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YOUR BALANCE
50 years ago- Vietnam - Rats
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50 years ago- Vietnam - Rats


Sep 9, 2020, 3:19 PM

I covered snakes and leeches on previous posts so I am moving up the food chain to mammals. The first rats I saw were as large as rabbits and were running from a mine field that had caught fire. In addition to the flames, some of the mines were exploding due to the heat. My next experience with those huge rodents came some time later on our firebase after returning from a month in the jungle and rice paddies. We were warned that GI's in a certain bunker along the base perimeter had incidents where rats had eaten the dead, hardened skin from around the soldier's fingernails to the point that some places bled. It so happened, of course, that my squad was assigned to that bunker and had the option to sleep in the main bunker or a second one made of large metal culvert halves covered with sandbags. After being informed that a guy from another company had been killed by a mortar blast while sleeping on a cot outside of the bunkers, I decided to deal with rats and use the bunker. Sometime in the middle of the first night, I felt something on my leg down around my ankle (we always slept with boots on due to what might happen during the night so I didn't have to worry about toenails) and figured out where my visitor was headed. I felt this thing crawl all the way up my leg, across my body, and move onto my arm headed to my hand which was beside my head as I was lying on my back. When he got into my hand, I threw him out of the bunker after bouncing him off of the metal wall. I then chose to sleep in the open air and chance the mortar rounds.

( for a look at the actual main bunker , log on to hill4-11.org. click on the stone with our company logo and scroll down options on the left of the screen and click "Photos" and then Charlie Mankin's pictures - you will find several pictures of our firebase including that bunker ( not the culvert but the main guard bunker in front of it)

Message was edited by: clover65®


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Re: 50 years ago- Vietnam - Rats


Sep 9, 2020, 3:36 PM

That’s not one I have read about, rats. Snakes and bugs seems to be what most of the stories cover, but wow. How did you not freak when that baztard was running up your leg??? I probably would have screamed like a girl!!

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I guess you get a little crazy


Sep 9, 2020, 5:18 PM

in a war zone- He moved real slow and since I knew where he was headed, I just figured that letting him go all the way to my hand was the easiest way to get rid of him

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Re: I guess you get a little crazy


Sep 9, 2020, 5:47 PM

Balls of steel is what it’s called. Those ######## can chew your face off.

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Re: I guess you get a little crazy


Sep 9, 2020, 7:01 PM

And my dominant right hand was right beside my face .... but was in position to make the throw when he got there to chew on my fingertips. I guess I was lucky he went to the hand I thought he was headed to. I forgot to mention that I had seen another guy's fingers that had been chewed on before my experience - the rat had chewed on all 5 fingers on his hand before he bit deep enough to hurt and wake the guy up.

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Damm, those things were big enough . . .


Sep 9, 2020, 6:25 PM [ in reply to I guess you get a little crazy ]

to feed two!!! But I guess rations weren't your main problem . . .

Balls of Steel . . . I agree!

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I thought this was going to be about tunnel rats... I had


Sep 10, 2020, 1:58 AM

a stepbrother, somewhat slightly built, who had the displeasure of getting to check out some of the tunnels. Obviously, it wasn't by choice.

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Clover, I am reliving many of your experiences


Sep 10, 2020, 7:47 AM

as you post them, since I was in the infantry at the same time you were, fire base Warrior between Dau Tieng and the Cambodian border. I had almost exactly the same thing happen to me one night after guard duty. As I lay underneath the metal culvert covered with sandbags falling asleep I felt something gnawing on my elbow which was over my head. I looked over and into the eyes of the largest rat I had or would ever see, chowing down on me. I yelled, smacked my head on the culvert sitting up and clambered out of there into a rainstorm. I slept the rest of that night on top of the sandbags under the minimal cover of my poncho taking my chances with the water and possibility of mortar rounds rather than serve as that rat’s meal.

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I forgot to mention how a guy in my squad


Sep 10, 2020, 5:32 PM

had placed a picture of his girlfriend on the wall of the main bunker and had one of the rats running up the wall and shot the picture with a .45 trying to get the rat. He had the sads for several days.

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Re: I forgot to mention how a guy in my squad


Sep 10, 2020, 5:45 PM

I believe I would have taken my chances with the mortars too! That’s just gross!

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Clover, that is one helluva choice. Sleep indoors


Sep 10, 2020, 8:52 AM

as rat food or outdoors under the mortars....

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