Check out this interesting article Kuzz just came across about how Lil Wayne‘s “Tie My Hands” song saved a soldier’s life in Afghanistan. The soldier’s name is Lander Chappell and you can watch him explain the story in the video above, or read about his story after the jump below.
I’m sure Weezy F Baby‘s music has influenced every one of us in different ways, but it’s always nice to hear his music saving people’s lives! Lander recently tweeted this message on his Twitter account too: “Would like to thank Lil Wayne for making Tie My Hands. It kept me alive when I stepped on an IED in Afghanistan. That song is inspiration.”
Two months into his first deployment, Private First Class Lander Chappell was clearing a road of IED’s. He worked in concert with his battalion, to the rhythm of his favorite song.
“I play it all the time. And I sing it all the time. And the beat’s always in my head,” Lander said of Lil Wayne’s song, “Tie My Hands.”
It’s a song he says saved his life.
“We were going to clear this road, and we had a thing that shoots grenades down the road. Pressure grenades to put pressure on the ground to blow any pressure plate IED’s,” Lander described. “We had a guy who was clearing. I guess he just missed it. And as I came up, I stepped to the right just a little bit and next thing I knew, I was in the air. I’m looking at the sky. I don’t wanna look, I don’t wanna look. At the same time, you really want to look because you just want to see. Make sure. But my leg, it was gone.”
Lander’s body was tensing up. He was losing blood and drifting in and out of consciousness.
A fellow soldier offered a life line.
“He was like, ‘I got something for you,’ ” Lander recalled. “Sing your song. Sing your favorite song. Sing it, sing it, sing it.”
And he sang.
“It got my mind off it and finally the medivac came. We were still singing. We get on to the medivac. It’s one of the things I really appreciate him doing for me.”
Lander believes the song and the soldier saved his life, allowing military doctors to save his badly damaged left leg. His right leg is now fitted with a prosthesis.
“I have my days where I’m down about it,” Lander said. “But you know with my wife behind me, always pushing me, telling me that God has a reason, has a plan. I believe it. So we keep moving everyday.”
Recently, that meant leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and traveling home to Lanett, Alabama, where Lander was a star high school football player. The school retired his number and honored his sacrifice.
But the gesture that perhaps means the most was a call from his old coach while Lander was still hospitalized, offering him a job with the team whenever he decides he might want it.
“I just want to get better and go back to school,” Lander said. “If I can stay in the Army, I would love to. But if I can’t, I did what I had to do.”
Lander is still doing what he has to do, including a recent surgery and daily therapy. And he’s still singing his favorite song.
Via KOMO News
