Find out the tragic story of Team Rock Mat, a US Marine Corps recon unit in Vietnam that had a strange encounter in the jungle one night in May 1970. There are a thousand ways to die in Vietnam…this was one of them. Don’t miss this 5 1/2-minute video.
I never saw a tiger in the bush, but we’ve been routed by wild Boers, Cobra snakes, pythons, rock apes, and water buffalos while on patrol or in our night defensive position. What about you?
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CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website 
in June 19 68 I was a Forward air controller with third battalion 27 Marines, three of us were assigned to the Arvin 21st Ranger battalion. we were to provide air support for the Rangers operation. we were hauled northwest to Danang in a convoy of trucks with tank support. there, we jumped off and headed up into the jungle. we thought, the advanced element of the Rangers were hacking a path up the hill into the jungle when we came across a big brown mound which turned out to be elephant dung. wild elephants had and move into the jungle before us destroying the foliage. we spent almost 2 weeks in the jungle. at one point we had to gather up the Marines support canteen and go down to a stream to get water. there in the mud along the screen, I saw a tiger print that was almost bigger than my hand spread out. It had to be a big cat. Several times in my tour, we had heard about cats in the perimeter at various places..
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I did see a Tiger on patrol up close and personal. I was in Mike Company, 3rd Bn. 3rd Marines stationed at Alpha-3 on the DMZ in 1968. We were moving single file thru thick stuff when I heard a commotion up ahead. Suddenly the Marine in front of me dove off the trail, and then I was face to face with a small tiger coming right at me. I did exactly what the guy in front did, and dove out it that cats way. It brushed my leg as it went by. It was about the size of a large dog. I am the author of DMZ DIARY. My name is Jeff Kelly.
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Wow i am sure glad that i did not have to go .I have a lot of respect for those that did. Thank you for your service .
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Confirms similar stories I heard in Vietnam. Strangely, I think the tiger encounters mostly involved Marines. Maybe tigers like to chew on flak jackets. We shouldn’t forget about the damn insects either: bees, scorpions, poisonous centipedes, etc. It was not a place to lose focus.
C 5/7, 1st Air Cav 1970-’71
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one night as we were sitting up our ambush site. One of my marines let out a God offal scream ee first heard the scream then we had a tiger running across our site. When we told our cic at command they asked for clarification I told them alarge furry animal member of the cat family they told us to kill it
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Never saw a tiger, but most of the other creatures mentioned here.
The writer is absolutely correct about there being so many ways to run into death in Vietnam.
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to many snakes
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Never seen a Tiger 🐅. Did see a lot of the other creatures in Vietnam 69-70 25th ID 1/27th Wolfhounds.
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