Vietnam tunnel rat

Hi, vietnam tunnel rat, my dad just passed away and an ex cop partner of his told us my vietnam tunnel rat was a "Tunnel Rat" during the war. My dad only mentioned a couple of vague hand to hand combat situations he and his guys got into but never mentioned anything about being a Tunnel Rat. One aspect of the Vietnam War that contributed to the difficulty in defeating the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army was their extensive use of tunnels and underground fortifications to avoid losses to massive American firepower. Both the VC dumbbell decathlon NVA built tunnel complexes when the terrain was suitable, the most infamous example being the extensive tunnels around the village of Cu Chi, near several bases of the 1st Infantry Division.

The Viet Cong were well known for their devious jungle ambushes and cruelly ingenious booby traps. Operation Crimp, undertaken by U. Jonathan O. Seaman, commander, 1st Infantry Division, was the overall allied leader. The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, operating as part of the rd, played a significant role in the operation. The mission, according to the After-Action Report written by Col. William D.

Vietnam tunnel rat

The film is based on the factual duties of tunnel rats during the Vietnam War. In a documentary for the film, Boll revealed the film did not have a script, and instead the actors improvised their lines. A group of US Army soldiers, trained in underground warfare , arrive at base camp in the jungle of South Vietnam. The soldiers spend the first day and night getting to know each other. Armed with nothing more than bayonets , pistols, grenades and flashlights, the US soldiers take to the tunnels in search and destroy operations, and begin to encounter dangers including primitive but lethal booby traps , such as punji sticks , grenades rigged with tripwire , as well as roving Viet Cong troops. Meanwhile, Garraty and Johnson are killed first, and later Sergeant Heaney and Verano are both killed as Green escapes, and up on the surface Harris and Lidford escape to the bottom of the tunnel, and Lidford is killed later on, Porterson successfully escapes through the tunnels. On the surface, the Viet Cong also attack the US base. As things escalate above and below the ground, soldiers for both sides are pushed to the limits of their humanity. Miller and Graybridge try to escape, with the former barely making it, but Graybridge is killed. The events implicate that all or almost all the protagonists are killed by each other, by boobytraps, or by the airstrike ordered by the wounded US commanding officer Hollowborn, who called on it when everything seemed to have been lost.

Vietnam tunnel rat hoped search and destroy operations would force the enemy into conventional battles that would drain them of men and materiel. A tunnel rat went down in the tunnel and captured a high-ranking Viet Cong officer.

The tunnel rats were American , Australian , New Zealander , and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers [1] and infantrymen from the Australian Army and the U. Army who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. In the early stages of the war against the French colonial forces , the Viet Minh created an extensive underground system of tunnels, which was later expanded and improved by the Viet Cong. By the s, the tunnel complexes included hospitals, training areas, storage facilities, headquarters, and barracks. These diverse facilities, coupled with sophisticated ventilation systems, allowed VC guerrillas to remain hidden underground for months at a time. The men of the 3 Field Troop, an Australian combat engineering unit that served in Vietnam from to , have made a convincing argument that they were the first allied troops to enter the tunnels.

These American, Australian and New Zealander soldiers infiltrated and sabotaged the intensely-claustrophobic labyrinth of underground tunnels used by the Vietcong to launch surprise attacks and set up ambushes. Most of these subterranean tunnels were dug by hand and only covered a short distance, but over the course of the war which lasted until , when the French were defeated and expelled from the region the network of tunnels was greatly expanded. The tunnels were used to covertly transport troops and supplies, launch surprise attacks, and set booby traps. During the s, the Vietcong greatly expanded the network of tunnels, which eventually covered a distance of almost miles and linked Vietcong bases from around Saigon to as far away as the Cambodian border. The tunnel network gave the North Vietnamese a distinct advantage over their American and South Vietnamese adversaries. The entrances to the tunnels were extremely well-hidden and very difficult to find, which meant that Vietcong troops could pop up anywhere for surprise attacks and ambushes, and lay savage and lethal bobby traps throughout the jungle. The Americans were determined to level the playing field, and this was where the Tunnel Rats came in: to neutralize the advantage that the subterranean tunnel system offered the Vietcong.

Vietnam tunnel rat

The Viet Cong were well known for their devious jungle ambushes and cruelly ingenious booby traps. Operation Crimp, undertaken by U. Jonathan O. Seaman, commander, 1st Infantry Division, was the overall allied leader. The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, operating as part of the rd, played a significant role in the operation. The mission, according to the After-Action Report written by Col. William D. Brodbeck, commander of 3rd Brigade, and staff member 2nd Lt. Leo J. Unsuspecting U.

Play.pokemon showdown

A group of US Army soldiers, trained in underground warfare , arrive at base camp in the jungle of South Vietnam. Bunkers, spider holes, and small cavernous openings often led to deadly underground mazes where Viet Cong fighters lurked in ambush. Instead, they trained themselves and others to survive underground. Once the tunnel rats had retrieved any information, equipment, or prisoners they could find, they set out to destroy the tunnel or deny its use to the Viet Cong in the future. The actual deployment of troops was to begin at a. Alex Preece, had become a respected part of the rd. Sign in to reply Cancel. The Aussies fought a path through a grisly maze of bunkers, punji stakes, and booby traps to reach their position. May 31, Hoboken International Film Festival. Soldiers learned what worked best in their area and with their techniques and stuck with them. Gorner, Peter. Forums - Thread Details. When Green reported what happened to his superiors, they decided to use a smoke machine to blow smoke into the tunnel system. Operation Crimp Operation Crimp, undertaken by U. Wearing gas masks, the Americans hurled teargas grenades at the enemy and began fighting their way back to the tunnel entrance in what must have been a truly hellish underground engagement.

The Army faced two different threats in the Vietnam War, preventing it from focusing on exceptional performance in either conventional or unconventional warfare.

Williamson of the rd Airborne Brigade. Afterward, they found 16 bodies and evidence of 60 more killed. After launching savage attacks against U. Night engagements continued as the enemy sought to avoid a set piece battle. The tunnel rats were an eclectic group selected for unique characteristics. Viet Cong codebreakers had been intercepting, decoding, and translating every transmission from the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions; the sudden loss of information immediately made both divisions more effective and safer from deliberate ambushes. In a documentary for the film, Boll revealed the film did not have a script, and instead the actors improvised their lines. They hollowed out hundreds of miles of subterranean passages throughout South Vietnam bit by bit and often by hand. It was strictly voluntary, and if you ever lost your edge, you were pulled out of it. If they had decided to go ahead with their original plan, troops would have landed right on top of a hidden enemy position. Read Edit View history. A tunnel rat might therefore choose to enter the tunnels wearing a gas mask donning one within was frequently impossible in such a confined space.