Army specialist Steven Clark was driving near the town of Mosul last June when five Iraqi insurgents opened fire from several hundred yards away. As AK-47 rounds ripped into his Humvee, Clark felt a burning sensation in his shoulder. He’d been hit. Yet he managed to drive a mile to safety - and sought medical attention.
Clark survived the ambush, but his ruggedized Panasonic Toughbook 34 wasn’t so lucky. "An AK-47 shell is armor-penetrating," he says. "It can go through steel." His laptop’s magnesium alloy case never had a chance. Before it was permanently shut down, the 4-pound PC - loaded with 256 megs of RAM and a 20-gig hard drive - served Clark well, handling electronic warfare, counterintelligence, and long-range surveillance for the 311th Military Intelligence Battalion.
Clark wouldn’t say whether he was issued a replacement (something about "security clearance"), but he returned to the field. He was shot again in July, then injured by a grenade in November. He’s back in the US now, awaiting ankle surgery at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. As for the Toughbook 34, it’s destined for the Military Intelligence Museum at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
- Geoffrey James
Shot in the case: Rugged Toughbook won’t restart.
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