Anyway, back to the Central Highlands. The first thing Binh taught me was how to find and disarm Viet Cong booby traps. A VC defector taught him that. So those were my first combat missions so to say: hours of crawling forward slowly and looking for trip wires, probing for mines, and avoiding punji traps. A punji trap was a set of sharp sticks facing up in a small then covered with something flimsy and some camouflage. If you stepped on top of one, you’d fall through and get impaled. The VC made little signals on the ground with sticks and leaves as warnings to themselves about the traps and mines they placed. I had to learn those as well. It was sort of like learning hieroglyphics. I also learned how to look for tunnel entrances. The key was to look for traces of smoke. The VC slept and cooked underground when they were out in the jungle. Anywhere it was easy to dig, there was a tunnel system and there were VC tunnel networks just outside almost every city and town in South Vietnam.
It’s hard to describe how frightening it is to crawl through a VC tunnel by yourself. After I spotted one nearby from the smoke, I waited a week until I didn’t see any more smoke and felt confident all the VC had left the tunnel. The entrance was hidden under a trap door that was marked with a nearby sign made from sticks and rocks. Anyone who didn’t know what the sign looked like would not have noticed it. The tunnels are made just big enough for the VC, who are smaller than American GIs on average. It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic. All I took with me was Ka-Bar knife, a Colt .45, and an Army red lens flashlight, the kind that has a pistol grip. To keep from getting snagged, I was shirtless with just jungle boots and fatigue pants. There were enough pockets to hold anything important I found. That Ka-Bar would later save my life. Guns run out of ammo, but knives never run out of stab.
As for footwear, I would later switch to VC rubber sandals made from old tires. They’re comfortable, durable, and help keep your feet dry and healthy. Not sure why so many GIs waded through rice paddies with socks and leather boots. It’s recipe for trench foot, which is painful and takes days heal. Trust me, I know. Getting it once as a kid was enough for me. Avoiding malaria is also important when living in the jungle. Quinine helps, but it’s best not to get bitten by a mosquito in the first place. I slept under a chemically treated mosquito net. The Army issued me a net and a chemical tablet. I soaked the net in a bucket, added the tablet, stirred the water to dissolve the tablet, and then let the net soak for a while. That net worked great. I missed it when I forced to go without it, so I decided to chemically treat my fatigues the same way if there was a good chance I’d be stuck out it the open at night.
I knew they would notice if I took something important or took too many things or left the place looked like it had been searched. I also didn’t know when they’d be coming back. I decided I would spend no more than an hour in the tunnels and would memorize tidbits from important documents rather than take them. I found a kitchen, a basic field hospital, sleeping quarters, an armory, and what must have been the local VC commander’s private office. It felt good to hit the jackpot. Another stroke of good luck was that none of his papers were locked up, as he figured no enemy would ever be in the tunnel complex. Very carefully, I opened all the drawers and folders, quickly skimmed all the papers, jotted some notes down in my notebook, and put them all back just the way I found them. I made a note to myself to request a spy camera so I could photograph documents the next time I explored another tunnel network.
Back at the outpost, I typed up a report of my findings, which included the local commander’s name, his units and their strength, and their activities. I radioed for a chopper to pick me up so I could present my report in person to my commander. Before that, I discussed my findings with Binh and revised the report based on his advice. I decided that Binh should come with me to present the report. It would lend credibility to me and build rapport with Binh. At the time, Binh knew no English, so I taught him some greetings and explained that this was the key to getting American help to the fighters in his village. Americans unfortunately tend judge foreigners by how well they speak English, which often means they do all their business with the worst sorts of people and suffer for it as a result. To that end, I tried to teach everyone at the outpost a little English. We also made a welcome sign in English in case any American visitors showed up. Little things like that make a good first impression.
My commander, Colonel Samuel Truman, was glad to see me. We would come to know each other very well over the next three years. Truman was in charge of about a dozen different special forces teams in the area. A few others, like me, worked alone but were under his command. Truman had fought in Burma and other parts of southeast Asia during WW2 with General Joe “Vinegar” Stillwell. Stillwell’s soldiers were called Chindits, because they fought in the so-called China-Burma-India-Theatre, or CHINDIT for short. It’s sort of like the way we have CENTCOM today. Like me, Truman had a flair for foreign languages. He learned Burmese during the war and spent most his time gathering intelligence from them. He studied French before the war and since French was widely spoken in Indochina at the time, it was easy for him to communicate with other locals, including some French officers who stayed behind. In fact, the countries of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were all called French Indochina at the time. Indochina included all the countries between India and China: Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
On the subject of military malfeasance, the other day, I forwarded an email from the office of my congress critter to my best friend from NSA. I pointed out how author writing on behalf of congress, with official letterhead and everything, did not use proper capitalization. That was the email whereby I was informed that my petition to upgrade my discharge had been rejected because it was incomplete (I didn’t sign and date it because the section for it was mislabeled).
Well, imagine my surprise today when I saw the guy using proper capitalization for once. All this pulling of teeth is so tiresome. I also emailed John Stossel about my tale of woe and my blog got a spike in hits. So there’s that.
Did you tell your blog is fake?
Not sure what you mean by that.
*tell him
The ole David Schultz move
Oh, I get it now. Poor Stossel. There was a TV host that Hulk Hogan choked out. The host took it remarkably well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7n_SHrK408
Sort of on-topic posted on the ded thread
Our own Ozymandias got mentioned in a Brietbart article.
Keep up the good work Ozy!!
Hear, hear! It’s also nice to see more glibs putting their names out there.
Keep up the good work Ozy!!
Seconded
Went right past this, sorry Hobbit but yes, Ozy in the news is always good for our brothers in uniform.
COMMENT:
Hey Derpy, great story. You’ve led an incredible life. I used to know a guy who said he was a tunnel rat in ‘ Nam. I always figured his stories were, unlike yours, all BS.
Fun read.
I’ve been lucky in many ways and so I try to be thankful for all the good things in my life.
In real life, I’ve been in many caves and spent a lot of time walking around in the African jungle at night by myself.
We had an ‘administrative assistant’ in the past. Unassuming, Ned Flanders type personality. Until you really got to know him and talk to him. Dude was running the river in Nam, saw more shit than even the boys coming back from the desert. Never know til you know.
If you haven’t met Ozy, you need to. Fantastic Marine and great guy. Keep givin’em hell and Nuts!
We had a spat over semantics a while back, so I’m not sure I’m allowed to talk to him.
I think he just hates you because you are so god damn second. I know that’s my major issue with you.
So incredibly second.
The most second man on the internet.
Sorry to go OT, but I think many here will find this of interest. John Cleese has a new interview show on something called GBN. The Dinosaur Hour.
Cleese has some great YouTube shorts from the past few years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv6bB8EN2lA
Some more pics from my Peace Corps stint:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/11/my-old-house-in-tanzania.html
My oldest cousin was in the Peace Corps. Loved it.
Peace Corps: Fighting Fire With Marshmallows Since 1961
I loved it too. They tried to rope me into a 2nd tour in Liberia. In late 2009, the civil war there was over, and they had a fair democratic election.
He did it to either help decide to be a Presbyterian clergy or did as part of his his training.
It does have a way of getting you to think about what you want to do in life. I went in part because my dad was a Mormon missionary in Germany and later wanted to do foreign aid work. I found out about Peace Corps from one of his old books.
Dude and I had a fabulous BBQ dinner with Ozy and DEG.
These two teams are really well matched, I must say.
Simultaneously a Super Bowl rematch and preview, I suspect.
Yep. Eagles Twitter is upset about the wet/slick field. Again.
They just need to recharge their batteries.
Hurts’ butt is too slick to push!
Chiefs seem to be doing a good job exposing Eagles weaknesses. But it should be about 31 to 14 now, not a three point lead.
We seem to be having our weaknesses exposed also, so the 3 pt is not a surprise.
The walk-through Vietnam exhibit of the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asu_mrM2ij8
In a lighter vein, War Stories With Tom Anderson (a Hank Hill type character from Beavis and Butthead):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995a8AtGObg
I forget if I posted this here already, but I took a swing at writing spy fiction:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-call-of-patchouli.html
Like Chico Esquela, Viet Nam was very, very, very good for some, not so good for some 60 K GIs. Promotions were fast, the tail was vast, something like 10
:1 strap hangers to combat troops. Troops in the field got pizza and ice cream when available, delivered by chopper.
I stopped by the main PX in Saigon, they had fur coats/stoles. WTF was up with that? I had a reel-to-reel and stereo equipment.
I read that there was a brisk trade in wood carvings of Shaka Zulu just outside US bases in Somalia during the lead up to the battle of Mogadishu. Evidently neither the buyers nor the sellers cared that Shaka had nothing to do with that country. In the same book, a US soldier is talking to a journalist and says something like “man, I can’t wait to get out of this shithole.” The journo asks him how long he’s been in Somalia, and the soldier says “going on two weeks now.”
My favorite travelogue is by PJ O’Rourke. It’s called All the Trouble in World, and it’s about his travels through Bangladesh, Somalia, Haiti, and some other not so nice places.
The Northern Ireland chapter is brilliant.
I remember getting off the plane onto the tarmac at KWI. Shithole confirmed olfactorily.
Just saw an ad for WatsonX Code Assistant.
It made me wonder: is it really a such a good idea to teach AI to code?
“AI” already knows how to code. Is it a good idea to allow AI to develop new code without human interaction is the real question.
Computers have been designing their own circuits for decades. There’s no defining moment for the technological singularity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_compiler
Code Assist and the like can be handy, it’s not really doing anything on its own.
I’ve used ChatGPT for things like: “using Ansible, given JSON output from a GraphQL query like the following, how do I extract the YAML in groupVars into an Ansible variable”
I’d get the answer on my own, eventually, but it saved a lot of time.
I finally got the PC I’m building for my niece up and running. Unfortunately, it is true Microsoft has stopped accepting Windows 7 keys for 10/11. Of course, they stopped after I had started the build but before I got it running. That’s my kinda luck. She can figure that shit out. At least it let me install 10, now I’m loading it up with stuff, like all the Japan only Transformer eps, Mysterious Cities of Gold and editing software. (she watched those cartoons as a kid, 22 now,, because fuck I’m an awesome uncle)
So apparently Darkest Time-line Tom Jones won the election in Argentina and everyone from the mainstream media is freaking the fuck out? More please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SWNnGECjU
Like they ever gave a shit about Argentina before this morning.
I did. They will probably move to bitcoin to escape crushing inflation. And Milei’s win crushed the power of the state to do a CBDC. FUCK THE STATE!
He has explicitly stated he will dollarize the Argentine economy. It’s a good move to tame inflation.
I am disappoint that my joke lacked traction.
Pshaw. It was good.
It bombed?
Games like this are always interesting because some idiot on the winning team will say something like how its revenge for the Super Bowl/playoff loss the previous year. Mind numbingly dumb individuals.
Lotta drops.
Underdogs win! The way the Eagles played 1st half I didn’t think it possible.
The KC receivers coach is probably updating his resume.
Probably should have told those guys not to drop those balls.
The Tale of Two Industries. An argument that there was a far more advanced seed civilization pre-Egypt. Like, computer level advanced. Does analytical breakdown of Egyptian artifacts and argues their precision could not have been achieved the way archaeologists claim, and points out the basic reality that archaeologists are not fucking engineers and do not have real expertise on the subject.
Didn’t Leonard Nimoy cover this in the 80s?
Were they Hobbits or Sasquatch?
Why not both?
some suggested music for this post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhiHoqp0neU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi6yEz1dAMY
OK, evil doers; put up your fists and fight!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeQryt_NU2Y
***
3Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the Earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
7Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the Sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you…
…
20Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
***
Good morning y’all!
😁🌄
Let’s rock the fuck out this morning:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mF53On_P7qI
🎶🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgeIINs1TrQ
The good book says: One who is steadfast in righteousness attains life, But one who pursues evil attains his own death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowZqZHJ-cA
Being good is hard, but it’s worth it. Stay thirsty, my friends.
Good morning all!
Wrapping up the John Foxx today, we have:
Dancing Like a Gun.
It seems like there’s No One Driving.
Share and enjoy!
Good morning, Beau, Derpy, and Sean!
Morning.
Good morning, U! How are you today?
Grumpy.
I fell asleep before I intended to last night.
I’m sorry. Still, you must have needed it. I need to get more sleep.
🙂
These idiots keep getting the order of operations wrong. Shoot yourself FIRST! 😒
Morning! Let the work begin!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3tBX1bRE7CA
I’ve got that song on the SD card in my car radio.
A man of constant sorrow:
***
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.
***
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHamgwlQ1yo
Thank you for the article, Derpy. I was pretty busy yesterday and had little chance to post.
It’s all good in the ‘hood, bro. Your movie articles are great.
Helping is my passion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPp-U4QonnM