RATS

[Carl Amundson]

RATS
I've seen rats then there are the rats in nam
one night about dark Charlie Harper and I watch
ed the biggest rat I ever layed my eyes on
crawl into the end of a culvert. We pored the
better part of two five gal. G.I. can of gas down
the end of the pipe. And threw a match or two
at it when it went off it shot flames and rat for
thirty feet we just layed in the mud and died
laughing untill a command Sgt Maj came crawling
around the end of the fence. He did not think it was so funny
and swore he'd have our stripes. He never got them

[Phillip Jordan]

Reading these stories bring back a few laughs. We were in a firebase 5 miles off the beach but still in the sand. The story about the rats brings back another memory. There were about 6 of us in a bunker, smokin' a little, we had had problems with the rats so they set out some traps. We were all talking and laughing when all of a sudden we heard the trap snap and the rat screamed. We all came about 3 feet off the ground at the same time, headed for the exit,and 3 of us were jambed in the doorway. One of the guys (Robinson) weighed about 250 and was about 6'5". He made his way out the door taking the other 3 of us with him. His response after we were outside was "what was that?" We told him to check the trap and he said"unh uh" When we pulled the rat out, after we shot it, it was the size of a cat. And that's no lie, but it was a good laugh! Anybody from B 2/319 arty 101st airborne remember that?

[Tom Menke]

You had to love the rats of VN. I was with Ad Team 89 and we came up with some novel ways of disposing of the rascals. One method was to mount a search and destroy mission. We would hunt down the rats with clubs which were not allowed to be longer than 24 inches. Sometimes we would get three or four a night. Another method was to catch them in traps and either drown them or put a couple of scorpions in the trap with them.

[Lou]

Yeah! I was up in the Ia Drang valley for my tour. Two, maybe three days after I arrived I was woken up one night by someone firing a 16 on "rock and roll" - INSIDE the friggin bunker! Being a cherry boy I simultaneously fell out of my bunk, crapped myself, (figurtively), prayed to Jesus, and demanded my mama!

Everyone else had a good laugh at me 'cause it was just one of the guys lighting up a rat. It didn't take long for me to become accustomed to them though, as well as somewhat of a rat behavior expert. I especially enjoyed baiting tin foil with bits of food and taping the bared wires from a field phone to it.....

[cougar]

Yup. I remember the rats. I was coming back from the perimeter to my hooch and standing in the door way was the biggest damm rat I had ever seen. This big fellow bared his teeth and stood his ground. Need less
to say I found else where to rack out.