Soldiers+Duties+&+Routines

media type="youtube" key="JhadFhjPx4g" height="315" width="420" Soldiers in Vietnam had duties such as; "humping", guarding post positions on base, unloading supplies and cargo from helicopters, and setting up fox holes for themselves. They had to endure all this while being picked at by mosquitos, leeches, snakes, fire ants, and Jungle rot. All these things would have been too much for any untrained civilian, and these soldiers had to live with these things and many more everyday.
 * Approximately 2,709,918 American soldiers fought in Vietnam. Of those 2,709,918 soldiers, 58,148 were killed, 75,000 were severely disabled, and 23,214 were completely disabled. 11,485 of the soldiers killed in Vietnam were under the age of 20. Things were not easy for the soldiers. Even though it was extremely difficult 91% of the soldiers that served said they would happily serve again.

http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2011/04/20/8385965/1_prweb1.jpg __** Other miscellaneous duties and Routines **__

Mostly during the Tet Offensive and My Lai Massacre, Many US soldiers were ordered to burn down many Vietnamese villages (as seen in the picture above) to eliminate the threat of a potential base of the Viet Cong and create an overwhelming force that the VC couldn't handle.

"It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it." -- An American major after the destruction of the Vietnamese Village Ben Tre

Powell, C.. The Vietnam war: Destroying the village in order to save it. N.p., 2005. Web. 9 May 2012. .

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The Soldiers that fought in Vietnam had to endure many different burdens. Fighting in the jungle was one of the major difficulties that they had to deal with. They had to deal with constant rain and just treacherous conditions. Many soldiers ended up getting trench foot because everything was constantly wet. 1 out of every 180 soldiers actually lost a foot due to trench foot.



The main duty of course, was to kill VC and NVA (shown above) BECAUSE COMMUNISM IS BAD = = //__ Search And Destroy Missions __// Search and destroy operations began in 1964, before US ground forces were committed. These operations were conducted to locate the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong main force units in and around their base areas and to attack them by fire and maneuver. Since enemy infiltration of the populated areas heavily on the availability of base areas near the population centers, destruction of close-in base areas received priority attention.

Pike, John, ed. "1965 Vietnam War." //Global Security//. globalsecurity.org, 05 07 11. Web. 14 May 2012. .

In Search and Destroy missions American soldiers would hop into their helicopters and go searching for VC and gun them down. most missions resulted in few American deaths while killing many of the VC and proved to be an extremely effective operation

//__ VC Hunts/ Booby Traps __// 83% of soldiers had some sort of booby trap experience, whether it was actually being attacked by one or witnessing someone being attacked by it. VC Hunts:
 * //FUN FACT //**

One of the every day duties of a US soldier was to search for the VC in various locations such as rat tunnels, fox holes, and even civilian villages



American troops and infantry could not escape the VC and NVU' booby traps no matter where they went. The enemy would construct many traps such as the one above and scatter them through out the jungles of Vietnam and camouflage them in moss, grass, tree branches, or what ever could be used to blend with the surrounding environment. Patrolling soldiers would walk by and fall into these traps but most of these traps weren't fatal, they would just create severe wounds and soldiers would be much more vulnerable to infections and would die of sickness.

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