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Posted: 1/23/2012 11:32:07 AM EDT
I'd never seen pictures of the booby traps used in the war, so I thought this was interesting.
http://www.themysteryworld.com/2012/01/booby-traps-of-vietnam-war.html |
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We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps.
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Quoted:
We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps. Something like one percent of all US casualties in Vietnam were due to jury-rigged IEDs. The #1 cause was gun shot wound, followed by various types of injury from conventional explosives. |
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We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps. The K-D was 40-something to one. We still couldn't hold down the objectives. Just a bunch of fuckin' noobs all spamming vehicles and tubes while they camped the flags. Seriously. |
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Quoted:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mesj7cIAo9I/TwwqpZ5VVOI/AAAAAAAAyMI/bumELxbqlhU/s1600/Vietnam_war_booby_traps_01.jpg best pic of article. Damn...they grow Blondes in Viet Nam? Any Red Head seeds available? Might just have to take a sabbatical to see if I can grow some 'organic' produce..... ![]() |
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Their tunnels allowed them to move freely all over the battlefield, it made a force of 10 or 20 guys look like 40 or 50. What a clusterfuck.
Why didn't we make use of tunnels and underground systems? |
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Their tunnels allowed them to move freely all over the battlefield, it made a force of 10 or 20 guys look like 40 or 50. What a clusterfuck. Why didn't we make use of tunnels and underground systems? Read somewhere that the impact of a 500lb bomb from an A-1, A-4, whatever, was enough to collapse sections of tunnel up to like 50 feet deep... God knows how many VC simply suffocated to death or were crushed in those circumstances. It also helps explain why our kill estimate is lower than what Hanoi admitted to on the anniversary of the take-over in 1995. Maybe not the only thing, but a big part of it. |
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Quoted: i dont think "couldnt" is the correct word. i think "wouldnt" and/or "allowed" works better. everywhere that was cleared was then abandoned and the enemy allowed to return.Quoted: We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps. The K-D was 40-something to one. We still couldn't hold down the objectives. Just a bunch of fuckin' noobs all spamming vehicles and tubes while they camped the flags. Seriously. |
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We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps. That wasn't the goal. The goal was to mess up your mind and when they did get you they wounded you and that meant more guys taking care of you than if you were dead. |
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Quoted:
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i dont think "couldnt" is the correct word. i think "wouldnt" and/or "allowed" works better. everywhere that was cleared was then abandoned and the enemy allowed to return.
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We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps. The K-D was 40-something to one. We still couldn't hold down the objectives. Just a bunch of fuckin' noobs all spamming vehicles and tubes while they camped the flags. Seriously. This. We never lost a battle but we didn't hold the ground. Not part of the plan. |
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those pics are at a tourist trap , 10 year war to fight communism and save the people , now the country is thriving and the people are
happy. That taught me to never believe our government and its leaders NEVER |
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Those all seem pretty tame to the ones I saw in the central highlands. One of the most effective was a hand grenade with the pin pulled and stuck in a C ration can with a string strung across a trail.
All of the booby traps were marked in some way. Some of the signs were very subtle but there if you were paying close attention. If you saw 3 of something like 3 stones beside the trail or 3 twigs stuck in the ground you could bet there was a trap nearby. |
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Their tunnels allowed them to move freely all over the battlefield, it made a force of 10 or 20 guys look like 40 or 50. What a clusterfuck. Why didn't we make use of tunnels and underground systems? We do. On our own ground. Subways, sewers, missile silos, Cheyenne Mountain, Congress/Senate tram, etc. |
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Some of those look pretty fucking nasty. Especially after they added the piss and shit. ![]() |
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Quoted: Those all seem pretty tame to the ones I saw in the central highlands. One of the most effective was a hand grenade with the pin pulled and stuck in a C ration can with a string strung across a trail. All of the booby traps were marked in some way. Some of the signs were very subtle but there if you were paying close attention. If you saw 3 of something like 3 stones beside the trail or 3 twigs stuck in the ground you could bet there was a trap nearby. Yep - sticks laid in various patterns, folded leaves, leaves with sticks or bamboo through them, etc... There were plenty of innocent villagers maimed and killed by booby traps as well. |
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I wrote a research paper on the VC when I was in high school. The r&d put into these things is both horrifying and fascinating. Concept-wise very much in common with modern IED's used today.
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Quoted: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mesj7cIAo9I/TwwqpZ5VVOI/AAAAAAAAyMI/bumELxbqlhU/s1600/Vietnam_war_booby_traps_01.jpg best pic of article. Always wondered where they got their name... |
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We killed more of them with Napalm then they did us with those traps. Something like one percent of all US casualties in Vietnam were due to jury-rigged IEDs. The #1 cause was gun shot wound, followed by various types of injury from conventional explosives. Actually it was about a third of our casualties. They were very effective. Thirty-three percent of U.S. casualties in Vietnam and twenty-eight percent of deaths were officially attributed to mines; these figures include losses caused by both IEDs and commercially manufactured mines.[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_Band_Grenade#Vietnam Makes a lot of sense. You don't even have to be acceptable as a combatant to plant a or make a booby trap. A 7 year old boy could make a trap that would take a Marine off the battlefield using nothing more than a crude knife, some bamboo, and some leaves to conceal it. Very "cost effective" they could get explosives from unexploded US ordinance and rig it into an IED that could take out an APC with out spending 1 penny. Interesting thought about the chick going into the tunnel entrance. They purposely made the entrances to their tunnels really narrow so that our big American asses couldn't squeeze in. I'm told the tunnels you see now have been widened to accommodate the tourists. |
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One interesting trap we found was actually a trap. It was huge and used old truck springs to close it. It was very heavy for the guys that had to carry it to an LZ for removal. The jaws were near 3 foot in diameter. One of the guys tripped it with a bamboo pole and it shattered the bamboo.
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Quoted:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mesj7cIAo9I/TwwqpZ5VVOI/AAAAAAAAyMI/bumELxbqlhU/s1600/Vietnam_war_booby_traps_01.jpg best pic of article. Wait a minute! You mean to tell me that this is what popped out to greet our GI's over there? My history teacher was full of shit! |
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Quoted: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mesj7cIAo9I/TwwqpZ5VVOI/AAAAAAAAyMI/bumELxbqlhU/s1600/Vietnam_war_booby_traps_01.jpg best pic of article. She also does parties ![]() |
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Damn, that twin roller one looks particularly nasty. Just keep poking holes in you until you can stop yourself from falling.
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Actually it was about a third of our casualties. They were very effective. Thirty-three percent of U.S. casualties in Vietnam and twenty-eight percent of deaths were officially attributed to mines; these figures include losses caused by both IEDs and commercially manufactured mines.[10] That figure includes commercial mines, of which there were a shit ton. Mines are not booby traps or IEDs. |
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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mesj7cIAo9I/TwwqpZ5VVOI/AAAAAAAAyMI/bumELxbqlhU/s1600/Vietnam_war_booby_traps_01.jpg best pic of article. needs more boobies |
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They also served to keep you on edge, a man is not very effective if he has lost sleep because old papasan was sniping at him for half of the night, if you have a constant fear in the back of your mind about tripping a trap then you might not be as effective in the field. One of there favorite things to do was to boobytrap old American NBPs, after humping all day the average GI is not going to feel like digging a foxhole..so what does he do he goes to the ones that were simply covered over by the guys that were there before, as soon as that entrenching tool hits the dirt..WHAM it hits a booby trapped mortar.
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Some of you don't understand the psychology behind the VC/NVA's use boobytraps.
Even a trap that was detected could be effective. How is that possible? First, SOP was to blow an explosive trap in place whenever possible. That gives the enemy effective notice of the approach of troops and their exact location. Second it takes time to accomplish. Third, the knowledge of the placement of that one trap slows the advance once the trap is cleared. The combination of those factors often gave the enemy time to get away, which was often the reason the trap was laid in the first place. |
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they didn't have to kill you with a booby trap, any serious puncture or cut would take you out of the field. To not get wounds cleaned and properly bandaged in that climate was a recipe for nasty infections.
+1 to the comments above. you hump a patrol day or night through the bush looking for that shit, going slow as hell, it's hot as a mofo and then when you get back to the wire, you get harrassment fire so you can't rest. Combat warfare can be on many levels. It ain't all taking shots across the green at each other. |
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