"Million-dollar wound" (

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

) or "Blighty wound" (

British English British English is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom, especially Great Britain. More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly, to ...

) is military slang for a type of wound received in combat which is serious enough to get the soldier sent away from the fighting, but neither fatal nor permanently crippling.

Description

In his World War II memoir '' With the Old Breed'', Eugene Sledge wrote that during the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

, the day after he tried to reassure a fellow

United States Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

who believed he would soon die, A similar concept is the

Blighty "Blighty" is a British English slang term for Great Britain, or often specifically England. Though it was used throughout the 1800s in the Indian subcontinent to mean an English or British visitor, it was first used during the Boer War in the sp ...

(a slang term for Britain or England) wound, a British reference from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Bridge 6D over the

Yser Canal The Ieperlee (or ''Ypres-Ijzer Canal'') is a canalized river that rises in Heuvelland in the Belgian province of West Flanders and flows via the city of Ypres (Ieper) into the Yser at Fort Knokke. The river is long. Its name is derived from ...

in the

Ypres Salient The Ypres Salient, around Ypres, in Belgium, was the scene of several battles and a major part of the Western Front during World War I. Location Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee. The city is overlooked b ...

was known as 'Blighty Bridge' from the number of casualties suffered from crossing it at night under fire. Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, ''Up to Mametz and beyond'', Revised Edn ( Jonathon Riley, ed.), Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2021, ISBN 978-1-52670-055-1, p. 139.

In popular culture

In the film ''

Forrest Gump ''Forrest Gump'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis. An adaptation of the Forrest Gump (novel), 1986 novel by Winston Groom, the screenplay of the film is written by Eric Roth. It stars Tom Hanks in the title rol ...

'', the titular character receives a gunshot to his backside during his service in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, which leaves him sidelined from combat for months (ultimately serving as the end of his combat service, but for unrelated reasons). Due to Gump's below-average intelligence, he takes the expression "million dollar wound" literally, saying: ''"the Army must keep that money, 'cause I still ain't seen a nickel of that million dollars"''.

References

{{Reflist Injuries Military slang and jargon Military humor War casualties Wounded and disabled military veterans topics