Friday, May 2, 2008 - New servers are in! Click-in for more info!
VoyForums

Thu, August 21 2008, 2:05:57 [ VoyUser Login optional ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Wed, May 11 2005, 13:01:49
Author: Larry Lusk
Author Host/IP: 66.214.57.211
Subject: Re: Mines
In reply to: Andrew Mckinney 's message, "Mines" on Tue, May 10 2005, 17:46:14

Hi Andrew and Eddie above,

As an infantryman in Vietnam I always carried several claymore mines in my pack. Almost every night these were set out in front of our “fox hole”. Because we set them as far from our hole as possible, the length of the detonating wire being the normal limit, on dark nights we couldn’t see the mines themselves. We set them that far so the concussion from the mine wouldn’t stun us even crouched down in our hole or bunker. The Viet-Cong and NVA had at times been able to crawl up close enough to our positions to turn our claymores around and point them back at us. That meant if we fired the claymore it would shoot it’s steel balls at us rather than the enemy. To try to keep this from happening we put small pieces of aluminum foil on the back of the mine so if it was moved at night there was a chance we would see it. A claymore could be pulled back to or towards your position just by pulling the detonating wire in. If we thought the mine had been tampered with it was safer to pull it in a short way than fire it. When you pulled it in it either fell on it’s back or front. It then could still be used like a conventional buried mine if you were attacked.

I fired several claymores but never saw what the effects might have been on the enemy. Since the mine only worked if you fired it while the enemy was some distance in front of it, at night it was often fired first rather than as a last resort. The NVA like the VC carried their dead away with them if they could. It was often hard to tell if you hit anyone.

I saw a fair number of trail side booby-traps that we either marked or blew up in place. They were either “home made” claymore type devices or one or a cluster of grenades tied together. That’s why the point man was such an important and dangerous job. Some mines we found were set up in such a way that the first person to trigger it was some distance in front of where the mine was. While he might not be hurt by the mine the men behind him would be.

My most personal experience with a mine was when the man behind me stepped on a “Bouncing Betty” type mine. This type of mine was shot up into the air about three to four feet above the ground by a small explosive charge before it went off. This type of mine was very dangerous because it could kill or wound men in all directions for many yards. The man who stepped on it was one of my best friends. He was killed along with the man behind him and I along with the rest of the squad was seriously wounded. The only thing that saved my life I think was my flak vest (now called body armor). My right hand was badly hurt and although I couldn’t feel it at the time I had a large chunk of metal in my right thigh. Because I thought we were in a mine field, which we were, I had to stand a few feet away from my friend and watch as he lay dying on the ground. There was nothing anyone could have done to save his life but I was too afraid to take the two steps over to him to hold his hand. I still have nightmares about that today and I had flashbacks where I felt I was standing in that field watching my friend die for many years.

The only good thing about being hurt seriously is that for a short while your body is in shock and you don’t feel any pain. I put a field dressing on a rather minor wound of a man standing beside me with both of us not knowing that we had serious wounds elsewhere on our bodies. Getting out of the mine field seemed like a slow process, stepping in the boot prints of the men who had gotten out safely without stepping on another mine. I didn’t understand until later why my right leg didn’t want to go where I wanted it to. I was already loaded on a dust off helicopter when someone ran up to the door and yelled out that my friend was finally dead (someone had apparently gone into the mine field to see if he could help my friend while I was trying to get out). I can only guess what my friend's last thoughts were as he watched us walk away from him since he seemed to be still conscious to some extent. I had no choice but to walk away or I would have bled to death so I hope he understood.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 2.94, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.