Posted on 05/03/2023 10:12:53 AM PDT by fugazi
A few years ago I came across a photo of an American solder posing with a tiger he shot during a patrol. Tigers were a threat in Vietnam, especially to LRRPs (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol soldiers) who would go behind enemy lines for days at a time and report on enemy activity. Shortly after sharing, a reader named Larry Flanagan said he was the man in the picture.
“The soldier in the picture is me,” Flanagan wrote. “I was with K Co. 75th Rangers, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division LRRPs. I was the team leader of a four-man team doing a five-day mission in a place called VC Valley in the Central Highlands. It was in January 1969, we set up am ambush where a large trail crossed a small stream. On the second day early in the morning a group of wild water buffalo came down the stream to drink. While there we saw a tiger only about 25 feet away from us stalking the herd. I fired one shot from my m-16 hitting him behind his right shoulder killing him instantly. My CO sent a copter to pick up the tiger and left us out there for four more days.”
Tiger attacks weren’t common and were rarely fatal, but when your ass is going out there, a slim chance isn’t zero. You’ve already got the enemy to worry about, and if you do have to shoot a tiger, your small and isolated team has just drawn attention to itself.
Flanagan’s trophy wasn’t the only tiger shot in Vietnam. A team of Recon Marines killed yet another just weeks after a tiger killed one of their fellow Leathernecks. My friend...
(Excerpt) Read more at untothebreach.net ...
It's hard to believe how fast these great men are leaving us... When I was young, seemingly everyone had served in World War II and/or Korea. The young guys were Vietnam vets and they were winding down their careers by the time I was serving. Now the Vietnam guys are punching out pretty quick too.
Never get out of the boat
He brought down a tiger with a single .556 round?
5.56
Personally I wouldn’t recommend anything with a smaller caliber than a B-52.
"A Tiger...In Vietnam?"
LOL. A colonel wants a trophy for the officers' club, while his ass has to stay in the jungle.
It’s all in the shot placement...
I had a nice chat with him via email which I have apparently lost. That’s basically what happened — the CO was pissed they shot the tiger and left their asses in the jungle to think about it for a few days. I wasn’t there and didn’t have all the intel they did, but it seems to me that sending in a helo to take the tiger but leave your men is a good way to get them all captured or killed.
You beat me to it.
I sense a major motion picture coming.
Shot placement is king. On a tiger that’s right in the heart.
Why send a copter to pick up the body? That would tip the enemy off much worse than the single gunshot.
My uncle gave me a CD once of pictures that he took in Vietnam. On it, there were several black and white pictures of a tiger that he said had attacked his patrol, and that the patrol has shot up. He said that the tiger didn’t stand a chance. He died about 10 years ago, and I have no idea what unit he was in. I’ve unfortunately lost that CD over the years.
And look. He’s wearing tiger striped camo. That’s a little messed up. The tiger probably saw him and thought “oh hey…”
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