Lived on the flightdeck of an aircraft carrier for 5+ years and saw the following while on-deck:

One bird strike the round-down, with live sidewinders.

One cable snap. I was up near the #2 JBD. One person lost a leg just below the knee. He was also standing where I normally stood.

One CAG deciding he could land. Watching the PLAT later you see him call the ball, slide off screen, come back on screen and call the ball a second time - then off screen (to the port side), back on screen calling the ball a third time before catching the #4 wire and clipping the six pack. For that I was taking a leak behind the island.

my sister was the angel on two occasions, she pulled me out of deep holes , in the lake we used to camp at in the summer time.

1) Also 1976. Driving to work. No seatbelt. Looked and reached for an 8 track tape or something.

Looked up to find I'd drifted into oncoming lane and face to face with another car. Over reacted trying to correct. Car did 360's for a good ways. Scooted over a drop-off and rolled unknown number of times.

Not wearing a seatbelt and realizing I'd totally and irrecoverably lost control at some point, I'd let go of the wheel, flattened out on the front seat and held on.

Car came to a stop after the back end hit a tree and I slid out the (now missing and misshapen) passenger window and into a pasture.

I've never seen a more gorgeous brightly lit day or beautiful scenery. Top on drivers side was crushed to the door. Good thing I hadn't remained sitting up there. The only thing not bent or twisted on that car was the trunk lid. As I slid out of the car, a thorn had pierced through the top of my left ear. That was the only scratch I had.

The guy who I almost had a head-on with, had watched the accident in his rear view mirror, driven a bit and decided to turn around and come back to find me standing on the side of the road. He said initially he wasn't going to turn around because he just knew I was dead and he didn't want to see it. It was a bad wreck.

2) 1972 .. Was hit by lightening that had gotten into the phone line while talking to my girlfriend on the phone. Was "out" for about 10 minutes. Had the strangest dream about going toward a bright light, being surrounded by strange comforting "beings" and being judged and having a nonverbal conversation with "some guy" who asked me did I want to continue or go back. For a totally unselfish reason, I asked to go back ... and I awoke wondering why I went to sleep talking on the phone.

Didn't feel I needed to go, but was taken to the emergency room. Welts were coming up down my neck and across my shoulder chest and back where electricity had tried to reach ground. Doc said there was nothing wrong with me, my ear or hearing. The burned and reddened skin on my ear would heal and flake off, leaving no scaring or anything.

3) ... every day

Driving to work one morning and fell asleep at the wheel. Ran off the road and woke up just as I was heading toward a Sunbeam bread billboard.

On I-10 in West Texas during a heavy downpour with heavy gusts of wind. I parked the Gold Wing beneath an underpass, sitting on the bike to help keep it upright. I watched in the mirror as traffic passed me, praying no one would rear end me.

quote:

Close calls, angel on your shoulder?

No, probability and statistics.

Took a round in the chest. Vest stopped the round. Cracked couple of ribs and left a hell of a bruise.

Damn near died when I neglected to tell the Mrs. what happened and she saw the bruise.

Luck? Peripheral vision? Heard *something* not right? No idea.

A couple of months ago I was driving through a quiet residential neighborhood. 25 mph speed limits - small, narrow roads. At one point I drove up to a 4-way stop, stopped and then thought it would be a good idea to pause a bit. Don't know why.

As my wife started to ask me what I was waiting for, a car blew through the stop sign, well above the speed limit, from left to right. With the narrow streets and bushes in front of the house on the corner, I never consciously saw that car until it was entering the intersection.

I think my wife assumed I saw him coming. Nope.