Critters in Combat, Stories

[Ambush Master]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

Does anyone have stories about stinging ants? I worked for a LTC at SWC who talked about these ants that formed balls that hung from the trees. Said he'd seen firefights dirrupted for both sides because the ants got disturbed.

Yes, there were these BIG RED ANTS that built their nests in one particular kind of tree. They would take the large leaves of this plant and chew/stitch the edges of the leaves together to build a nest. These things could get to be larger than a football, with many additions onto the original cluster. They were in the lower levels of the triple+ canopy and were usally at about the right height to be "Dislogded" by a Ruck of a bent over round eye!!! Ants DOWN THE NECK!!!!

Luckily the Yards usually saw them first and would call for a Halt. Then they would drop their gear and gather around surveying the site, and then grab it, with a bunch of the rather large leaves of this same plant, and roll them into something like a Burrito!! Then they'd eat them. Did taste pretty good, I must say.

Later
Martin

[Dozer523]

Originally Posted by Ambush Master

Luckily the Yards usually saw them first and would call for a Halt. Then they would drop their gear and gather around surveying the site, and then grab it, with a bunch of the rather large leaves of this same plant, and roll them into something like a Burrito!! Then they'd eat them. Did taste pretty good, I must say.

Later
Martin

Thanks Martin, for the confirmation. So did they cook the "burrito"? I would guess that would sort of steam them. . .

[Ambush Master]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

Thanks Martin, for the confirmation. So did they cook the "burrito"? I would guess that would sort of steam them. . .

Negative, they just rolled them up in the leaves, crushing them while eating the ones that escaped during the process. Picture a kid with a runny ice cream cone licking/biting the drops off of their hands. The leaves were quite tasty, along with the "Filling"!!

The Yards usually only carried the rice and would come up with all manner of items to keep themselves fed while we were on the move or held up.

And then there were the Rock Apes and roving Bands of Tree-top Monkies plus Trail-running Cobras!!!

Later
Martin

[f50lrrp]

The Cambodes that I worked with used to catch and make into jerky the lizards that inhabited the Third Corps area of RVN. They would make a noose out of a long piece of grass and then catch the lizard with the noose by sliding the grass over the lizards head and stommping the ground. As the lizard tried to get away, the noose would tighten and the lizard was caught.

They then took the lizard(s) to some flat rocks and pound them with other rocks until the were flat. The lizards were allowed to cure in the sun until they were done. When the Cambode stopped for a break, out came the rice and lizard jerky.

[Buffalobob]

We had lots of pigs and wild chickens. Th pigs would get into a MA at night and we would fire em up until we noticed that there was no return fire.

One night every one was a little skittish being as we had been ordered to join up as a single platoon and dig in, which was unusual for us to dig in. Hell ,we didn't even have any e tools but I didn't tell the Bn CO that minor fact. According to the S2, the 3rd was coming down the mountain in force and going to strike Da Nang and any body in their path was going to be in big trouble. So about two hours after dark, one of the guys on perimeter hears the bushes rustle and decides the sappers after coming for him personally. He blows the claymore and gets a death grip on the m-60 trigger. Dam chicken go flying every which way out of the bushes where they were roosting just cackling and squawking. Worst part of it was he didn't manage to kill a single one of them.