Here’s The Backstory To Jim Webb’s Debate Answer About The Guy And The Grenade

During CNN’s first Democratic debate, moderator Anderson Cooper asked all of the candidates to reveal the enemy they were most proud to have made. While the other candidates gave stock answers, Jim Webb, gave a short and somewhat startling answer.

While Webb’s response may have received a less than lukewarm audience response, the actual encounter he had with an enemy soldier was in reality a harrowing mission. Here’s the backstory,

From the citation accompanying the Navy Cross that was awarded to Webb after Vietnam: On 10 July 1969, while participating in a company-sized search and destroy operation deep in hostile territory, First Lieutenant Webb’s platoon discovered a well-camouflaged bunker complex which appeared to be unoccupied. Deploying his men into defensive positions, First Lieutenant Webb was advancing to the first bunker when three enemy soldiers armed with hand grenades jumped out. Reacting instantly, he grabbed the closest man and, brandishing his .45 caliber pistol at the others, apprehended all three of the soldiers. Accompanied by one of his men, he then approached the second bunker and called for the enemy to surrender. When the hostile soldiers failed to answer him and threw a grenade which detonated dangerously close to him, First Lieutenant Webb detonated a claymore mine in the bunker aperture, accounting for two enemy casualties and disclosing the entrance to a tunnel. Despite the smoke and debris from the explosion and the possibility of enemy soldiers hiding in the tunnel, he then conducted a thorough search which yielded several items of equipment and numerous documents containing valuable intelligence data. Continuing the assault, he approached a third bunker and was preparing to fire into it when the enemy threw another grenade. Observing the grenade land dangerously close to his companion, First Lieutenant Webb simultaneously fired his weapon at the enemy, pushed the Marine away from the grenade, and shielded him from the explosion with his own body. Although sustaining painful fragmentation wounds from the explosion, he managed to throw a grenade into the aperture and completely destroy the remaining bunker. h/t gawker

Maybe if these darn debates gave the candidates more time to answer, Webb’s answer would not have seemed as glib.