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Vietnam - Trip wires
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Vietnam - Trip wires


Mar 17, 2021, 1:53 PM

We encountered trip wires on many occasions - never knew how the VC had trails marked so they didn't hit them themselves- maps maybe? I was sent to Chu Lai for a training about how to set up our own booby traps using claymore mines and trip wires. We would set them up before darkness and arm them with batteries that would activate the blasting caps if anything hit the trip wire. We had heard about another Company tripping one of their own wires and caused several casualties. On one occasion, I had my claymore out and awoke to go on patrol and disconnected the battery but left the mine in place. After walking half the day, we returned to the general area where we started and were not exactly sure where we were when I felt my leg hit something and heard the click of a trip wire moving. Scary for a second but when I looked down, I saw that it was my own wire and claymore that I had disconnected. Another time a guy in my platoon put one out before dark and forgot to put the cap into the claymore and the VC tripped the wire and all we heard was the blasting cap go off - followed by lots of AK- 47 fire that lasted for a long time - until the chopper gunships arrived.

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Re: Vietnam - Trip wires


Mar 17, 2021, 4:29 PM

Thanks Clover for another interesting story! As a combat engineer, it was my job to know about and neutralize land mines and booby traps, which we did my entire time in Viet Nam. My first platoon had the job of sweeping Highway 1 both north and south of Tam Ky every morning as the sun started to rise. We had to stop traffic behind us until we had finished our sector, and it was always a "game" of the civilians on their scooters and Honda 50's trying to sneak by. Since much of the road was paved we only checked the shoulders and culverts in those portions, but where it was compacted dirt/gravel we broke out the mine detectors, but you could usually tell where the hard packed gravel/dirt had been disturbed. When we found mines, we always blew them in place and never tried to remover them. Our class leader from Engineer's School lost both legs and an eye clearing a mine and I wasn't going to let that happen to me or my men.

Mines & booby traps had 5 different ways to detonate ..........and you had better know the difference .....command, pressure, pressure relief, tension, and tension release. For booby traps, especially those not buried, it was tension and tension release that you had to worry about. You NEVER cut a tripwire until you knew whether it was a tension or tension release triggering device. Not knowing which could be fatal. When we patrolled with the grunts we always insisted that they call us up when they found a tripwire ...... which they were glad to do. Fortunately only two mines exploded when I was nearby .... one killing three VC who were planting a roadside bomb when they made a mistake, about a quarter of a mile around a curve in the road on Hwy. 1, and the other when I was sitting on the running board of my truck when a jeep rolled up to the intersection where I was parked and hit a land mine about 40' from where I was sitting.

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One of my assignments away from my Company


Mar 17, 2021, 8:11 PM

had me ride along Highway 1 ( I think ) from Duc Pho to Chu Lai. It was just me and the jeep driver in a several mile drive. I was told that I wasn't supposed to load my M-16 unless we were fired upon but as soon as we left the compound, the driver told me to lock and load (as if I wasn't going to do it anyway. As we rode along, we had to drive around piles of peanuts being dried on the hot pavement and constantly dodge those guys on the motorbikes. . I think I posted about this once but we came to one river that had the bridge blown away and had to use the temporary floating bridges that army engineers install. It was quite an experience being alone in a time of war passing so many civilians who could have turned on us at any time - or at least I thought so. The guy driving must have done the trip often because he didn't seem as nervous as I felt. This actually might have been the time I was sent to Chu Lai to learn how to set up the trip wires for the claymores. I did one other week long trip to complete a second assignment but went on a chopper that time.


Message was edited by: clover65®


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Re: Vietnam - Trip wires


Mar 17, 2021, 4:43 PM

Thank you for sharing another story. You are a brave person and many are so grateful for your sacrifice and service to our country.

It has to been disheartening to serve in Vietnam then years later have to battle the same type of people in your own country.

God Bless you my Tigernet friend. Thank you for the bravery and courage shown as a very you man while serving in Vietnam.

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Re: Vietnam - Trip wires


Mar 17, 2021, 9:12 PM

My grandmother's cousin was in the USMC right after WW2 ended. He was on an Island in the Pacific and stepped on a tank mine. There were no remains left to send home.

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Thank you guys for your service!


Mar 17, 2021, 9:20 PM

Great stories

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