Stories of Charlie Co & 2-12th Inf Regiment

We’re in the middle of a war. Who has time for pets? Well, let’s just think about the absurdity of that question for a moment. Looking back through my memory banks, I can recall lots of movies (OK, I’m going Hollywood here) made about the service and war, where animals of some variety were pets to the troops. Mostly, mind you, these were men or women in the rear areas who had them.

However, I have heard of and seen situations where pets found their way into bunkers and foxholes as well. Under the operational control of III MAF/I corps, NSAH, a USN,USMC hospital located in Danang, was  a "mash type" combat hospital located in a remote area next to Marble mountain, across from MAG 16. Part of the largest Naval support activity in history, the primary function of the hospital was to provide medical treatment to the United States Marines Corps and the other free world armed forces fighting in I corps. Free world armed forces included: US Marine Corps, US Navy, US Army, US Air Force, US Coast Guard, ROK (Korean Marines), Australian troops, and Vietnamese civilians. NSAH also treated NVA POW soldiers and Viet Cong POWs in its' POW ward. I corps ranged from the DMZ to all of DaNang and Quangnam Province. Some guys there in the Navy had a pet python named Bonnie, a Vietnamese or Burmese snake. They fed the snake once a week, but I don’t know what it ate.

We all know that seeing a cat just wouldn’t happen in 'Nam and dogs were not plentiful either,at least in the local hamlets and villages. For the sake of the obvious, I am excluding the military dog teams (dog trackers and scout dogs). I know how these grunts felt about their animals and companions. There is the fact that they were there for a reason and purpose. You can read about these teams in the article "Scout Dog"

There were rumors about small animals we consider as pets, finding their way into the village stew pot. I cannot confirm that rumor nor deny it either. I saw dogs around Camp Rainer and in Cu Chi base, but not often out in the field. Jesse Tostado, who was a member of my rifle squad, brought a small black and white puppy back to FSB Pershing one afternoon after lifting it from a village. The dog only lasted one day according to Jesse after he found and ate some C4 that was left somewhere.

It seemed though, that many of the guys wanted to have a pet monkey and Charlie Company had a few spider monkeys over the years. In Dau Tieng, Morrill in 2nd Plt. had a monkey named "Charlie". Later, 3rd plt had one for awhile before he escaped. I don’t know who captured it, but Dennis Buckley and Craig Coleman would drag this monkey around on their shoulder. I think he may have been acquired near Hoc Mon, and brought up to FSB Stuart and on to Pershing. He had it in for a guy named “Killer” Walton and would try and escape just to go after Walton. One afternoon he was successful and Walton was running for his life toward the other side of Pershing with this monkey, "Ho Chi Minh" was his name, hot on his trail. Ho Chi Minh finally found refuge in the bamboo thick that was near the gate leading to the entrance road from 6 Alpha. My thinking was, I didn’t want anything to do with a pet that required you to keep it chained up, either for his safety or mine.

After flipping through all the photo albums, I was surprised how many pics there are of guys holding puppies. I guess it was such a common practice that I for one, guessing mind you, overlooked the fact that we had so many dogs. Whether this was a way of dealing with the hurt and pain of battle and needing some love from man's best friend, I'll leave that up to the grunts who had a pet.

Everyone had a snake story or experience while in-country. I do not recall getting any instructions about snakes, other than the two step snake story that was passed around. To us, it was a green bamboo viper but there were other species that may also fit this description.

There are about 140 species of snakes in Vietnam. No snake kills with more ruthless efficiency than the many-banded krait, which dwells in the jungles of India and Southeast Asia. Drop for drop, its venom is the deadliest of any land serpents, apart from a few rare species found only in the outback of Australia. One bite of the krait carries enough concentrated toxin to kill two dozen grown men.

American soldiers during the war in Vietnam called it the “two-step snake,” in the belief that its venom is so lethal that if it bites you, you will fall dead after taking just two steps. That’s an exaggeration, but the bite of the many-banded krait is astonishingly potent. The venom is a neurotoxin, which means that it disables the victim’s nervous system—like yanking an electrical plug out of the socket. Death comes when neurotransmission ceases: With no instructions to breathe, the muscles of the diaphragm are stilled, and the victim asphyxiates. There is no way of knowing how many grunts died from snake bites due to how medical records were filled out.

I have head of Cobra’s being killed around Dau Tieng and saw a few snakes in the jungle areas. At the end of this article, Lt Vandervoort is holding a snake someone shot with a M-60. I think it was a Cobra. My own personal experience was during a RIF mission out in the Michelin Rubber. Our company had stopped to take “10” and we set out our sentries. Most of the guys were just hitting the deck where they stood to get a drink of water or light up a smoke. For me, I needed to relieve myself, as in #2 so I ventured out into the brush a bit and dropped my fatigues to get to business. About the time that I was going to take care of business and pinch off a loaf, a snake slithered right between my legs. It was black and about three feet in length. I do not know what it was, but that ended any chance I had of finishing what I started out to do.