Thank you for your service. Where in Vietnam were you a tunnel rat? My brother was in the U.S. Army, in the re-activated 25th Infantry Division. He was in Cu Chi ‘66-’67. I remember him writing home about the tunnels of Cu Chi, and the stuff that was found in them. I distinctly remember him writing home that they found Singer sewing machines down there, and a lot of other stuff that was sold on the black market. He served as point man from time to time, and carried a grenade launcher. His unit was one of the first to be mechanized over there. When he got back home in April of ‘67, he had one year left on his enlistment. They sent him to Fort Carson, Colorado. They told him that he’d be training new recruits. It never happened. All he’d ever wanted to do from the time he was a young boy, was be a soldier. He never talked about his time over there, and never bad-mouthed the military, although I’m sure he was disappointed at times. Sadly, he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 51 in 1995. Left a widow and four kids. The youngest, a girl was 16 at the time. She’s married with four kids...two boys, and twin girls. The oldest boy will be a senior in high school this year. Other than my two sons, they are the only part of the family I have left.
Thank you for your brother and the work he did in Vietnam. I’m sorry to hear he died so young from the heart attack. Did he have ischemic heart disease? I’ve got it from Agent Orange, but medicine has progressed since your brother died. I’ve had a couple of heart attacks, bypasses and stents, but am getting along OK.
I worked tunnels on the Batangan Peninsula in I Corps. We were about 5 clicks from My Lai, but word about the massacre had not yet come out. I was with the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines.
We mainly worked two complexes, each about 3,000 feet long, including side branches. We blew about 20,000 lbs of Composition B cratering charges to destroy these. No Singer sewing machines, but we did capture 41 VC.
One morning I crawled out of one entrance and saw spit-shined jungle boots, starched, creased jungle utilities, a white head of hair and “1, 2, 3...1,2,3” stars on each shoulder. It was Lt Gen Stillwell.
“You boys are doing a great job! I’ll see that you all get a Bronze Star and a promotion to sergeant!”
Naturally, that’s the last we heard of that. The Marines are not too quick to hand out promotions and definitely not Bronze Stars to enlisted men, unless there was a lot of shooting going on and maybe you were wounded. Our Company commander did write us up for the Navy Achievement Medal, with Combat V. That was probably appropriate for what we did. Mine caught up with me in 1973.