Those were the guys who wriggled their way through the ridiculously narrow tunnels the viet cong used to transport personnel and weapons, set boobytraps, and all that. Vietnam veterans to share stories of the role played by. Well then tour our old base camp at nui dat, including luscombe field and our old troop lines. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read tunnel rat in vietnam. Tunnel rats were generally men of smaller stature 56 and under, who were able to maneuver more comfortably in the narrow tunnels. During the vietnam war, if a us tunnel rat got injured. American, australian, and new zealander soldiers who performed underground search missions. I seem to remember a book my friend read in high school about 20 years ago that was about or had a section on the tunnel rats, i can picture the cover but i cant see the name in my minds eye. The description of that final descent into a viet cong tunnel is the climax of the book rat six, written by flowers, that documents his service in vietnam and the littleknown story about. Dedicated to the men of 3 fld troop and 1troop, 2troop and 3troop 1 fld sqn rae, the aussie tunnel rats. This tongueincheek expression was the motto of the tunnel rats, an informal name given to a group of infantry soldiers and combat engineers in the vietnam war with a very hazardous specialty.
A harrowing account of america s tunnel rat s in the 1968 into the abyss. So how did i cross the line from tourist to tour leader. Our tunnel rat unit was small, with at most 120 men in the country at any time, and a total of around 700 who served from 1965 to 1972. It is a story about the first allied tunnel rats in the vietnam war jan 1966. Most of us who served as tunnel rats during the vietnam war quickly realized that crawling through underground enemy bunkers would be the least of our worries. First of all, those ops were certainly not off the book. Chi are an immense network of connecting tunnels located in the c. Researching our first tunnel rats book, id been to the places where australian sappers. Non gratus anus rodentum is a latin phrase that, when translated into english, means not worth a rats ass. During that period 36 of us were killed and around 200 were wounded, giving us a casualty rate of 33 percent, high even by vietnam war standards. Tunnel rats ofvietnam vietnams littleknown underground war and the men and women who fought it sgt. These unsung heroes of the vietnam war were american, australian, and new zealand soldiers specially trained as combat engineers, who carefully crawled through the cramped viet cong underground to perform perilous covert search and destroy missions.
Click download or read online button to get tunnel rat in vietnam book now. They were infantrymen who volunteered to go down the tunnels of south vi. In 1965, soon after the first us combat troops had arrived in vietnam, it was realized that in some areas the viet cong had developed vast tunnel complexes in which to hide from the enemy. We arrived at cu chi later in the afternoon for our vietnam tunnel tour, which was nice because it. Book your tickets online for cu chi tunnels, ho chi minh city. Special us soldiers called tunnel rats would crawl through the systems to find the enemy. In their 1985 book, the tunnels of cu chi, bbc reporters tom mangold and john penycate told the story of the american tunnel rats, a saga they learned about for the first time from the viet cong, who admired the tunnel rats as the best soldiers among the american forces. Tom mangold and john penycate, authors of one of the definitive accounts of tunnel warfare in the vietnam war, reported that u. Opinion my life as a tunnel rat the new york times. The cost of the tour is detailed in the panel opposite, and again weve made the tour incredibly good value and tunnel rat focussed. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. Many of the tunnel rats from austraila, new zealand, south vietnam, and america volunteered for the dangerous position. Payne entering a tunnel in search of viet cong with a flashlight and m1911 pistol.
The viet cong amassed around 250 kilometres of underground tunnels. Now we also visit fsb balmoral sites tunnel rats tour. In this second installment about the tunnels of cu chi district in vietnam, we will continue to quote from the book, the tunnels of cu chi. The war in vietnam was raging and the united states had only just begun sending. Down south one tour in vietnam ebook by william hardwick.
Photograph taken april 24, 1967 courtesy of wikimedia commons. Due to the intense and dangerous nature of the job, many tunnel rats became so emotionally desensitized that entering a spider hole was just another day at the office no big deal. Chris masters, a great tv journalist, did this story for page 1 channel 10 more than 20 years ago in 1988. The royal australian engineers had many roles during the vietnam war. The tunnel rats, those who survived, did not tell their own story. There were numerous underground guerilla bases in south vietnam that had been built and supplied by forced labor from the surrounding villages.
However, the brave troops that were picked for the job were commonly the shortest grunts in the platoon for obvious reasons. Vietnams littleknown underground war and the men and women who fought it. It was the duty of the brave tunnel rat to slide alone into the tunnels entrance then search for the enemy and other valuable intelligence. The 50th anniversary tunnel rats tour back to vietnam. The tunnel rats were not spies or saboteur sent to north vietnam or neutral cambodia. You can listen to an interview with sandy and me on radio national, with geraldine doogue, here, read an extract as a pdf here, or buy the book, either as a paperback or an ebook here. Tunnel rats, as american soldiers who worked in the cu chi tunnels during the vietnam war were known, used the evocative term black echo to describe the experience of being in. Most of us who served as tunnel rats during the vietnam war quickly realized that crawling through underground enemy bunkers would.
Ultimately, shooting underground was a last resort. I would never have done it myself for all the tea in china. In most cases, tunnel rats were engineers, infantrymen, cavalry scouts, or chemical specialists. Most of us who served as tunnel rats during the vietnam war quickly. In a documentary for the film, boll revealed the film did not have a. A harrowing account of americas tunnel rats in the underground battlefields of vietnam 9780891418696. Australia fought side by side with the usa in vietnam from 1962 to 1973 as a counter to the communist tide that was sweeping through asia.
His hunt for a motive takes him to the vietnam, where the american tunnel rats fought the dirtiest battle of the war against the viet cong. If you ever see a flashlight coming your way, you can fire away, but more than likely, you are already a dead man. One in three of us was either killed or wounded during our tour. I should have skipped the cu chi tunnels tour frugal.
These were the terrifying dangers of being a tunnel rat. The film is based on the factual duties of tunnel rats during the vietnam war. A sappers war, published in 2012 and reprinted in pocket format in 2014, tells the story of the entire sapper involvement in vietnam, from before the tunnel rats arrival until the very last convoy out of the country in 1975. The underground war of vietnam had a subterranean aspect reaching far beyond the awareness of the american military brass conducting the war. Well hold a memorial service for our fallen tunnel rat comrades at the site of our former squadron hq at nui dat. Tunnel rats tour back to vietnam 15 mar 24 mar 2018 total cost for the tour the full cost for the 10 day, 9 night tour. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus. Small villages dot this land, worked by peasants, who have lived there. This network connected villages, cities, and districts. Sorry to say i havent read it, but its author did serve in vietnam.
Tunnel rats in the vietnam war was the name given to u. The vietcong had been using tunnel systems for many years against the chinese, japanese and french invaders. Sapper jim marett outside the ruins of a rubber plantation mansion in vietnam in 1970. American officers in vietnam viewed the short, wiry combat engineers as swat teams to be summoned whenever a suspicious hole was found in. In 1965, soon after the first us combat troops had arrived in vietnam, it was. Its the part of the job people want to hear about they want to know what it was like to descend into the vietcong s subterranean pathways, storehouses.
Sometimes while on the mission, a tunnel rat would meet a viet cong soldier, and would then have to engage in exceedingly close combat. Tunnel rats 50th anniversary vietnam tour 3 nov 11 nov 201611 heading back to vietnam bob bowtells sons michael left and peter. Buy tunnel rat in vietnam warrior by gordon l rottman isbn. It was long known that such complexes existed, but it was not realized just how extensive they were in some areas, how important they were to the viet cong, and how difficult it was to detect and neutralize. With 56 bookings in already our tunnel rats tour back to. Several of these tunnels had sharp ubends which could be easily flooded to trap and drown intruders.
Some civilian handguns worked their way into the mix, but for most of the tunnel rats the big. This will be followed by a traditional troop bbq pissup amongst the rubber trees. Our last tour of the trip, we took advantage of our riverfront location to cruise by speedboat to see the famous cu chi tunnels historical site, a vast network of underground passageways built and used by the viet cong to evade detection as they moved. In 1965, soon after the first us combat troops had arrived in. Tunnel rat in vietnam download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi.
A few silenced pistols made their way to vietnam and some of them were used by the tunnel rats. Auburn author recounts life in vietnams harrowing tunnels. Tunnel rats went into reprint in only its first week on sale and has done well since. Researching our first tunnel rats book, id been to the places where australian sappers army engineers. The tunnel rats gently prodded for potentially armed mines in order to disarm them and prayed that they survived with both their legs. These specialists, commonly known as tunnel rats, would enter a tunnel by themselves and. Payne, a tunnel rat, bravely searches a tunnels entrance during vietnam war. A lot of the time it really depended on the size of the soldiers in the infantry division. Tunnel rats were us, australian and newzelander soldiers who went inside viet congvc tunnels to kill any vc inside, gather any intel, recover arms and finally demolish the tunnels by planting. The tunnel rats and millions of other books are available for instant access. No event in american history is more misunderstood than the vietnam war.
This will be followed by a traditional troop bbq amongst the rub ber trees. I should have skipped the cu chi tunnels tour in vietnam. This time, im telling you what not to do when youre in vietnam. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. A harrowing account of americas tunnel rats in the underground battlefields of vietnam. Viet minh forces initially developed a complex system of underground tunnels to combat the french colonial invasion of vietnam known as the cu chi tunnels. The cu chi tunnels are now one of the most popular travel destinations in southern vietnam. Is there a recordlisting of men who served as tunnel rats. I am a veteran and i am trying to help a fellow veteran who served in vietnam as a tunnel rat his army records from that time are missing. Tunnel rats in vietnam cherrieswriter vietnam war website. They carried out tunnel rat duties as and when they needed in addition to any other duties they performed. The tunnels are a popular tourist attraction, and visitors are invited to crawl around in the.
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