Most Deadliest Jobs of the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War lasted for decades, with the North Vietnamese engaging South Vietnam, the United States and other allies in a protracted guerrilla war. The fighting raged across jungles, in the air, and even underground as both sides vied for supremacy.
During this drawn out conflict, some of those who fought there found themselves in situations that were more deadly, more terrifying, or just plain more unpleasant than soldiers that were fighting elsewhere.

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Credit:
Created by Daniel Turner (B.A. (Hons) in History, University College London)

Narrator:

Chris Kane

[jackcurtis]

My uncle was a tunnel rat and he sadly sufferers terribly from PTSD. He is currently is living in a VA facility, but before then he accumulated a large collection of knives, his main weapon of choice in the tunnels. He is one of the sweetest people I know and I am so thankful to have him be apart of my family.

[evil_wizard]

I met a tunnel rat once, he had to spend up to a day underground, no paper to write what he saw, a light, knife, and handgun on him

[GYT]

I'm a filmmaker currently doing a documentary on Australia's Combat Engineers aka The Tunnel Rats. Some of the stories I've heard and filmed are nothing short of incredible. Over the weekend just gone I interviewed one tunnel rat named George (I'll withhold his last name for now) who was down a tunnel, and they knew it was a "Hot Hole" as they called it because there was a lack of spiders webs. A lot of spiders webs would indicate a "Cold Hole" as they called them.
Several metres underground they found a "Letter box" in the wall. Usually a metal tin stuck in a hole in the tunnel wall couriers would drop intel or messages in and would disappear back to another tunnel. As they were trying to get it out of the wall, George was passing his torch to his fellow engineer and it shined on a figure pointing a pistol at them only a few feet away. In the blink of an eye he pulled out his Browning 9mm and fired a shot. The sound almost blew out his eardrums and the smoke in such a small space made it impossible to see anything in front of him so he fired 7 more shots in case there was anyone else behind him. When the smoke cleared and they dragged the VC body out it was a kid about 12 years old who was holding a captured American M1911 .45 however whoever gave it to this kid didn't teach him how to maintain it as the hammer and safety catch were both completely rusted to the body. So the kid was trying to shoot them but couldn't get the gun to fire.
George still holds a lot of regret about that day, and has told me in a fascinating interview. Keep a lookout for a documentary called "Holdfast: One Small Step". It's going to be my first feature documentary and it's going to expose a side of the war no one's ever heard before.

[tyleranderson]

My grandfather was a tunnel rat, and a demolition engineer in Vietnam, he has a picture of a giant python he had to kill when he ran into a nest in the tunnel with no light, in the picture the snake is laid out on a tank and is almost as long as the tank itself, really crazy and unimaginable what these brave men must have endured

[heartsandmindswarhistory]

In the military there's a lot of ego and competition. The tunnel rats enjoyed their notoriety as the biggest badasses of the war.

[RikkiSpanish]

I'm so thankful my dad was not able to fight in Vietnam. He enlisted in spring of 1968, right after graduating high school, but found out that he has atrial fibrillation. While the condition hasn't really affected his life as a civilian, I can see why it could be a serious problem in war.

[Housesider]

I've heard some absolutely batshit insane stories from former LRRPs. The missions they got sent on were nothing short of ludicrous. Absolute badasses. You should still be able to find documentaries about them on youtube.

[jamesboone]

My uncle was a tunnel rat. He's still horrified by the things he has done. He had severe PSTD. Now, he has an ongoing battle with cancer because of agent orange.

[heartsandmindswarhistory]

"The regular troops would almost shy off the path when they passed the Lurp's quarters. No matted how toughened up they became, they still looked innocent compared to the Lurps". - Dispatches by Herr.

[handsomegeorgianbankrobber]

2:41 I love the reference to that scene in Call of Duty Black Ops where that character called Swift gets suddenly killed by a Vietcong

[insaneadventures]

I had a neighbor that was a medic during Tet. He told me that when it kicked off, they didn't realize what was going on because it felt like any other day. He was also in the field with the infantry. I had another neighbor that was a pencil pusher in the green zone during Tet. That was the only time he had to fight during the war and he cannot touch a gun because it was so traumatic for him. I also met a guy that was exposed to Agent orange and his life is a mess because of it.

[FreemindRicochet]

2:40 black ops flashback caught me off guard

[heartsandmindswarhistory]

"I knew one 4th division Lurp who took his pills by the fistfull, downs fom the left pocket and ups from the right, one to cut the trail for him and the other to send him down it" - Dispatches by Herr.

[QaamansLand]

Call of Duty Black Ops reference @ 2:42 .

This is when Swift dies and you only have a pistol on the mission "Victor Charlie".

Nice work!!

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

My dad was in Nam. Every night around 9 PM the lights would suddenly go dim at his artillery battery position. The VC had tapped into the generators and were turning on the lights in the their tunnel system every night. Once the tunnel was discovered they found everything from a hospital to livestock pens.

[ViroRads]

Imagine a videogame in which you are a Tunnel rat, that would be very horrific

[chiapets]

The agent orange was a fail. And shoulda never been used on anyone

[eesrgaming]

Between simple history and Arm chair historian im wondering if you two purposely released Vietnam vids at the same time

[IndianaJenkins]

Larry Hama is one of the founding creators of the original G.I.JOE A Real American Hero comics, he is also a Japanese-American Vietnam veteran.

In 1987, Hasbro the toy company that owns GIJOE honored Hama by creating a character based on his likeness, his character is the G.I.Joe team's EOD/infiltration soldier, Tunnel Rat.

[ngthanhphong]

My grandmother told me a story about my great grandfather who is a team leader of the tunnel diggers, his tunnels saved many villagers and included my grandmother but when the Tunnel Rats coming in his tunnels, he shouts "Chuột!" means "Rats" in Vietnamese so then he saved some of his comrades (Others died trying to protect) and the villagers are taking shelter after a small fight before the Tunnel Rats exploded the tunnels