60 Seconds Apk Việt Hóa

[Jarvarious Hunsaker]

Whenfound, tunnels often contained valuable intelligence or supplies. But the tunnels presented two difficulties for the Army: they were small, often too small for most Soldiers to fit in, and they were wholly unknown. The tiny tunnels, most only measuring two feet by three feet, meant Soldiers could only enter one at a time. No two tunnel complexes were ever the same layout, with sections joining at various angles in a zigzag pattern.

Soldiers in tunnels had to travel light and abandon their technological advantages. Helmets, load bearing equipment, and even water canteens might be too bulky to carry underground. Some tunnel rats even abandoned their uniform coat. Soldiers began entering with a pistol and flashlight, and the Army later added a communications wire, compass, and bayonet to help them check for traps and communicate to the surface. Tunnel rats often carried a gas mask to protect against poison gas traps, but many decided to leave even that above-ground. As the war went on and tunnel rats refined their techniques, most ended up taking less and less down into the tunnels.

Often, gaining entry to the tunnels was difficult as the doors were challenging to discover without careful search. The tunnels generally lacked electric lighting and cleverly hid ventilation to minimize traces. Most tunnels required painstaking exploration to uncover and tunnel rats arrived on scene only after regular patrols had uncovered an entrance. Other times it was easy. In one instance, a Soldier and his German Shepherd were in the lead of a patrol when the dog suddenly stopped and sat. The patrol immediately stopped on alert: the dog had been trained to sniff out the enemy. Suddenly, the top of a well-hidden tunnel flew open and a Viet Cong soldier jumped out holding grenades. He was immediately shot and killed. A tunnel rat went down in the tunnel and captured a high-ranking Viet Cong officer.

While early tunnel rats entered the tunnels with a M1911 .45-caliber pistol, most found the standard sidearm unfit for the task. The .45-caliber round was too loud and the muzzle flash too bright. If he needed to fire, using a 1911 denied a tunnel rat of two crucial senses for critical seconds. Some used silencers, some did not; some carried shotguns and other revolvers. Soldiers learned what worked best in their area and with their techniques and stuck with them. Viet Cong in the tunnels rarely surrendered, so few tunnel rats wanted to experiment. The knife or bayonet was a perennial favorite: this simple blade was a bayonet probe, booby trap disarmer, snake dispatcher, and weapon in one hand that never jammed or malfunctioned.

In the amorphous world of the Vietnam War the exact impact of the tunnel rats was sometimes difficult to determine but the rats found and exploited things no one else did. According to a former Viet Cong officer, the tunnel rats eliminated over 12,000 guerillas and captured many more. In a single operation in August 1968, the rats not only killed 3 Viet Cong but captured 153 more. Most captured Viet Cong weapons and equipment were uncovered by the tunnel rats. During one operation the tunnel rats found 6,000 pounds of rice and 40 pounds of salt in a 120-foot-long tunnel. Another underground complex covered 2,000 meters and yielded cameras, films, printing presses, and type, in addition to the usual cache of weapons and ammunition. One tunnel rat stumbled across a missing M-48 tank the Viet Cong were using as a command center and others routinely uncovered hidden artillery pieces and mortars. In 1970 tunnel rats uncovered a major signals intelligence node underground. 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 addition to lists of spies passing information to the Viet Cong, the tunnel rats often uncovered maps, orders, and battle plans which helped save more American lives.

Soldiers sent down the tunnels disrupted the Viet Cong and found information their units could exploit. As the Army improved its ability to process and use the information the tunnel rats provided, the tunnels became more dangerous than useful for a Viet Cong decimated by the Tet Offensive and U.S. counteroffensive. The tunnel rats chose to go down into unfamiliar territory, without the benefits of modern technology, to deny the Viet Cong any sanctuary. In a complicated war with a painful history in American culture, the courage, skill, and nerve of the tunnel rats shone as they invented a military skill in the midst of mortal danger.

3a8082e126