I agree with the comment that "Shires and the x-rays tell a different story". I am not sure why Dr. Shaw's or even Dr. Gregory's comments are all that important. Dr. Shires had the closest and longest look at the thigh wound and x-rays.
In my view, the most significant issue is the location of the metal piece that remained in the thigh.
Dr. Gregory thought the metal piece appeared just below the skin but it is not clear what he based that on.
Oh, but yes it is clear. And we've been through all this before over at a.a.jfk, if you recall. It starts with a Dr Jack Reynolds, the Parkland radiologist responsible for examining the Connally's X-rays in the late fall of 1963. Reynolds reported that the fragment was 8mm from the surface of the skin, not buried in the femur. Gregory read those x-rays the same way. So did Shaw. In fact, every physician that I know of who've examined the thigh x-rays have stated that the thigh fragment is near the surface, except for Shires. The explanation given by the HSCA FPP was that Shires was confused by an artifact in one of the x-rays that overlies the image of the femur. Ultimately, you have Shires' opinion versus basically everyone else's.
Further, had a bullet hit Connally's thigh hard enough to drive a fragment deep into the bone, it would have caused noticeable damage to the bone. No such injury is evident in the x-rays, the of the operative records, the medical testimony, or anywhere else. There just isn't a case for a fragment driven into the bone.
Dr. Shires had debrided the wound down to the region of the femur. This involved cleaning the wound and removing dead tissue. I am not sure why he would be removing dead tissue down as far as the femur unless the bullet had travelled that far.
Which doesn't even begin to prove anything one way or the other about how far in the fragment was.
Dr. Shires always maintained that the metal piece was embedded in the femur. That metal piece shows up on both the anterior-posterior and lateral views at the same location relative to the femur (CE694, 695, 696).
Whatever Shires claimed, and for how long, every other physician who's studied those x-rays state that the fragment is not in the femur, but a few mm from the surface. Also, if you notice, and you don't even have to look carefully, there are multiple little bright, fragment-like spots on those x-rays. So which is the real fragment and which are artifacts?