The big news last week was that an HP branded Apple iPod ‘took a bullet’ and saved a US soldier’s life in Iraq, but the soldier at the heart of the story says it was his armor and not the iPod.

The story got the full force of the Digg effect, with even Apple executives wanting to make sure the soldier received a brand new iPod to replace his broken model.

But the soldier in question, Kevin Garrad, has told the ‘Havana Lion’, the site that broke the story complete with images, a different story.

According to US Infantryman Garrad, he says that: “The armor stopped the bullet”. Havana Lion says that “The iPod was how Kevin Garrad found out he was shot. This is the real story.
Kevin said he got into the fight with the insurgent and afterwards he did not know he was even shot. He said he returned to his bunk after the patrol, put on his earbuds and began to clean his weapon”.

The site continues with Garrad saying: “You get into a ritual out there.” Then the story continues that: “No music came on. He dug around in the pockets where he kept the iPod and pulled out the twisted hunk of metal that is in the pictures. He said that was how he found out that he had been shot during the fight. He was happy that his armor worked”.

Furthermore, the site says that “He said the upgraded armor he was wearing could stop the AK-47 round. It was not the newest armor that is in Iraq now, but it was an upgrade. This was his second iPod that he had brought to Iraq. The first had been damaged earlier and the store would not replace it, even with the additional warranty he purchased. The pictures are what happens when an AK-47 bullet hits an iPod”.

The story concludes with: “He’s talked to Apple and is happy that they sent him another iPod. He’s gone through two already. If any others send him iPods he’ll put them in care packages back to friends in his unit who don’t have them”.

So, while it might be nice to think that iPod users are bulletproof, at least if a bullet manages to strike where the iPod happens to be on your body, the reality is that you’ll definitely be wanting some pretty tough armor behind it to make sure that no bullets get through.

Still, Microsoft must be wishing they’d been the ones to get all the publicity that Apple has enjoyed the past few days, but with the iPod’s popularity, there likely aren’t many, if any, Zunes in Iraq.
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