Land Mines

[39mto39g]

While at Dak To (I think) the road was dirt and most mornings a squad of guys followed by a tank would walk the road and every once in awhile they would stop and start digging and pull up some thing out of the road. Then continue on. About a week before I left Dak To? They black topped the road, The VC still put mines in the road, but it was easy to spot a fresh dug area in a blacktop road. I was viewing this from my trusty 60 bunker.(home)
I don't recall seeing a APC hit a mine, but I did see a tank run over one, I guess it was a small one cuss it sent a big ball of dirt in the air, the tank kinda shifted a little and drove off uninjured.

Ron

[splummer]

The few roads that had black top on them, could have mines on the side of the road. We always drove right down the middle. We were told how lucky we were to be in a tractor trailer company instead of duce in a halfs because our trucks were big enough that if we hit a mine, we may not get hurt as bad. [A lot of the road mines were anti personel types.] My freind Ed who I found last year had his trauler blown up by a mine dentanated from a hill side on route 19. Nothing left of his trailer or barrels he was carring except a large crater. It didn't strike him until 20 years later that he could have been killed.

[Andy]

WWII: About 30% of American fighting vehicles that were destroyed were done in by land mines. Most men rode in their half tracks.
Vietnam: About 70% of American fighting vehicles destroyed were victims of land mines. Most men rode on top of their APC?s.
Americans can adapt!

Our vehicle found one landmine in April of ?68. It was a dud round 155 that Charlie turned into an AT mine. It hurt, I was the luck one.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[DMZ-LT]

In some areas even the driver rode on top using poles on the laterals and gas petal. In these areas we " tracked " the track in front of you , staying in their track.Have lifted dead from a mine that felt like lifting marbles in a burlap bag

[phuloi]

Hated mines.Hated sweeping operations.Hours and hours of sweltering heat and boredom..then BOOM!Either you`ve detonated it or you gotta disarm it-both options sucked.

[splummer]

I remember one day on route I, waiting a long time for the convoy to start. Someone said that the engineers were still Sweeping the road. I no more then got the words out of my mouth about how there weren't any mines up there any way when ''' BOOM''''' Thanks Griz, [ and all the engineers.] for all you did.

[PHO127]

On hiway 15 we had a small FB for a while, one night about midnight we heard an explosion about half a mile down the road. The road sweep the next morning found what was left of a VC that had been planting a mine in the road. There had to be that one microsecond that the vietnamese equivelent of "Oh Shit" went thru his mind. We found several mines in Cambodia on probable insertion sites where they would rig an unexploded artillery shell in the LZ with a small bamboo strip cut with a 1/4 inch slit in the middle and C rat lids on either side wired to a detonater in the shell, no battery but would depend on the static electricity from the roter blades to set it off.

[Andy]

When we spent 56 days in the Hobo Woods the Rome Plows found lots of AP and AT mines, Thanks. We were always very happy to see the plow blade bent, usually meant no one was bleeding.
There was one driver, don't think I ever knew his name, he was a Spec 4. He found three anti-tank mines in one week and didn't need to get a Purple Heart. They didn't even put him in for an Army Com. ???
Thanks again Rome Plows.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[MORTARDUDE]

Mines...nasty stuff. We had a German Shepherd and handler who would find mines for awhile. He found several in mackeral cans along the side of the road. I saw a guy lose his foot and got stuck with his radio as an FNG. I was also stopped from tripping one rigged up to an RPG round. Our APCs hit a lot of mines. Some pictures below. None were large enough to cause any KIAs that I can recall. It didn't occur to me that there could be other mines when I took this picture..go figure....

[MORTARDUDE]

That was possibly a dud 105mm round. Here is the pickup of the same APC.