I'm standing with my arms folded in a maintenance hangar, looking at jet sitting in the parking space. The last mission left my A-10C riddled with bullet holes from triple-A fire, which caused a number of problems on the trip home, the biggest malfunctions including losing port aileron responsiveness, a leak in one of my fuel tanks, and the APU catching fire.
I do a once over of the jet to inspect the damage, taking care to not get in the way of ground crew workers. Just then I see one of the workers motioning for me to come closer, and I walk over to where he is standing. The trip brings me to the left engine. "Check it out," he says as he points into a large, clean bullet hole next to the APU exhaust port. I look into the cavity, and I could just barely make out a shiny foreign object lodged inside. I ask for someone to lift the engine cover, and I reach in to pull the object out.
What ended up in my hand was a pretty big bullet, likely to be the culprit of the fire. Despite having a few carbon stains, it was relatively unscathed and free of any large deformations. "Hah! You don't see that too often!" comments another worker. To tell you the truth I don't know the odds of finding a fully-intact high explosive incendiary round, but I imagine it would be a pretty big deal, especially considering that it's been sitting in a bunch of electrical wiring that caught on fire only moments after impact.
"You ought to get someone to put a hole in it," tells the first worker. "I bet it'd make for a good necklace pendant."
"What gave you that idea?"
"Just some stories about how marksmen graduate from training. People say that they take a bullet from the gun of the first enemy they kill and make a pendant out of it."
I look at the bullet and imagine what it'd be like to wear this thing around me neck. I play with the idea a little, letting out a small chuckle.
"Maybe. I'd probably have to gut it to make sure it's safe though." I look outside to see the time, and I figure I should head back and get some rest. I thank the ground crew and take my leave, cradling the new souvenir in my hand.
