There are some advantages to being short that you just don’t think of every day. The subject of our SOF Pic of the Day, former Delta Force Sergeant Major Colin “Chainsaw” Rich, by all accounts, does not consider himself to be a tall man, and he’s just fine with that. That’s him in the photo above and the one below.

You see, the first time he was shot in the head (yes, he was shot in the head more than one time, and yes, he lived to tell the tale), Chainsaw was aboard a jet airliner. A stray .45 caliber round caught him mid-forehead and gouged out a trough about 3 or 4 inches long in his scalp. Had he been a couple of inches taller, the round would caught him right between the eyes, and it would have been lights out Chain.

As it was, he lived to be shot in the head again another day. That happened on the Afghan-Pak border, and that time he got shot in the back of the head, but that’s another story for another day.

Colin Rich in an SAS hat.
No idea where he got the SAS hat, but I’m sure there is a story behind it.

Retro Rich

Ranger Rich hanging out with Commanding General Norman Schwarzkopf
Here we see SGM Rich as a young Ranger (far right) hanging out with General Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf (far left).

As a way of offering you a bit of scale, Stormin’ Norman was 6’3″. Fun fact: His birth name wasn’t Norman; it was Herbert. Stormin’ Herbert just doesn’t have the same badass ring to it, does it?

And there you have it, the ultra-abbreviated tale of how one the toughest men alive was shot twice in the head, and is still around to tell stories about it.

Pay attention to SOFREP, part two of this story is bound to come out before too long.

I couldn’t find any video of Delta training or carrying out a mission in a jet aircraft, so you’ll just have to settle for this footage of a SOF unit (not positive which one) doing a close-quarters battle drill in a shoot house. My apologies for the crappy background music.