CAMP LIBERTY, Baghdad -- Sometimes there is a close reminder that the bullets here are real. A soldier who lives in the tent next to mine got shot in the neck on patrol yesterday.

Pvt. Nathan Bratager was incredibly lucky and is actually going to be fine. But a few millimeters difference would have taken the life of this 20-year-old.

Bratager, part of the 1st Brigade of the 23rd Infantry Regiment from Fort Lewis, was riding outside the hatch of his Stryker when the sniper’s bullet caught him.

His headset saved his life. A piece of bullet shrapnel, which he now keeps in a jar as a reminder, passed in and out of his neck. He said he “lit up” the rooftop where the shot came from but the sniper had an escape route.

I saw this soldier at the chow hall, bandage around his neck and head, just a couple hours after he was shot. He said that he will be back on Stryker missions in just a few days. I can’t believe how quickly these guys go from something like that back into combat.

We're naming him because he assured us that his family had all been notified.

-- Sean Cockerham