch under fire. At that moment, he saw that his machine gunner and assistant gunner were alive. He drove into a tree line, and as soon as the crew jumped out of the vehicle, it was completely engulfed in flames.
“This ride is etched in my memory for life. In terms of time, it took, what, half an hour there, half an hour back. But it felt like I lived another life”, — the sergeant concludes.
