"Cambodia April 27, 1970 on a mountain top with HUGE scorpions" Funny Story

[DeepseekerADS]

I have that statement in my signature, so maybe it's time to tell that story. Scared the crap out of me!

I choppered in with the 4th Div on April 27, 1970.

Made the mistake of placing my hole about 20 ft from a 155. That dirt was danged hard using an entrenching tool. The common practice was to fly in a B52 dropping some tonnage on a mountain top to clear the forest out. That ground was hard and I chiseled out a hole. Off to the end I also dug out a hole in the side for a fridge.

We were all setting up, probably 50 of us there, don't remember. A long long time ago.

I went back later to grab something from the "fridge", and a beautiful black scorpion the size of a big lobster came at me and I just blew backwards away from it, and that thing was aggressive.

Of course I was hollering! Whole bunch of guys ran over. I managed to use my machete to flip that thing up on the side of my hole. That thing was striking wildly. One of the guys squirted it with lighter fluid and somebody threw a match on it.

When it quit moving I chopped it up making sure it was dead.

I'll never forget, in the tail that thing had white meat just like a lobster - but probably not as tasty.

And then there was that orangutan on top of An Khe mountain - forget that name too.

 

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[Mackaydon]

Deep,
Some of those nasty memories are humorous today; and that's a good thing.
Don.......

 

[DeepseekerADS]

On TNet, I ran into a member who had been at many of the places I went at the same time - Admiral de Salee

He hadn't been to LZ Spearhead.

He hasn't been on here in over 6 months. We're all much older now, and I pray he is still with us.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Yep, that would have increased my pucker factor by more than a few points!

 

[1637]

i was in vietnam 71 72 ,we had a 10 ft snake fall out of the ceiling one night.and then the fun started.
brad

 

[DeepseekerADS]

While I was in the base camp at An Khe, my time for perimeter guard duty came up one time. Everybody kept talking that an orangutan would come down the mountain and beat the crap out of you or worse. I don't know if the legend was true or not, but that was a very long 12 hours till daylight, watching in front and worrying about what was behind me. Every little noise.....

 

[Oregon Viking]

Thank you for your service!

 

[DeepseekerADS]

And then there was the reality in Cambodia....

I think it was on the 4th or 5th day there we were all getting pretty rank smelling. Our toilet was basically a wooden box with an open bottom and a hole on the top for our excretions. And of course you could see all around you, quite visible to all.

Well, there was a reasonably sized stream down at the bottom of the mountain. It was decided that groups at a time would go down and bathe in that stream. I was in the first group, three or four of us went in the water and bathed.

And we came out covered in leeches, each of us. Had to burn them with cigarettes to break their grip. If my brain isn't damaged right now, I had 5 on me, didn't even feel them till I saw them! Yetch!!!

Disgusting little creatures!

Nobody else got in the water after us, and we all went back up on the mountain.

Those guys stank!