This interview is from the spring 2026 issue of VICE magazine, THE NOT THE PHOTO ISSUE. Buy it now—or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.
Collin Mayfield is an American journalist who has covered conflict in countries around the world, in Ukraine, Haiti, Syria, Lebanon, and Myanmar. While I was sitting at my desk the other day, he messaged to say he’d had his foot blown off by a landmine, and did I want to know more? I said, yes, absolutely! We caught up with him as he recovered in Poland.
VICE: How did you come to step on a landmine in Myanmar?
Collin Mayfield: I was on a reconnaissance mission, embedded with the People’s Defence Force-Zoland, part of the Chin Brotherhood Alliance, in Tedim Township, Chin State. I was with the commander, Gideon, another officer, and a few soldiers. The officer and I were in an SUV and he flew a drone. Some soldiers rode motorcycles to scope out different areas. Everything was going perfectly fine. No one saw any Tatmadaw [regime] troops. We went from one spot to another, our last stop that afternoon—shortly before sunset. They’re like, “OK, the area is clear.” We were getting ready to go, and then I stepped on a toe popper.
What is a toe popper?
It’s a little M14 mine, or here probably a locally produced copy. They’re called toe poppers because they blow your toes off. They won’t take off your whole leg. If I’d stepped on it with my heel, I would have lost my entire foot. But because I stepped on it with my big toe, I just lost two toes and parts of the metatarsals. They’re not the type of anti-personnel mine where you’d need an above-knee amputation. In most situations it just blows off some toes.
Why are these mines made to be less lethal?
They’re cheap and economical to produce, but the other thing is you don’t necessarily want to kill outright. If it kills the soldier, it’s one and done. Whereas if you maim the soldier, that knocks several soldiers off the battlefield, because multiple people help them evacuate and resources are then devoted to their medical care. So maiming somebody can cause more damage than just killing them.
Unless you just leave them.
Yeah. But most armed groups aren’t going to do that because that would definitely hurt recruitment.
How did it feel to stand on a landmine?
I was being very careful to watch my step. Not careful enough, apparently. I knew there were mines in the area because two years ago I saw a soldier named Thawng Kham step on a landmine during a recon mission. He needed an in-the-field amputation. My mine was placed more recently, during the area’s brief occupation by the Tatmadaw.
I saw a blinding flash of light and bits of flesh flying by my face. My ears were ringing. I looked down, immediately recognizing that it was just an M14 because my entire foot wasn’t gone. I walked about two meters to the car, grabbed my camera, started filming, and the soldiers sat me on the ground. My adrenaline was going and they gave me a lit cigarette. After a few minutes, it started to burn badly, but it wasn’t until later that it really started to hurt. Pain phased in slowly as the adrenaline wore off. While I was in the car, a couple hours after being wounded, I felt weak with pain. My leg was just shaking and throbbing. My face felt hot from the blast and shrapnel; I have a little scar on my eyelid where a piece grazed me. I damn near lost my eye. My hand took a good bit of shrapnel, too, and I got some behind my ear. Scars make my right leg look like a Dalmatian because it got absolutely peppered.
Did they have any fentanyl lollipops or anything?
I wish, man. I didn’t get any painkillers for the first hour and a half, until we finally met the medics. That’s when I got an IV, some fluids, and Tramadol. About three hours after that, we got to the medical clinic. The next day, I get an epidural, and I do not like having needles go into my spinal cord. I’ve had three epidurals during this whole ordeal and I hope I never have another one as long as I live. I was awake during the surgery as they amputated all the charred bits of flesh that couldn’t be saved, and they cut down my metatarsals. I actually fell asleep during surgery because it was the first time my leg wasn’t throbbing with pain. Then I woke up to the doctor plucking shrapnel from my hand. That hurt quite a bit because the epidural was only from the waist down. Two weeks later I was evacuated to India.
Would you say that the pain afterwards was worse than the experience of standing on the landmine?
One hundred percent.
Would you consider bionic toes?
Definitely. I recently started physical therapy, and I’m already walking a bit—or hobbling at least. Maybe I’ll get some osseointegrated toes, but probably just a partial prosthetic. I need to consult more doctors to see my options. I visited an amputation center in Ukraine last summer and, given Russia’s invasion, the medical developments with those kinds of injuries are amazing. But if I’m not fully mobile after a year of physical therapy, I’m gonna cut my foot off and get a prosthetic.
Will you go back to Myanmar?
I certainly will!
I highly recommend eating lots of superfoods, like spinach, kale, berries, and salmon. Great for healing.
Talk to you later.
This interview is from the spring 2026 issue of VICE magazine, THE NOT THE PHOTO ISSUE. Buy it now—or get 4 issues each year sent straight to your door, by subscribing.
The post Experience: ‘I Just Trod on a Landmine!’ appeared first on VICE.
