The+Vietnam+Soldier

Firefight: -Indian Country (Vietnam) -weather conditions typically hot, steamy, muggy, rainy -snakes; insects - poisonous punji stakes, mines, tunnels, booby traps, bombs, -thick vegetation and mud

Unique War: -undeclared war in Vietnam -WWI=doughboys in trench warfare -WWII= GIs in massive invasion battles in North Africa, Europe and South Pacific -Vietnam= far different

Who Served? -US Army foot soldiers often on patrol -searched for ruthless and elusive enemy -"ground pounder","grunts"=infantrymen; average was white and came from rural small town America -most soldiers had volunteered for the army; 21-22 yrs. old -10-12 percent were African American (however AA made up 20 percent of combat deaths)

First Impressions: -new recruits/draftees trained in boot camps ex. Fort Benning, Georgia, or Fort Bragg, North Carolina -air-conditioned commercial jet transported soldiers to Vietnam -soldiers became overwhelmed with heat and humidity -smells of human and animal fertilizers, absence of deodorants on natives, spicy foods cooked outdoors mixed horrendously -Vietnamese spoke loud, in strange tongue sharper and more abrupt than Chinese or Japanese

Into the Bush: -Danang or Saigon Airport was time was brief -new combat went away by truck or helicopter to a base camp or fire-base -helicopters from camps sent platoons further into the bush platoons= 20-40 corporals and privates, a lieutenant and non commissioned officer(usually a Sergeant), and at least one grunt had medical training, one or two had was trained as a radiotelephone operator -RTO= called for artillery support or air cover, and risked being cut off and vulnerable ambush -killing RTO was goal of enemy

Pack and Weapons -gunt pack weighed between 35-70 lbs.