The Tiger Hunt

Now this is a no BS true story!!!

I got hit with "HERO" detail.

Not as bad as Mess detail, but no fun.

We called it "hero detail" because you had to put on your combat gear and patrol the perimeters

and run short patrols.

Now, none of us were grunts (not to disparage those fine men), but more like technicians.

But as we all learned very early in our USMC tours, our primary MOS is always 0311 (grunt).

Well, I got my sh&t together and headed to security.

Remember those nice watch towers by the flight line, nice roofs to keep you from getting soaked

from the rain? Nice lights to aim so you could see everything?

Forget that crap, those were dummies, targets!!

You ended up in a two man fighting hole with another guy at least 60 meters from that.

Pretty clever, but miserable.

On to the hunt.......

We checked in to the security area and received our assignments,

I got a roving patrol. Our old rotted flack jackets clicked like a herd of armadillos.

I can remember thinking, how the heck are we supposed to patrol making noise like this!!!

During briefing, we were told a tiger had been spotted by one of the nearby villages,

and if we should encounter it to dispatch it.

Man, if this wasn't a bitch, wander around with this old noisy crap we were wearing,

worry about sappers and then a tiger!!!

We used a standard diamond formation and be - bopped out, of course we had some stupid password

that had a lot of "r's " and "l's" since the gooks couldn't pronounce them right.

Off we went ......RATTLE,,, SNAP,,,,CRACK, as we went through the bush.

I think the worse part was, I didn't even know these guys. And I was supposed to be in charge!!?

Dark as ink, more stumbling than patrolling.

All of a sudden........BRRRRRAAAAATTTTTTTTTT, BRRRRRRRRRATTTTTTTTTT.

It came from right over my shoulder. I hit the deck ( or oooze from the forest sludge), and heard

this guy yelling.

"I GOT HIM!!!! I GOT THE TIGER!!!!!!!!!"

I yelled back " Quit shooting you dumb F*&k!"

Now I was scared, our position was totally compromised, and I'm out in the sticks with a

total bunch of dumb asses.

I thought about popping a aerial flare knowing we would be reinforced in minutes, but was

worried about giving out our position.

We called in on our radio and were told to wait a few and then investigate.

I sent the word to sit tight, and we lied in the foul mud for a few more minutes.

No sounds, no activity, we worked forward about 100 yards and found.....................

A rotted tree stump with fresh bullet holes.

We radioed in again and got the OK to work our way back.

Yeah right, we got the tiger!!

This was not to be the scariest Hero Detail though............

Mike