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Willie
07-24-02, 05:01 PM
I was watching the History Channel and there was a Marine that talked about some of the wild life that he encountered before things got really loud. Tigers, Snakes and other exotic creatures of the jungle.

My question is, Did any of you guys run into any wild life? Tigers, Water Buffalo, etc.

Did you guys ever have any buffalo? I hear its pretty good, but you had to pay a fine if you shot one, accidental or not.

I can imagine how beautiful it was over there in some areas. Still, probably not the kind off place you want to take a trip to.

Have any exciting wild life stories? I'd like to hear them.

Cheers!
Willie

Sparrowhawk
07-24-02, 05:18 PM
One of the first creatures in Nam to draw blood was the leech!!!!


They like to suck blood, from all sorts of places... when you woke up in the morning you would find a few of them that had slep with yoou during the night....





http://leechesusa.com/leechesusa/images/leechand321.gif


Sometime they got up real close so you could see them....








http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Biology/Harbour/SPECIES/LEECHES/RESOURCES/eye2.gif

Sparrowhawk
07-24-02, 05:27 PM
They were a bit difficult to eat, and when we accidently killed them, well usually somebody paid for the price of the buffalo.

Unless they was in a free fire zone.


http://www.msnbc.com/c/0/94/694/10x7/twip_2002_0718_01.jpg

Sparrowhawk
07-29-02, 12:56 PM
Willie for your enjoyment and information:

From my book
when I was a t 1st med hospital, in Da Nang



Dreams of Glory (c)
Cook Barela



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

1st Medical Hospital
DaNang, South Vietnam
November 28th, 1967

..... we soon gathered around and begin to compare the color of our feet and the various stages of infections. Soon we were comparing other diseases encountered in Nam. Malaria, leprosy, and all kinds of social diseases.

We compared the marks left behind by insect bites, infected eyes from insect bites, the color of the puss we had seen. Sizes of snake bites, animals bites and the weird multi-colored and noisy birds and animals we had seen.

We spoke of the largest rats we had killed and how many roosters, chickens, dogs and rock monkeys we had shot. We spoke of the rounds it takes to bring a large size water buffalo down. We went from there to the type of food we had eaten, which included large insects, wild boars, snakes, dog, rats, monkeys, water buffalo, pigs, chicken, ducks and brown husked rice that moved.

We shared stories about gorillas, monkeys, elephants and tigers that had been encountered in the bush. We spoke about the disease caused by leeches when they were plugged off and left their heads behind, imbedded under the skin. Some Marines even spoke about the war and the dead chinese, and Russian advisors they had killed, gooks they had seen or killed and the many colorful clothes and different uniforms they had worn. Tall ones, skinny ones, fat ones, stinky ones, and the women that had followed their men into battle and had died alongside them.

Cook

Willie
07-29-02, 01:29 PM
Pretty interesting stuff. Sounds like you walked into a zoo over there!

I have a couple of questions about the previous story that interested me.

"brown husked rice that moved."
Is this a food or an animal, and if its a food, why the he|| is it moving?

"We spoke of the rounds it takes to bring a large size water buffalo down."
Since I don't hunt and have never seen a water buffalo up close, I wouldn't have the slights idea. I imagine there are vital spots on the buffalo that would make it a quicker kill, depending on your aim! All scenarios on a one by one basis, I'm sure it was difficult some of the time... ...and I do believe I answered my own question... I'm thinking it wasn't that easy.

Sounds like some pretty wild stuff, but I cant imagine those animals sticking around to long after gun fire erupts!

Thanks for the info Sparrowhawk!

Sparrowhawk
07-29-02, 02:42 PM
The &quot;brown husked rice that moved,&quot; is in reference to what i ahd already shared with the reader. During Operation Foster, we hadn't been re-supplied and hadn't eaten for days. <br />
<br />
we came upon a...

Rat Patrol
07-29-02, 04:31 PM
Hope they wasn't any of my cousins!


http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bclee/small_skeleton2.gif

Rat Patrol
07-29-02, 08:23 PM
WILD LIFE, MARINE STYLE~

glock9mm
03-07-08, 12:25 AM
I was watching the History Channel and there was a Marine that talked about some of the wild life that he encountered before things got really loud. Tigers, Snakes and other exotic creatures of the jungle.

My question is, Did any of you guys run into any wild life? Tigers, Water Buffalo, etc.

Did you guys ever have any buffalo? I hear its pretty good, but you had to pay a fine if you shot one, accidental or not.

I can imagine how beautiful it was over there in some areas. Still, probably not the kind off place you want to take a trip to.

Have any exciting wild life stories? I'd like to hear them.

Cheers!
Willie
On Hill 327 in '66 drinking most of the day. Walking back drunk to the compound I started feeling sick and started to vomit on the side of the road. I was throwing up violently in a ditch for a couple of minutes and when I raised my head I was staring into the eyes of a snake that looked like a cottonmouth or rattler with no rattle but with a bump on its snout. It was pretty big. I put my head down real slow and stayed still for awhile.
When I looked up it was gone. I don't know if it was poisonous or not, but I got stone sober real quick. Semper Fi.

SlingerDun
03-07-08, 01:51 AM
It's basically a cow Willie, unless it's Bison. Either way bull or ox meat is tough from a life of fighting or plowing and harrowing and bulls are often 'double muscled'. Takes a rosin jaw to get through a steak. Sometimes old females can be tender depending on their feed and activity level but dont count on it, i think in Asia they are all breed for work. Anything thats not young and topped off on grain to produce marbling before slaughter wont make it at the city steak house anyway.

Riven37
03-12-08, 06:46 AM
We had a Tiger come through our lines one night, and drag off a FNG we didn't even hear the Tiger. Also, I killed a Walter Buffalo word came down we were going to be hit but nothing happen, someone paid someone off.

sgtrock1970
03-12-08, 08:43 AM
Lions, Tigers and Bears Oh My!! Plenty of wildlife-snakes,water Boo, leeches mosquitos, flys, VC, NVA, dysentary,and Lifers. After I arrived Incountry read in Stars and Stripes about Tiger attack but never saw one of those critters.

greensideout
03-13-08, 09:54 PM
Was flying along at the door of a HUS-1 in '62 so low that I could have picked rice along the way. A Water Buffalo to reach out and touch. However, it was in Panama that I was near a Bushmaster and a killer bee nest. Wildlife? Wherever you go. ;)

testforecho2112
03-13-08, 10:35 PM
When I was TAD for VIP training at Ft. McClellan AL in the mid 90's, we were in the field for a few days and doing advanced land nav...we crossed a stream, and one of the dark green Marines from GA saw a bull frog in the water near me, he told me to catch it so he could make cajun frog legs, I reached down where we had last seen it and grabbed something moving, pulled it out and it was a Cottonmouth...all of a sudden I was alone in the stream...first time I ever saw Marines walk on water! Good thing I was in the stream, it hid the fact that I pi$$ed myself. It did make me somewhat infamous though! Some of the more superstitious Marines thought I was cursed, the rest thought I was invincible. Ahhh....the good ol' days!

claymar
03-15-08, 11:12 AM
Charlie Co. 3rd Recon in 65 had a famous tiger encounter. Mauled a squad leader before the team shot and killed it. 3rd recon web site has the photo at Camp Reasoner below hill 327. Picture hung in the mess hall the whole time I was there.

Also saw a number of elephants along the border. Rumor had it the VC were using them to move equipment along the border and into the Delta. Our teams would stake out elephant trails to verify that but never did.

olscout
03-15-08, 01:29 PM
In the Chu Lai area in 1966 we ( 2/5 ) saw a fair amount . Interesting little combat with a mongoose dashing around brush and finally bagging a cobra .A deer tripping a trip wire and being startled as a flair went off . Some sort of blasted bird that dived on us as we were setting up in sandy area .

I went back in 1968 and the only wild life I saw was a dead jackal caught in one of those green sapling traps hanging upside down . War was hard on the critters. Except the rats that ran across us at night and/or rooting around in the garbage pits. I never even minded the leeches that bad but I always hated rats !

montana
04-03-08, 06:23 AM
shot a water buffalow with my m14 1 shot ..make an x between the ears and eyes and they go down fast...kitcarson cooked it for us.. boiled it in a helmet first then over a fire...wasnt bad...guess its all in how hungery you are
a small deer ran out and along side us on patrole
although we didnt see it we head a tager eating one of the gookes we killed earlyer in an ambush....that keeps you awake
cupple cobras one bamboo viper some pigs...one eating on a gook that had been kia a few days earlyer...the pig must of not been able to smell very well
a mongees and leeches centapeeds that were huge

olscout
04-03-08, 10:13 AM
Had forgot about the wild pigs . They did eat bodies ...noisely .

Snakes . We saw them but maybe because we lived out there too and were used to them I don't remember anyone getting bit . We killed a few with e-tools usually .

Damned centipedes. Multi-legged bas.....Was bit on the neck by one . Doc gave me APC but nothing else to be done. Hurt like hell all night .

Hadn't thought of it before but remember very little wild life in 1968 .Except the rats , guess incoming didn't bother them .

sgtrock1970
04-03-08, 11:07 AM
How in the hell did I forget about the rats.

olscout
04-03-08, 01:16 PM
Always present in fixed positions . When we were nomads choppering or humping into the bush I don't remember them at all. Not even the base camps at Chu Lai or Phu bai .I remember our platoon taking over a hill Northwest of Danang . Old French concrete bunker ,a couple of stacked bunks and the Gunny set up a cot in an open space. Woke up in the night with a yelp from the gunny then a bunch of swearing.A rat had dropped off the celing and landed on his chest .

SgtThrasher
04-03-08, 01:21 PM
How in the hell did I forget about the rats. _________________________________________________
Shortly after we landed in Dong Ha a Tiger was killed @Quang Tri ,but they were nocturnal and I never saw one.We
bathed and washed our utilities in any flowing water which
made us leech food.The rats, I hated the most, I remember @ Khe Sanh the rats would run down the trenches and you
slept with a towel around your head or you may wake up scratched-up and require rabies shots,getting killed was
just one hazard marines faced daily.The water buffalo was their tractor,killing one was a no- no.The two step
charlie vipers, were every where incountry .
Sgt Thrasher
RVN Feb 68/Feb 69
:evilgrin:________________________________________ __________

iamcloudlander
04-03-08, 04:07 PM
there were so many different types of bugs I don't think anyone knows what they are spiders everywhere big ugly hairy ones and the gekkos everywhere I can't watch a geico commercial without thinking of the gekkos in Nam.