Ho Chi Minh Trail area safe for wildlife

AP ^ | March 3, 2007 | Jerry Harmer

[BIGLOOK]

Took a course which described 'Slash and Burn' agricultural methods. Sites were arable for a couple years, then abandoned. Recovery was quite short though, maybe 5-6 years......and then the S/B farmers were back again.

[BIGLOOK]

'.....I'd pay a ruble for that!'

Check out this site.

http://www.smarttravelasia.com/vietnam.htm

[Brad from Tennessee]

I don't know about the Trail because as far as I know I was never outside RVN. But in 1967, along the Laotian border, we began running into mines with U.S. markings we called "butterflies." These were gray or green, about the size of a hand grenade, and had three little wings on them. They were dropped out of aircraft and embedded themselves in the ground on a spike like some of the sensors they had at the time. They were seismically detonated when a person walked within a few feet. The body of the mine was stamped out of untreated steel so that they would rust over time and thus self-destructive. I would be interested to know if anyone knows anything else about these nasty little things./p>

[Brad from Tennessee]

Thanks.

[restornu]

How Lovely is the neightborhood after all these years!

Welcome to La la land!

Wildlife on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

Hitler's Creation of the Autobahn

[BIGLOOK]

That's news to me. Was in I Corps but on a flight crew. Our job was to monitor the Trail and gather skinny. Only device I was familiar (through the Marines) with was a Claymore, for defensive perimeter. Any unused were taken with you when you left.

I know EOD would know.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Conservation.

There is a word seldom heard anymore since radical environmentalists have declared war on Bush, America, and capitalism.

[Condor 63]

If you fancy some interesting reading then check out the story on Chernobyl's Wormwood Forest.

You said it best earlier in the thread. Life goes on.

Wormwood Forrest: A Natural History of Chernobyl

Wormwood Forrest @ Amazon.com

[Brad from Tennessee]

I was in C-1-5, 1st Marine Division. We saw these mines at the extreme western end of Que Son Valley in the spring of 1967. This began with Operation Union I and later Union II. 1/5 stayed in Que Son for seven months and we built a small combat base at Hill 51 next to Que Son village. There were no intact roads going this far west and our entire logistics was done by helicopter. This was for a rifle battalion, an artillery battery and a platoon of tanks. You can imagine what a load that put on the Air Wing. In August 1967 an NVA division came into the valley from Laos with the intent of wiping out this base. That fracas turned into Operation Swift.

Anyway, the only time we ever saw these "butterfles" was in Que Son. Usually they had deactivated through rust which they were designed to do after three to six months. I think these were experimental and that they stopped using them inside RVN because they caused numerous friendly casualties.

[BIGLOOK]

Thanks Condor. Chernobyl's been a mystery......I've yet to see photos of four eyed frogs.



Hiroshima, Japan

[U S Army EOD]

I would suspect there are quite a few sensors there and a few influence devices. Sorry but I have quit making house calls.

[BIGLOOK]

Considering the numbers you faced at Que Son, dropping mines from the air doesn't surprise me. The NVA were attempting to cut off Danang and Quang Tri from the rest of MACV, which would have been disastrous.

Thanks for the tip on Butterflies......never heard of 'em before.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Life goes on, indeed.

But what kind of life befell the once Free South Vietnamese after a post-WATERGATE Democrat Congress cut off all our funding for them to fight for their own Freedom with aganist Communist invaders from the North..?

Just as the Communist Soviet Union gave $6 Billion in 600 Tanks and 1,000's of Artillery mobile pieces to Communist North Vietnam for its planned 'Final Solution' in the South =


Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education (SLAVE LABOR) Camp

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts



NEVER ever AGAIN.


.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Elephants shepherd their young past giant bomb craters to drink at jungle water holes"

What amateur journalistic drama.

Those bomb craters ARE watering holes, probably better than the shallow natural ones chocked with dead biomass and infested with all kinds of deadly micro organisms.

Forrest clearing has no doubt made better habitat which supports even more species than it was able to before. Natures does this when it burns down sections of forest, but jungles don't benefit from nature as much as boreal forest's do, due to the high humidity and moisture content in jungles which make forest fires a rare occurrence. These "creative anti human eco-terrorist writers" just don't think things through very well these days.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Not to mention the invasion by the NVA of two sovereign countries and the displacement of the indigenous population."

"Displacement"? Why use words that hide the truth? Some were completely exterminated, wiped off the face of the earth. Thanks to Democrat traitors. They now hope to accomplish the same in Iraq.

[BIGLOOK]

Had to chuckle over the bomb crater watering holes reporting myself. But such is poetic license. Elephants would probably drink from the numerous streams in the area rather than from stagnant water in a depression.

During the time of activity along the trail, many simply fled. In a private message to a friend I'd told the tale of a VN/Laotian women who works with me. She was just a little girl at the time when her family fled to Vientienne to escape the occupation by the NVA and the conflict along the Laos/VN border. Heading into the Kontom Plateau wasn't an option. Vientienne at the time was at the time was relatively peaceful, the Three Brothers vied for power but none succeeded till later. The one who did was the leader of the Pathet Lao and his regime was Stalinesque. People worked all day and attended reeducation meetings at night before they were allowed to go home for supper.

Her family escaped during a time when the river was low into Thailand. Her grandmother, however, couldn't manage the crossing. The exterminations came later in the former SVN by the Lao Dong party and the NVA; and in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot.

As I'd mentioned above, this article caught my eye as a counter point to liberal propaganda and environmentalists' preachings of the destruction of nature. Cassandras and Jeremiahs tend to be near sighted. Life goes on.

[Rembrandt]

"This is a wonderful example of what can be achieved once the insurgents are driven out and the law of the jungle is restored."

Does the next frame include a picture of Ong Tarzan?

[Rembrandt]

"The jungle waits to swallow us all."
~~
BIGLOOK and I were both stationed at DaNang AFB in the latter '60's and early '70's.

Years later, I worked in VN (mid '90's). I had a connecting flight from Hai Phong to Saigon with an hour or so on the ground in Da Nang and was anxious to see what I could see.

I saw the VN air force, all (most of them) the MIG's parked in a large square, unprotected, rotting away on taxiways.

I also noted that the jungle had taken over much of what I remembered of the former base. By now, 11 years later, I'm sure less of the AFB is there, but, I'll bet those MIGs are still there and haven't moved or been serviced.

Green Lantern

[BIGLOOK]

Thought you'd enjoy this little find, GL. Did you ever get over there to visit? Heard the Cu Chi tunnels down south were quite a tourist attraction. Thought some of the old Binh Trams along the trail might be resorts by now.

[Old Professer]

Some of the biggest mistakes have been made for the best of reasons for the least result.

I salute your service.