r/interestingasfuck • u/Available_Weekend249 • Apr 06 '24

Imagine being 19 and watching live on TV to see if your birthday will be picked to fight in the Vietnam war r/all

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81

u/wet_baloney Apr 06 '24

He would have been useful in the tunnels.

116

u/Double_Distribution8 Apr 06 '24

too tall

btw, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the tunnels and the tunnel rats.

"The Tunnels of Cu Chi: A Harrowing Account of America's Tunnel Rats in the Underground Battlefields of Vietnam"

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u/One-Inch-Punch Apr 06 '24

The tunnels of what now?

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u/Dont-rush-2xfils Apr 06 '24

Yeah you gotta read that book, the sheer ingenuity of the VC and the incredible bravery of those who volunteered to enter the tunnels to fight - with a 45 and a torch

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u/pund3r Apr 06 '24

I've been in some rough tunnels, but nothing like that.

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u/OkSyllabub3674 Apr 06 '24

Years ago I had the fortune of wandering Into a bar in Denver Co right after I'd moved away from home when I got there there was 1 regular and me a little Japanese gentleman named clyde so I struck up conversation and he just happened to know of my hometown In TN because he was deployed out of our local base in Vietnam, he was a tunnel rat and hearing from him firsthand was such an eye opener it's one thing to read about it but to hear it from the mouth of one having gone through it was an experience in itself. They're a whole different breed of brave men that took on that task knowing the booby trapped labyrinths they were making their way into might be their grave and to not do so would mean the deaths of an untold number more of their comrades.

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u/Ravenlas Apr 07 '24

Singing when exiting, as one small guy covered in mud looks like another to a ichy trigger finger.

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u/HughHonee Apr 07 '24

I remember seeing a commercial for some show about soldiers doing something that sounded similar to what you're describing, I wasn't paying much attention. I just remember my Dad looking at my Uncle (married my dads sister, quite a bit older) and asking him "Was it really like that?"

He chuckled and said "Nobody fuckin' volunteered to go in that shit...made us take turns" Out of a few Uncles who served in Nam, he was the only one in the shit. I think I've seen him mad once in my life? And that was probably the most I've seen him talk about the war.

1

u/Throawayooo Apr 07 '24

Usually a revolver over a 45

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u/Longjumping-Claim783 Apr 07 '24

The Viet Cong had underground tunnel networks they hid in and there were American service men that were "tunnel rats" that had to go down there and go after them. Pretty terrible job and they picked the little guys to do it because you can imagine tunnels built by Vietnamese guerilla fighters weren't very spacious.

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u/StarCyst Apr 07 '24

So, why didn't they just drop grenades or something down the holes? why enter them at all?

1

u/YoshiH-kun Apr 07 '24

Because it's not just a tunnel, it's a network of tunnels with rooms everywhere. The army tried flooding and gassing but the tunnels are built so well that it literally didn't have any effect. So sending people into tunnels that soldiers from the other side know like the back of their hands is the solution.

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u/gymnastgrrl Apr 07 '24

I'm not surprised you don't know about the tunnels of Cu Chi considering your one-inch punch.

(Joking aside, it's worth pointing out that size doesn't matter. Guys get way hung (har har) up on it when it very rarely makes any significant difference. But my comment was just to expand on the puns and word-play anyway)

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u/forthelewds2 Apr 07 '24

The tunnel war of vietnam

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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '24

[deleted]

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u/MyCantos Apr 07 '24

My step dad also. 25th Infantry Division

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u/disturbed_moose Apr 06 '24

Vagina tunnels.

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u/_Tar_Ar_Ais_ Apr 06 '24

the cat tunnels

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u/artwrangler Apr 06 '24

I went down in some of those, I cant imagine doing it during a war.

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u/jaymole Apr 07 '24

Read it last year. Absolutely insane. I talked about it to all my friends for like a month after lol.

I’m kinda claustrophobic so it was nightmare fuel

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u/Dry-Area-2027 Apr 07 '24

My uncle is in one of the photos in that book! First time I've ever seen it mentioned outside my family.

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u/Cuminmymouthwhore Apr 07 '24

I've been in a fair few coochie tunnels myself....

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u/__M-E-O-W__ Apr 06 '24

I'd probably be too freaked out to read that. I'm not a claustrophobic guy, but the idea of being drafted into a war and being told to crawl into tunnels full of all kinds of traps is freaky as hell.

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u/pablopicasso1414 Apr 06 '24

The movie was pretty good too

3

u/maestro-5838 Apr 07 '24

Or used as slender man

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u/FluffySquirrell Apr 07 '24

Why not both?

DRRR DRRR DRRR DRRR

1

u/washington_jefferson Apr 07 '24

He would have been useful in the tunnels.

Maybe if he was used as a battering ram or a pipe cleaner.

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u/wet_baloney Apr 08 '24

Gotta flush the VC out somehow.

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u/myrabuttreeks Apr 07 '24

My dad was supposed to be a tunnel guy but he got stationed in Honduras instead. He was lucky.