A recent post on my chess blog mentioned Hanoi Jane and when I was recently informed of the serious illness of a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran it triggered something. This unassuming, jovial, likable fellow was a tunnel rat when he served in Vietnam.
In Vietnam the tunnel rats were the bravest of the brave. 1 in 3 died and it's difficult to comprehend their experience and the fear they felt, but it's not so difficult to understand the high rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder they suffered.
There were two types of tunnels:
1) Expedient. They were simple in construction ranging from twenty feet to several hundred feet long. They were sued for the setting up of ambushes, used for safe hiding places, or escape. They were carefully camouflaged to facilitate evasion and escape.
2) Complex: They were not so much tunnels as underground complexes with sophisticated ventilation systems which housed hospitals, sleeping quarters, training areas and arms depots. One example was the Cu Chi tunnel complex 20 miles north of Saigon that housed thousands of troops.
During the First Indochina war against French colonial forces, the Viet Minh constructed an extensive system of underground tunnels, which were later expanded by the Viet Cong.
The access holes led to tunnels connected by hidden trap doors that zigzagged up, sideways and down and led to a labyrinth of caverns and caves. They consisted of up to four levels and stretched for two hundred miles all the way to the Cambodian border.
They had basic air and sanitation, but the mazes were usually less than six feet high. Some Viet Cong soldiers lived in them for years. They actually built weapons in them using primitive forges.
The tunnels were used as cover during bombing raids, to hide and to launch attacks. They also left supplies hidden in them. They hid the bodies of their troops in them to make their casualty count lower and doctors worked on the wounded using the most basic surgical tools and honey as antiseptic. Anesthetics were rare.
The tunnels were very important to the Viet Cong and they had to be destroyed. That's where the Tunnel Rats came in. It was the job of combat engineers and infantrymen to enter the tunnels to gather intelligence, destroy them and kill or capture soldiers who occupied them.
Going in was almost like being blind...they went by smell and touch and hearing. Due to the small space the tunnel rats usually only carried a pistol, a bayonet, explosives and a flashlight.
Dogs were first used (tunnel dogs), but they couldn't detect booby traps and the handlers refused to allow further pointless sacrifices of their dogs. Also, dogs couldn't gather intelligence.
Next, hand grenades and tear gas were tried, but this method destroyed intelligence, so they used men had to go in and do the job.
Smaller soldiers had to be used because they were able to fit into the tunnels better, but they could not be ordered on these missions, they were all volunteers.
They went in in a team of two: a point man and a back-up man. Their job was to conduct a recon and gather intelligence.
Lurking in the dark, hot, humid, tunnels they might find booby traps, snakes, venomous insects, weapons caches, or a weapon in the hands of a live enemy. One thing that the tunnel rats were always sure they could find underground was death lurking.
At first they carried the standard issue a M1911A1 pistol. It was the weapon I carried in the Marine Corps and it was a big .45 caliber that had a blinding muzzle flash and an ear-splitting noise that was magnified in the confined spaces of the tunnel.
Eventually, .38 revolvers were chosen because they were relatively small, light and easy to handle. In addition, the Smith and Wesson or Colt weapons that were available could handle the dirt of the tunnel environment easily and a second shot in case of a misfire, unlike with the .45, was a trigger pull away.
Needless to say, crawling through the tunnels was terrifying. If they were occupied and you were captured, torture and death were certain. The tunnels could collapse, could be booby trapped or flooded or you could become lost in the maze or trapped.
Booby traps could be anything. Sharpened sticks, snakes, scorpions or poisoned gas. Tunnel rats could not risk wearing a gas mask because they restricted vision, hearing and breathing. Rats the size of dogs could crawl over them.
The snakes were bamboo vipers and their venom was so potent that after being bitten death was only seconds away. The Viet Cong would tie the viper in a piece of bamboo and suspend it from the ceiling. If the tunnel rat crawled into it the snake would come out and bite him in the neck or face. Ceilings had to be checked carefully.
Boxes of scorpions with a tripwire that would open the box were sometimes used. Hornets, centipedes, masses of black spiders and bats were also used. Rats carried bubonic plague.
Training was basically brainwashing as the tunnel rats were told to kill or be killed.
One tunnel rat admitted that once in the tunnel he was gripped with fear. Sometimes he actually heard the enemy talking and sometimes they would crawl so close to him that that he could smell their breath.
You might think finally crawling out of a tunnel would be a huge relief, but it, too, could be terrifying. You didn't know where you were coming out and a waiting Viet Cong could slit your throat or garrote or spear you as you came up through the exit trap door.
They had to control their fear and make movements with infinite care. One tunnel rat said his adrenalin "was pumping like a river" and he could almost hear his heart pounding.
They would feel their way along for booby traps and, if they lived long enough, it go so they could almost sense them and they could smell another human in the tunnel.
Why did they do it? Because, as one tunnel rat explained, "My job was to crawl through tunnels and then blow them up…That was my job; somebody had to do it. That’s what I was trained for.”
