In my last post, I focused more on the first day a Cherry spent in the jungle. He discovered how difficult it was to search for the enemy through the thick, impenetrable jungle while carrying sixty-five pounds of supplies on his back. The temperature and humidity were both near one-hundred and it felt like walking through the largest sauna in the world. His first night was like a terrible nightmare; the pitch blackness limiting visibility to only a foot.
His bed was the jungle floor; sharp twigs, roots and stones jabbed at him all through the night, jarring him awake each time he shifted around or turned over. He was so tired, but would not sleep on this first night. He knew the enemy was out there somewhere looking for him, and every shadow – be it leaves and branches moving during a short breeze or the moonlight filtering through the canopy and dancing across the vegetation. All this told his brain that something is out there. He’s paralyzed, frozen in place with fear, too afraid to even close his eyes. He prayed for daylight, which was still hours away. It was, by far, the most terrifying night of his entire life.
Today, I want to write more about another fear these young men had to endure while living in the jungles. Mother Nature had created many wonderful things over time; some were beautiful and others were downright frightening. The jungles of Vietnam were home to every creature, beast, and insect known to man. Some veterans attest to seeing tigers and elephants in the boonies, but I can’t say that I saw neither. However, I had seen many wild boars, cobras, small and deadly viper snakes, different spiders and a few boa constrictors. Someone once said that Vietnam was home to 100 different species of snakes – 98 were poisonous and the other 2 could crush a person to death.
Tarantulas (and other species / sizes of spiders – some the size of dinner plates), red ants, and black horseflies all hurt like hell when they bit. Bees, wasps, hornets, centipedes, millipedes, lizards, frogs, rats, scorpions, land and water leeches, orangutans, spider monkeys, bats, and hordes of mosquitoes attacked us whenever we entered their domain. The liquid bug juice
supplied by the military kept many of the flying insects from landing on bare skin, but did nothing to prevent those long-beaked malaria-carrying insects from biting you through clothes. I’d try to cover my head at night with a poncho liner to keep the mosquitoes away, but it was hot and uncomfortable and there was no escaping the constant buzzing in your ears as the blood-thirsty swarms hovered above my head, awaiting patiently for an opportunity to taste the sweet nectar.
Another heart stopper is when you felt something moving across your body during the night – there were no lights to turn on or flashlights available to investigate – besides, any light in the dark jungle would be a beacon to those who want to kill me. You took your chances and either swatted, brushed, jumped up from the ground, or just left it alone. Some of these creatures had claws
that gripped you; swatting at them usually pissed them off and resulted in a retaliatory bite, sting, or pinch. Most of the above were venomous and could make one very sick or even kill.
Someone once said that what you can’t see won’t hurt you. That might work for your peace of mind during the night, but let me tell you, these creatures were always found in the damnedest of places first thing in the morning. You could find them in your pockets, boots, helmet, rucksack, canteen cup, or laying with you under the warmth of your lightweight poncho liner blanket. A search and destroy effort was usually the first thing on the agenda every morning.
We had no choice but to endure! How would you have fared?
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If you humped,or ambushed with the 1st Wolfhounds in 68 ,it was exactly this way.
A great site. At 73 sometimes I ask myself did we really go through and endure that shyt??
You site reassures our memory and makes one realize though surreal it was real.
Thank you
NEC ASPERA TERRENT
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You told it LIKE IT WAS AND IS!!!! BROTHER! SORRY I never had the pleasure of Natures Local Residents in their LUSCIOUS TROPICAL HOME! THAT SOME DUMB TOURISTS WILL PLAY A LOT OF MONEY FOR NOW …. NO THANK YOU !
YOU STILL HAVE A HEALTHY RESPECT FOR THE GREEN HELL. I USED TO FLY FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA AND ONE THING THAT’S SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME THAT IF I GOT SHOT DOWN AND THERE’S NO FRIENDLY TROOPS AROUND AT ALL. I KNEW THEN THAT I WOULD GO FROM THE 19TH CENTURY BACK TO FIND ME IN MILLION YEARS AGO IN A MATTER OF MINUTES.
AND THE ONLY THING THAT WOULD HAVE TO SURVIVE WOULD BE MY WITS .
OR BE EATEN ALIVE OR MAYBE LATER ON 🤪 !!!???
THANK GOD I MADE IT BACK TO THE WORLD BUT I HAVEN’T FORGOT MY FRIENDS AND COMRADES THAT I LEFT THERE.
GOD BLESS ALL THAT WENT AND ALL THAT STAYED ON BOTH SIDES 🙏✝️
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Buzz Bombers
Reee-Up Birds
F__k You Lizards
Leopards
Huge Buffs
The Stink of the Jungle
The smell of burning bodies
Pallet Monkeys
6foot to 8foot lizards
Centipedes over 3 ft long Beautiful colors
Reticulated Pythons 20 ft long also Beautiful colors
Tiny mosquitos that could penetrate
The facial netting on your Boonie Hats
I can go on and on but my finger is tired.
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USMC Recon marine 1969 – 1st Marine Div, 1st Recon Bn, Echo Company. I ran point whole time in country, we stopped once on reconning the area for charlie and while sitting there I saw these Daddy Long Leg Spiders coming towards me. Their body was almost as big as my fist with legs so long I thought they were 2 feet above the ground. When I uncrossed my legs to stand up and let the patrol what was happening, they took off, never seen them again.
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Tarantulas I saw as big as my fist. Came across a web one day that stretched from one tree to the next 5 feet apart and about the same height.
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Mike, you are correct. I saw (for a few seconds) exactly what you described. Daddy Long Legs but so much larger. I heard it scuttle across plywood floor. More crablike in its walk and legs could articulate more (extra joints in legs?). Legs also had Kingcrab like spikes with short “hair”poking out of spikes. Also, a brown rounded body.
I worked with ROK Marines, (radio operator) near village of Dien Ban. Lot of “elephant grass” and sand in area as it’s not that far from South China Sea. I had just gotten to compound ( I was a FNG) and was being introduced to my bunker mate, Nate Turner of Saginaw Michigan. Out from under this coveted piece of plywood that was elevated on a few sandbags this giant spider crawled and slowly scuttled to the other side and disappeared underneath. Nate, I and another Jarhead that had driven me there from nearby Hoi An compound, looked at one another stunned without words. My mind said, “I’m sharing the bunker with this critter?” Fortunately never encountered it again. Folks ask me why we didn’t seek it out and I tell them it was the least of our worries. Too many “other things” to be concerned with. (Honestly always thought it was a prank by the ROK Marines to welcome the greenhorn.)
So glad to know I’m not the only one to see this. I’ve researched spiders/ arachnids and can not find any information about it. Yes, at least two foot in diameter, a foot tall and fist sized round brown body with spiked hairy legs.
Welcome Home Mike.
Gale Fechik/ 1st ANGLICO/ 7-71 to 12/71
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Some spiders were large enough to carry rats away…!
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In May of 1971, while attached to ARVNs during Operation Lam Son 720, we shared an NVA tunnel on Co Pung at the north end of the A Shau with centipedes at least ten inches long and as thick as a thumb. We were awakened one night with screams from a team member sleeping deeper in the tunnel after one had bitten him on the face and abdomen. We checked him and he was going into respiratory failure from anaphylactic shock, turned out he was allergic to bee stings. We ran to get a medic from the ARVNs and they brought him back with an atropine injector. Those things could kill you.
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This article brought to light some of the horrors we didn’t really give thought to back then as we watched the Vietnam War at dinner time from our small television set in the kitchen. My Aunt was Dottie was serving at the time as a Nurse. She would provide aid and comfort on flights from Saigon, to the wounded and burned soldiers that had come from the battlefield. Later she became Lt. Col but died from bone cancer thought to be from Agent Orange. Per her wishes she died at Big Will out in Texas where other nurses from the Vietnam War had gone. I will never forget the stories she shared with me about those brave soldiers. Thank you so much for your article.
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I would have totally freaked out. Thanks for having the courage to endure. I echo Liz’ comment. You write well. I would also like to read the book.
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Gotta find and reread that book. I remember getting nailed by those ants a couple times on patrols. I think they made a nest from leaves. Also remember the FU lizards but I can’t say I ever actually saw one.
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fun read. thanks. had a spider(?) on my bare head one night while leaning against a tree. when I reached up, it was bigger than my hand. this was indian country but I let out a yelp and as I was attempting to leave the other side of our perimeter, somebody tackled me. I learned to never lean up against a tree in the brush, and have your freaking helmet on.
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Digging a bunker in Minh Than at FSB Iron 1, Dec ’69, this electric green snake popped out of the ground. Incredibly fast. Green tree viper. Later in my hooch in Phuoc Vinh, fully hooded Cobra about 3 feet from my leg while sleeping. Snakes were non discriminatory regarding one’s MOS! Nightmares.
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Bugs and snakes galore. I think there are spiders the size of dinner plates in some caves some place, too. What about rats?
Good article, pdogg!
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Makes me glad I served in the Navy on the river.
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My husband was a training Sargent in VietNam. He said this was Mother Nature, then you had the things the enemy had waiting for you. Very informative for those of us at home.
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THIS ARTICLE RESURFACED MANY FEELINGS AND CRAZY AS IT SOUNDS, SMELL.
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Spot on! I thought I was back under the triple canopy.
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That’s a great article John. Those critters were everywhere. Several of us had an encounter with a tiger that entered the Phu Cat airbase one night. No harm done to us or the tiger, it was a beautiful animal. Another time a leopard cornered himself in the open warehouse and wouldn’t come out. Unfortunately it was shot.
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I don’t need to read a book, I spent 18 months there with the Marines in 66&67.
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Reminds me I had dysentery and a hangover. Sickest several days of my life …..
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my father ( Sgt. Norman Gene Glenn U..S. Army 1964-1972) volunteered to go to Vietnam time after time after time after time after time. a total of 5 voluntary enlistments each time he returned he was noticeably different after the fourth voluntary enlistment he wouldn’t hold or pick up a baby. The government terminated or as they like to say( early separation) his fifth enlistmentand he was not allowed to come home until after a very long and strenuous debriefing process in Germany cook a total of a year and a half before he was allowed to come home after coming home he only lived for a couple years before he passed away he was the youngest of all my grandmother’s children and he passed away before any of this brothers and sister he never spoke one word about what he had seen or done or lived through over there but we all knew because he would scream out in his sleep.after reading excerpts from this novel I better understand his first days and to everyone who served in the Vietnam War or any and every branch of the military I want to say thank you.after finding this I’m now going to search for the rest of this novel
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The thing I “feared” the most while running the hole (Tunnels) in 66 with B Co 1st Bn 5th Inf 25th ID “Reactionary Force for War Zone C & D at that time out of Cu Chi in the beginning when our Base Camp was the Bush, was snakes. The cobras loved the tunnels and were very aggressive during their mating season. The Bamboo with the red tails were the deadliest along with the Kraits. They have a snake farm in the delta I checked out on one of my last 4 trips back and learned a lot about what was out there. The Cong lost a lot from snake bites during the War.
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I’ll admit I had no desire to tromp or sleep in the Jungle, so that was one of the major reasons I enlisted for Armor back in 1970. I didn’t mind the idea for fighting the enemy. Just didn’t want to fight everything else. The choice did put a little distance between me and jungle creatures, in fact about 15000 miles. I ended up in Germany –
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There were black scorpions 6 inches long but I don’t know of anyone stung by one of those, i.e., it was always the 1-2 inch brown scorpion doing the damage.
Check your legs after crossing a river for the leeches….no one bloused their boots.
What was the deer like creature, built something like a kangaroo (bigger back legs than front) that ran on all fours ? Saw two of them in a year.
No elephants or tigers.
Lots and lots of ants, all kinds, sizes and colors.
Preying mantis.
I saw more snakes in nine weeks at Ft. Polk than in Nam for a year…..III Corps.
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Good . Thinking about laying waiting for a special charlie and a 6 ‘ cobra wants to make you his home on your back ! You do not move!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Reblogged this on Cherries – A Vietnam War Novel and commented:
Here’s the second post I published for this blog – 5 yrs ago!
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{{{shuddering}}} wow, no wonder my dad never fussed much over a few mosquitoes at home! we’d be on a fishing trip & sure we’d get carried off my the critters any minute, & he’d sit there calm as anything. Wow. Thanks for the post.
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My dad was in Viet Nam on two tours – he came home, but was “wounded on the inside” & never talked to us about what he went thru. He passed away 14 years ago…stories like yours are the only chance I have to connect with my dad & understand him better, and make a little more peace with my past — I sincerely thank you.
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Don’t forget the red ants that hit from above those big leaves while out on patrol. D/5/7 Cav. Do remember the water buffalo. 68-69. Best thing was when we started getting the LRRPS meals. Lighter to carry instead of all C’s. And C4 to heat the water. When the honchos realized we were breaking up the Claymores for it, they
started ordering it.
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Thanks George…I do remember all of them and do speak to them in my book. Welcome Home Brother!
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I too was a grunt with the 4th and the 101st from July 70 to July 71. Good reading on your website. Reading your blogs takes me back to those times,especially the cherry and R&R articles. Loved Bangkok. Keep up the good work.
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Steve, Thank you for posting on my blog, I’m glad you enjoyed my articles. Perhaps we crossed paths while in the 101st. Spread the word about this website. Welcome Home Brother! God bless and Merry Christmas!
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John great book! I didn’t see any tiger over there either but seen a lot of waterbuffalo. I remember a young vietnan girl suggesting that I should go boom-boom one. That was not going to happen. Thanks for the great review on my book. Great writing to you and good luck and I hope you sell a million books. It is a great story.
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A2/2 /12 1st Air Cav 68-69 ……..Great description of a ” right of passage” for the jungle grunt. Can’t wait to get my copy…!
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Rich, thanks for the kind words – I do hope you enjoy my book. Please be sure to return to the blog and leave a comment about the book itself. / John
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Can’t wait to read the entire book. A spellbinding, honest and open experience. Good work.
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