Richard J. Flaherty may never be known. As a result, many tunnel rats often avoided using hearing protection while underground. The War also claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 allied soldiers in Vietnam, nearly one million North Vietnamese/ Communist allied deaths, and an incomprehensible number of civilians. Flaherty was killed during a hit and run attack on May 9, 2015, in Miami. Some of the basic combat training (BCT) soldiers undertook helped though. He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and went to Vietnam serving as a Platoon Leader and Recon Platoon Leader with companies B, C, and D, & E. He and his platoon were engaged in some of the heaviest fighting on the outskirts of Hue during the Tet Offensive. During the same tour of duty, Flaherty was also awarded two Bronze Stars for valor and two Purple Hearts. Primary Source. His unit in the 101st was ambushed as it passed a hidden North Vietnamese bunker. Flaherty took Yuzuk to a storage locker he rented to pull out photos and documents that might be useful in the documentary, and they returned several times in the following weeks until May 9, 2015 the date Flaherty was struck and killed by a hit and run driver near his palm-shaded campsite. He deployed with the Screaming Eagles to Vietnam and served as a platoon and recon platoon leader. Captain Flaherty's incredible life story was captured in the Amazon #1 Best Selling book, "The Giant Killer" available on Amazon as a Paperback, eBook, & Audiobook, and the award-winning documentary, "The Giant Killer Finding Flaherty" available worldwide on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, iTunes, and Tubi. "The true story of the smallest Green Beret soldier who became a war hero-only to be killed homeless and alone, whose life and death are shrouded in mystery." . There is an average of five names per line. He did time in prison for drugs but was that a cover or a real conviction? We just didnt know. If the stakes pointed downwards, soldiers became unable to remove their limbs without causing severe damage. Captain Flaherty's Irish lineage is traced back to his grandfather Joseph Patrick Flaherty who was born in the Aran islands and his grandmother Bridget Smythe was born in the village of Feakle next to the Sliabh Aughty Mountains. Indirect Fire Infantrymen (MOS 11C), Combat Engineers (MOS 12B), and Bridge Crewmembers (MOS 12C) also have short . Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password. Richard Flaherty, was certainly a standout. According to archives held by the US government, there were 58,220 US military deaths overall as a result of the Vietnam War. The following year, 1971, he was discharged from active duty and transferred to the Army Reserves, where he served until 1983. You can view the full DCAS record for an individual named in the list via the Access to Archival Databases resource, or AAD. Got the VC screaming "we said no Oddjob! This also allowed soldiers to help find and collect any wounded or dead comrades. He served as both an A and B detachment Commander. Commemoration of the war must account for these servicemen who underwent so much hardship for their nation. According to federal law, the United States' military involvement in the Vietnam War began in February 1961 and lasted until May 1975. In 1980, recognizing the cruelty of such devices, the Geneva Convention banned them as weaponry. top . He earned the Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars (w/V, 3OLC), and 2 Purple Hearts. He also fell below the Army's weight requirement of 100 pounds. Photo credit: USMC Archives. Medically speaking, Richard would be considered a proportionate dwarf. Capt. He began to eat and stay in fighting shape, as he was an avid sportsman in high school, especially good at martial arts. This attempt enjoyed more success than Crimp but was short-lived as the tunnels were in working order again within weeks. Photo credit: Funker360. Flaherty was 2 inches too short and 6 lb. Comprised of 12 Special Forces soldiers, an ODA can operate . korean war. Another method frequently used attempted to flood the area so badly that the enemy desperately sought to escape to avoid drowning. On February 12 the first of 591 U.S. military and civilian POWs were released in Hanoi and flown directly to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. I have been stewing over it for several months now. After graduating from the Special Forces Qualification Course, Flaherty was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) as a detachment commander and sent to southeast Asia with the 46th Special Forces Company. Since completing her degrees, she has decided to take a step back from academia to focus her career on writing and sharing history in a more accessible way. Tho claims the Viet Cong prepared both the necessary troops and assembled the supplies needed in these tunnels to conduct the Tet Offensive of 1968. You will usually find him on the top of a mountain admiring the view and wondering how he got there. These homeless veterans deserve more from us. Here are some of the most powerful pictures taken by Larry Burrows during his coverage of the Vietnam War. I just tell them Im 35 pounds of muscle, 14 pounds of dynamite and one pound of uranium-238, and it gets a lot of laughs.. An example of a classic punji booby trap. Photo credit: American Yesteryear Metal Signs. Flaherty was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant after attending Infantry Officer Candidate School on 31 August 1967. When the soldier triggered the tripwire, foot-long spikes placed all over a long bamboo pole catapulted into the soldiers face and chest at a rapid speed. Despite this, Yuzuk honored his friend by producing a documentary called The Giant Killer,which tells the full story of Richard Flahertys service in Vietnam and his life after he returned to the US. Somewhere along his path, Flaherty became homeless. The enemy would litter a concrete ball with barbed spikes. A soldier holding a small but venomous snake. Here are 10 of the most dangerous: 1. Id known him for 15 years, and this was the first time he ever mentioned the military. In the 1940s Ho Chi Minh, one of the founders of the Viet Cong, stated You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. Twenty-year-old Mike . The two began meeting more frequently, and Yuzuk became so fascinated with Flahertys story that he asked permission to tell it in the form of a documentary. The Viet Cong amassed around 250 kilometers of underground tunnels. In 1970 he was reassigned to the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens. When the soldier tripped the wire, the ball would swing down the tunnel and strike into the face of anyone in the way. On parachute operations he was always the first out of the plane. He was a Special Forces Green Beret Captain and was awarded the Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars, and 2 Purple Hearts for his actions in Vietnam. Vietnam Veterans represent the largest cohort of American Veterans in . Send the smallest soldier to clear the VC ratholes. Shortest US soldier in Vietnam War was not short in courage. [1], Flaherty was born on 28 November 1945 in Stamford, Connecticut. 20002023 The Veterans Site and GreaterGood. Related: See what its like to jump out of a C-17 with the Armys 82nd Airborne. On average, tunnels in this underground network were 1.2 meters wide and only 0.8 to 1.8 metres high. Some even fled to Canada to escape conscription. He went back to Southeast Asia with the 46th Special Forces Company as a Special Forces Operational Detachment A (SFODA) commander. Putting people in that situation changes them. he said. 58,169 were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.59 million who served. The objective is to promote history on Medium and demonstrate the value of historical writing. Yet, both of these tactics were not as successful as they hoped. Flaherty was on his way. The oldest man killed was 62 years old. Imagine being stuck in a tiny space, panicking, screaming, and trying to escape as a snake slowly wound itself around you. * Born and raised in Brooklyn N.Y., David Yuzuk attended the University of Stony Brook on a football scholarship. Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) represents Texas' 3rd congressional . Needless to say, sadly many of those Americans who did enter the tunnels ended up dying. One American man was trying anything to get in. He becomes a mystery to family and friends alike. A Soldier's Thoughts. Its not slick but it is fascinating. Richard Flaherty, was certainly a standout. His only problem was that he stood four feet, nine inches tall. Reports state the soldier in question had no time to scream or to unsheathe his knife, the snake had already knotted tighter around his neck and badly bit his face. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address. Flaherty was killed on May 9, 2015 in a hit and run. They carried out tunnel rat duties as and when they needed in addition to any other duties they performed. Millions of Americans and tens of thousands of veterans and soldiers opposed the war in Vietnam. A young man emerging from his journey in a Viet Cong tunnel. He left the Army in 1971 at the rank of captain due to a reduction in force. Read. Statements in the storage unit showed that he had several thousand dollars in bank accounts, while a passport and receipts from a travel agent indicated that during the time he was homeless, he had made trips to such countries as Jordan, Venezuela, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia. The American Soldier in VietnamMore than 2.5 million American men served in Vietnam during the war. Released in 1973. He was the shortest US serviceman in history. The openings to these tunnels were very small and those tunnel rats who went into them did so armed only with a flashlight, a K-bar (knife), and a .45 pistol. A cemetery employee said the appropriate relatives have been contacted and a marker has been ordered and is expected to be set in place early next year. You could not help but notice him. Sometimes, they would smear the tip of the stakes with urine, feces, poison, or other contaminants to infect the wound when it penetrated the skin. Each panel is numbered from "1" to "70" at the base, with West Panel 1 and East Panel 1 . Today, the mistreatment of American POWs and the suffering they endured remains a powerful legacy of the Vietnam War. The United States conducted two major campaigns to search and destroy the tunnel system: Operation Crimp (1966) and Operation Cedar Falls (1967). Provide food and supplies to veterans at The Veterans Site for free! This is similar to the selection effect of underwriting requirement provision in the insurance industries. Chance of rain 90%. In fact, volunteers boasted of their ability to change flashlights in pitch black without realizing the damaging consequences of this. Yuzuk is the director and its his first movie. The tunnels also hosted armament workshops, training depots, headquarters, and a variety of other facilities, Though Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders claim to know these hideouts existed, they overlooked their size and importance, , these countries failed to understand how difficult it would be to detect and neutralize such networks, Read on to learn about the crazy booby traps soldiers faced, the creepy crawlies they encountered, and the damaging psychological consequences of such close combat, You can also learn about how these soldiers came about, who opted to become one, how they trained, and what equipment they used, If you are squeamish or hate thinking about claustrophobic conditions, take this as a warning: gruesome facts lie ahead, During the Second World War, the Vietnamese first constructed underground tunnels to fight Japanese invasion, In the 1940s and 1950s, the Vietnamese expanded these tunnels to hide nationalist guerrillas known as, Major Nguyen Quot, an officer that spent ten years in these tunnels, notes that by 1948 they already dug a tunnel system: each family, each hamlet, had a tunnel communicating it with others, In a more direct attempt to seek out the enemy, US soldiers used portable turbines to blow CS gas into tunnel shafts they located, Using this tactic, they added yellow dye to the water to enable aerial observers to spot any entrances that ground troops had missed, What they failed to realize is that many of the tunnels had several layers and doors built into them to help prevent such fatalities, The Viet Cong built drain pipe ventilation shafts every 20 to 30 meters at an oblique angle to prevent flooding, Tunnels were also built in zig-zags to prevent the enemy from pouring in chemicals or shooting bullets over a long distance, As a result, sending a soldier underground, known as a tunnel rat, was often a final measure if all other methods had failed, BCT included lessons on hand-to-hand combat, chemical-warfare defense, map reading, first aid, bayonet fighting, guard duty, and the use of hand grenades, , was the experience gained in the dreaded gas chambers, Here, leaders forced soldiers into specific chambers and made to recite their name, rank, and service number, It helped give them the experience and confidence to cope with gas, should they encounter it in combat, Infantry Advanced Individual Training also helped them to deal more in-depth with other issues, Over eight weeks, soldiers learned about tactical skills, squad and platoon offensive and defensive tactics, and how to use certain weapons, , was the brief amount of training time spent detecting, removing, and laying booby traps, Though this article will explore specific examples later, these traps were particularly brutal in the tunnels, probe the sides, roof, and floor of the tunnels, listening and trying to smell the enemy or look for trap doors, Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training, used explosives to collapse tunnel entrances and destroy what they found inside, combat training was particularly valuable, While it covered a lot of the same things as, The center offered classes designed to show the best techniques of searching, detecting, and destroying hiding places, , other than being underground, they were actually very different from the real Viet Cong tunnels, , they were not popular among tunnel rats as the light was unnecessary, and the silencers were too long and did not function well, A light tunnel exploration kit may also include items such as powdered CS, colored-smoke grenades, insect repellent, protective masks, a field telephone, a compass to plot the route, a telephone wire spool, probing rods, bayonets, a flashlight, entrenching tools to reveal and widen entrances, and a .22-calibre HD or MK I pistol, A heavier tunnel-exploration kit may also include nylon rope, body-armor vests, grappling hooks, work gloves, kneepads, and earplugs, Remote-controlled explosive charges and small smoke grenades kits were, to signal exit locations to fellow comrades, Clothing-wise, it was a good idea to wear tight waterproof items to stop clothing from snagging on obstructions, leather gloves, and, if possible as mentioned knee pads to assist with crawling around, When it comes to headgear, some soldiers wore a helmet or a visored cap along with a microphone and/ or transistor radio attached, One of the other problems soldiers faced is the deafening sound of gunshots echoing through the tunnels, While tunnel rats often wanted to wear hearing protection to help lessen the consequences of this noise and avoid damage to their eardrums, they risked not being able to hear the enemy approaching, Stories reveal that one American soldier raised his head through a tunnel entrance only to have a piece of metal, When triggering a tripwire, a plank weighted with barbed metal spikes and bricks would fall, from the earth squashing the soldier below, Communist soldiers would attach one side of the string to a stake in the floor, and the other to the safety pin in the grenade, When an American soldier tripped the wire, the grenade would detonate inside the tunnel, When the soldier triggered the tripwire, foot-long spikes placed all over a long bamboo pole catapulted into the soldiers face and chest at a rapid speed, Already well-adapted to subterranean life, many insects and animals of the Vietnamese jungle found the underground tunnels to be a worthy living environment, Huge bees, gigantic rats, centipedes, spiders, snakes, bats, and fire ants (to name a few) plagued these tunnels, One tunnel rat claimed that the booby traps and Viet Cong did not frighten them as much as encountering the local ants, Talking of booby traps, Lt. Jack Flowers recalls how the Viet Cong used tripwires to release boxes of scorpions into the tiny confines of the tunnels, , one soldier recalls how an encounter with the biggest rat he had ever seen led him to, American soldiers were often prepared for traps that may be on the ground, but they had not prepared for those coming from above, Again, tripwires would trigger the release of snakes hidden somehow inside bamboo sticks, known to soldiers as bamboo vipers, Sometimes these snakes were even poisonous and so became known as three-step snakes because a soldier was only granted three more steps before the venom killed him, Imagine being stuck in a tiny space, panicking, screaming, and trying to escape as a snake, Reports state the soldier in question had no time to scream or to unsheathe his knife, the snake had already knotted tighter around his neck and, A colleague he worked with recovered his body by, American morale as it was difficult to comprehend that the enemy could be hiding, feet away yet were undetectable and unreachable, Frank Gutierrez, for example, served with the US Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1970 as a rifleman, field wireman, and an ordinance specialist at Chu Chi and Long Binh, When interviewed he stated: We often wondered how things happened in the night and we never saw what was going on, guys getting their throat cut, Nobody ever knew where these guys were coming from they pointed out in jungle school that there was a tunnel system we had, tunnel rats, but we never knew exactly where or how extensive or where the entrance was, Even if they could deal with the claustrophobic conditions, air and artillery support had not prepared them for the type of old-fashioned combat that relied on savage behavior, individual strength, guts, and cunningness, The Viet Cong, with their lack of funding, was more skilled in this area given the necessity of their style of warfare, One Viet Cong technique was to slit a mans throat or garrotte him as he came up through a connecting trap door; this often did not phase the men, , some found it difficult to kill when they were face-to-face with the enemy in such tight confines, On occasion, they ended up having severe nervous breakdowns and their colleagues dragged them out of tunnels crying and screaming, Sergeant Arnold Gutierrez of the 25th Division stated that after a while they became so tuned to what was happening that when the other person would flick an eyelid up or down, you, knew he was there, in the corner, not even hiding anymore, The United States conducted two major campaigns to search and destroy the tunnel system: Operation Crimp (1966) and Operation Cedar Falls (1967), Operation Crimp hoped to target a key Viet Cong headquarter location believed to be unground, Significant causalities ensued on both sides, but the combined Australian and American forces were unable to, This attempt enjoyed more success than Crimp but was short-lived as the tunnels were in working order again within weeks, , the Vietnamese were very quick to restore damages and continue as if nothing happened, Mai Chi Tho, brother of Le Duc Tho (a prominent Hanoi Politburo member) highlights how they used the tunnels to infiltrate Saigon, Tho claims the Viet Cong prepared both the necessary troops and assembled the supplies needed in these tunnels to conduct the, seen by historians as a turning point for American involvement in the Vietnam war, In hindsight, listening to the Viet Cong talk about their experiences in these tunnels, it appears more training, Tunnel rat soldiers often used flashlights to guide the way and thus warned the enemy of their presence, In fact, volunteers boasted of their ability to change flashlights in pitch black without realizing the damaging consequences of this, , one American soldier highlighted how they liked to soften things up by throwing in one or more hand grenades before sending in tunnel rats, , as the Viet Cong soldier highlighted, by throwing grenades into the void ahead, or shooting pistols, the noise was deafening and alerted them to their presence, , remains unknown as there were no extensive records kept on this exact type of engagement with the enemy, According to archives held by the US government, there were 58,220 US military deaths. After all, many soldiers are have said to prefer the M14 to the M16 during the Vietnam War, and the rifle has been described by other authors as a "phoenix" rising again and again when the U.S . Lauri Trni (Larry Thorne) in his three military uniforms. Infantry Advanced Individual Training also helped them to deal more in-depth with other issues. A particular Special Forces member, Capt. With a passion for historical learning and historical education, her writing interests include social history, and war history, especially researching obscure facts about the Second World War. He was later reassigned to the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. I never thought of him after that until I received an email last May from one of my old high school friends. One of the huge psychological issues for tunnel rats was the closeness of combat. Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in. Trni was a dedicated and brave soldier, and he quickly rose to the rank of captain and took command of a group of ski troops. The life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War ranged between five to six seconds all the way up to a slightly-more-optimistic thirty seconds, depending on your source. Upon graduation, he was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group and assigned to the 46th Special Forces Company in Thailand. These tunnels hugely impacted American morale as it was difficult to comprehend that the enemy could be hiding just feet away yet were undetectable and unreachable. Tunnel Rat soldier with his gas mask and gun. Share with Us. After Flahertys death, Yuzuk kept digging, researching, and confirming. Clothing-wise, it was a good idea to wear tight waterproof items to stop clothing from snagging on obstructions, leather gloves, and, if possible as mentioned knee pads to assist with crawling around. But due to the Vietnam draft they would have likely taken him anyway if that was his only disqualifier from serving. Lots of tunnel rats used the standard-issue colt. However, as the Viet Cong soldier highlighted, by throwing grenades into the void ahead, or shooting pistols, the noise was deafening and alerted them to their presence. Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training. Between February and March 1973, 591 American servicemen were released by the North Vietnamese. While braving the intense hail of hostile fire, Lieutenant Flaherty displayed astute direction and leadership, leading to the enemy bunker being swiftly destroyed and allowing his platoon to advance and continue its devastating attack on the enemy, according to the citation for the Silver Star Flaherty was awarded for the action. He eraned the Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars, and 2 Purple Hearts -smallestsoldier.com . 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