"Million-dollar wound" (American English) or "Blighty wound" (British English) 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.[1]
In his World War II memoirWith the Old Breed,Eugene Sledge wrote that during theBattle of Okinawa, the day after he tried to reassure a fellowUnited States Marine who believed he would soon die,[2]
Much to my joy I saw the friend with whom I'd had the conversation the night before. He wore a triumphant look of satisfaction, shook hands with me heartily, and grinned as a stretcher team carried him by with a bloody bandage on his foot. God or chance—depending on one's faith— had spared his life and lifted his burden of further fear and terror in combat by awarding him a million-dollar wound. He had done his duty, and the war was over for him. He was in pain, but he was lucky. Many others hadn't been as lucky the last couple of days.
A similar concept is theBlighty (a slang term for Britain or England) wound, a British reference fromWorld War I.[3]
In the filmForrest Gump, the titular character receives a gunshot to hisbackside during his service in theVietnam War, 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".