Dumbest/funniest things we did while in Vietnam

[revwardoc]

Damn right about balouts! Those were the most Gawd-awful things I'd ever seen or smelled. And the Philipinos considered them a delicacy!! Disgusting! Whenever we were visiting the (ahem) "local ladies" and the balout cart would come by, they'd run out and buy several of the damned things. We wouldn't let them eat that garbage in front of us, instead we'd order them outside and made sure they used something to wash out their mouths before they could come back in. Even us sexual perverts had our standards!

[Seascamp]

I recall the cart and the kid vendor hollering out baaaaloooooot. Yuck, I didn?t even like to look at those sorry things let alone touch one or Neptune forbid, eat one. That San Miguel supposed beer was about all I could handle in terms of local epicurean delight and that stuff served up a good case of the trots, and a nasty headache for sure. But I did find out that the Gen. Mc Arthur family owned the San Miguel brewery but it was still real crummy beer, no doubt about it. Oh the life and times of Pubic Bay and Manila, Hmmmm.

I also recall the Vietnamese hanging out around light poles and waiting for one of those gigantic dragon fly looking bugs to hit the lamp and tumble to earth. They?d pick off the wings and pop it down. Yum I suppose, but I didn?t sample the bugs either.

Scamp

[revwardoc]

Those bugs were rice beetles. They're big suckers with a nasty pair of pincers on either side of their heads. They eat rice which somehow ferments in their guts and the locals grab 'em, bite off their heads, then suck down the inards. Makes baloot seem tasty in comparison. When we worked the night shifts at Clark, the damned things would make a bee-line for the floodlight carts. I'd fill up a plastic bag with them, take them downtown and trade them for a discount on a lady's "favors". Sometimes barter was just as good as cash. Sometimes I'd trade the penecillin pills and salve from the pro-kits for a "piece" since they couldn't get that kind of medicine cheaply. Of course I'd always save a kit for my own use...even when I was alone!

[reeb]

OK Guys/Women,

So far I havent seen it.

But;;;;

How about going out with the Rheas Sisters?????

You know them..

Goehna and Dira!!!!!!!! (sp) both of them.

Now that is the Dumbest to me.

But it happened alot to alot!!!!!!!!!!!

enough.............

[exlrrp]

I was with a group of drunks when one of them shot himself in the hand trying to shoot bottles with a fast draw.
He got a purple heart, we all swore it was a sniper. Wonder what kind of stories he's telling about it now

Ive told this story before but its till the dumbest thing I know of that happened.
The first platoon of my lrrp company was attached to the 101st which, with typical 101st boneheadedness, was using them as regular infantry (valuable waste of lrrp assets)
They had choppered into a hot LZ and were taking fire from a couple of snipers. Accordin to witnesses, the snipers were bing real obvious, almost standing up and waving.
The platoon leader, a cherry, immediately ordered the platoon to pursue (there is a very similar incident to this in the movie (We were soldiers)
Except this time the platoon wouldn't follow. The platoon was full of long time 101st combat vets who told him it was an obvious trap. he would not be dissuaded. He cursed them, theatened them, brandished his weapon at them--all the tricks of Army leadership.
Finally the platoon sargent said he would walk slack if the LT would walk point. He did and they set off. They got about 100yards an walked right into a Claymore ambush--three people died instantly, including the LT, half the platoon was WIA Then they started takiing mortars. The 101st choppered in a couple more companies to save the day, taking more casualties
This was th biggest casualty day my lrrp company had. As far as I know there were no enemy casualties (oh yeah right they must hav dragged the bodies off, )

james

Happy justto be alive

[reeb]

Hey them eggs,

Try going from Sangley Point to Manila on a Liberty Launch and then come back with some drunk SB breaking one of those suckers open.

You are already drunk as a skunk and want to get to the barracks to go to sleep, and WAM, and then you smeel that thing and put your head over the launch and "blow lunch"..

BTW: the best way to eat them thangs is.:
Crack Just a small hole in it, Suck the Juice out, and then pull the baby out and eat it piece by piece.

enough.....

[revwardoc]

The best way to eat a baloot is to, very carefully, take it in your dominant hand, and throw the goddamned thing as far away from you as you can! I've often wondered, just who is the first idiot who thought of taking perfectly good eggs and burying them for months before you eat them. Who ever it was should go into the Dumbass Hall of Fame.

[onesix]

Watching Vic Morrow in the TV series COMBAT. On a stand-down, fresh from our own combat. (After watching the Weathergirl, that is.)

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Bobbie the Weather Girl

Good web site to read her story (and click on to some bikini photos): http://www.illyria.com/vnwomen Then click on many women served then weather girls then Bobbie the Weather Girl-AFVN.

[MORTARDUDE]

Scamp :

Been thinking about those stringing gulls all day...are there any pictures of this from those days ?? ....my wife is a tad skeptical...hell of an idea !!!! Thanks for the great stories...

as far as rotten eggs go.. the Vietnamese had some nastiness with duck eggs.. I saw it once and gagged...How can these folks eat such rotted crap and live ? Maybe it is the nuoc mam sauce or the betel nut....then there is kimchi...ugh

It is interesting that Westerners do not have a rotted food tradition and/or fetish.. or am I hopefully missing something.. all of this makes chitlins seem like a health food..lol..lol

Larry