Ballistic Underwear Saves Life of US Marine (VIDEO)

A US Marine is still alive today thanks to his ballistic underwear, CBS Atlanta reports.

Yes, ballistic underwear. The very idea of such a thing invites tongue-in-cheek commentary and mockery, but for one US soldier ballistic underwear is no joke.

Lance Cpl. Sean Adams was on a routine patrol when he spotted an IED. He went to go mark the explosive, but there was another IED nearby that he missed. Adams recalled the moment: “You step, and there was a brief second, a brief millimeter of a second or so. I remember everything, I remember stepping on it, and then I’m staring at the sky.” His legs became infected after the explosion, so the medics were forced to amputate them. He also lost a thumb and a pinkie finger.

If not for his ballistic underwear, though, things could have gone a lot worse. Adams said, “The doctor, pretty much, said that if I wasn’t wearing the ballistic boxers, and groin protector, I would have more than like lost my complete right leg all the way to the hip. And more than likely, my groin area, I would have lost my whole groin area.”

At most, the underwear possibly saved Adams’ life. At the very least, it allowed him to keep his upper legs, his groin, and his ability to bear children. The 19-year-old isn’t quite ready to take the plunge into fatherhood, but he does think about that day: “Being a young guy, that would be more of a life changer than what my injuries already have been to me. I desire to be a father one day. If I had to adopt, I would have. But, I am still in a position where I can have a child of my own.”