obligatory comment about the weakness of flesh and the certainty of steel

Suuuuuuuuuure

My great grandpa had a buddy who served in WW2 in the Pacific. My GG was not able to serve himself due to health problems, as I understand it. But his friend saw some pretty insane action, including but not limited to literally getting part of his cheek blown off by a stray bullet. He was in shock, sort of panicked and played dead, and just laid on the beach for hours and hours in the sun hoping he would survive the ordeal. The exposed flesh started to fester, flies gathered on his face, but he didn't move. Maggots happened, but he was too scared to wipe them off. When the Japanese were going around stabbing bodies to make sure they were dead, the soldier that came to him ignored him because of the maggots crawling all over his face. Obviously anyone in that condition was deceased. Dude passed him over, when night came, he got up and managed to meet up with some other Americans. The maggots had actually eaten away most of the infected flesh, keeping the infection from spreading too badly. Once he got home he relayed the story to my GG who told it to my grandpa who told it to me. Still think about it from time to time, the strength of will needed to just lay there and let maggots eat your face so you can make it home.

Tl;Dr: My great grandpa knew a dude who served in the Pacific who got wounded and played dead to survive. Maggots got in the wound and ended up saving his life by making him look realistically dead and also eating away a lot of the rancid meat.