How many rounds does that M16 have, Private? How many spare magazines? Click-click! You're out of ammo! Think fast, godamnit!

Your M16 has 18 rounds, compared to the VC's 30, and VC bullets back a bigger punch! Remember that! Your M16 will suppress the enemy better, and is more accurate during sustained fire, but at anything more than a hundred yards this thing couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!

Your VC adversary has an Automatic Kalashnikov, made in Russia! 30 rounds of head splitting Communism and a VC on the end of it! You have 18 rounds of Uncle Sam and a state of the art killing machine (the firearm I mean) to fight them!

Note, Private, that you have a bayonet. This thing can stick a VC where your bullets have failed. When your 18 rounds click-click while the VC is shooting back, pray you have that bayonet, cause when they hear you reload at least one of them will have the sense to attack!


Just before entering Charlie, this Private fixes bayonet, who knows what these VC might try?

Your VC adversary knows the land, he knows where each tunnel leads and where the chokepoints will be! You gotta remember that you're in 'Nam now! Every building you enter, a VC could be hiding behind that desk! Under that beam or pointing at you through that window on the opposite side of the street! You think I'm joking, do you? You will learn, Private!

The Viet Cong will not fight you on even ground, so don't expect them to. You will face tripwires in chokepoints, you will face Punji-traps in tunnels and you will face VC in bushes and corners waiting for you to walk across their path! You just go charging in, wanting to be the first to kill a VC, what do you think's gonna happen?


'Well Sarge, I'mma go an' destroy this here tunnel and do some gud?'


Hold yer damn horses! That there's a booby trap! Ask yourself, kindly, would you have noticed that? Because that's what Ho Chi Min's counting on, you wielding the sense the Lord gave a wooden club! You would have set off that booby trap and gotten yourself killed!

Look at how the two sticks supporting the wire are tucked out of sight, where they are unlikely to be seen, that is where the VC will put them. If you see a chokepoint or an alley, and there may well be a trap!

You gotta think like they think? Where would you put a trap? Where would you go to hide? Where are they expecting you to come from?

Think like the enemy thinks! If you were VC and you were trying to hold onto your little hole in the ground, where would you go? It will take some time to learn this, but you must fight the temptation to go running in hoping to be quicker on the draw! You will not. Whoever gets seen first, dies. The best way you can do this is to find a Squadmate, and stick to him like glue! You don't have to communicate with him, hell; if you can't he will likely just take a bullet for you! You follow your temamates into the combat zone and you keep them safe, that way you aren't the one getting shot first!


See here as this Private follows his teammates into the frey, he could have charged in headfirst, thinking he would be the first to kill a VC, he would have likely been machine gunned or he would have stepped on a Punji! As you progress through the battlefield, you will conduct many assaults.You are but a humble Private, and you can only do so much, but the right Private in the right place saves lives! So listen up!

This Private here could have charged in with his brothers, wanting to be the first to kill a VC. Instead, he stayed behind to protect his comrades in arms. It just so happened, that a Veteren VC was lurking in the building and aimed to gun down most of the American Squad while they were exposed, but our Private here sure showed him!
Look at those Marines! Running about the street and jumping into buildings all alone! I ought'a shoot them myself!

Remember, go shoulder to shoulder with your fellow Marine! He who runs 'round the corner to meet five VC's will die!

Even when defending your position, this will work. Once you've used your eyes, you should have a rough idea of where of where the enemy is. That's implying they aren't lit up on your map for you! Now what you need to do it control the map, though this is easier said than done.

In open fields, and in 'Nam you will fight in many an open field. If someone aims at you, you will die. To avoid this, don't give your position away! Move slowly, VC's can't see you if you don't move! When you see an enemy, running about the place, wanting to be the first to kill a GI? Shoot him! Shoot him dead! However, you can bet that any other VC watching your area saw you open fire, so you gotta duck, son! As you move away from that position, with your adversaries just waiting for you to pop your head back out, you can move to a new location, closer to the objective! When on Hill 937 there will be a myriad of moment's like this; watch your head, bucko.

Rule of Thumb; assume that every time you fire that weapon, the VC's are coming for you!

Remember, watch open spaces (if you're clever you'll watch the borders of open spaces), shoot something that moved and run through the jungle! Just check your targets.

Always assume that these here fellers are watchin' you! If you behave as if a sniper is always watching, then you won't give them the oppertunity to 'pink' you in the head from across the valley!

Who is that? Are they fellow Marines? What if they're VC? You wanna avoid having to call 'sorry' and praying for forgiveness but if you waltz in saying, 'good morninh, soldier' only to get an AK round to the head, don't come cryin' to me!
Check your map, where are the 'frontlines' so to speak? Are there any friendlies in that building before you step out into the open or, God forbid, throw a grenade in there? Who is that? Who's gunfire? Who's language? You gotta know, Private! Learn that the fellow in bright green tends to be your fellow American, while the Asian man in ragged smocks is Vietnamese, this isn't rocket science!

What are you doing? Have you got a goal? Are you taking an objective? Are you clearing a building? Are you wandering around aimlessly hoping to be the first to kill a VC? Guess which of those idea's will fail you Private? Always have an idea of what you are doing!

When do you move out? Too soon and you'll be left exposed, to late and the VC will find you with your thumb up your @$$! You need to know when to make your move, go with your fellow Marines and keep them save! Chose your moment's carefully!

Where are you going? Is that the objective? Are there VC's over there? Are you finding their tunnels? Are you headed for their Commander? You can't just wander about withou a goal, you gotta go somewhere, and you gotta follow these rules!

Why are you going that? This is without a doubt, the most frequent question I ask myself when watching a Private cresting a hill firing his machine gun at the horizon, or throwing a grenade at me or taking a leasurely walk down the street being watched by a VC sniper! Why on earth do some Privates do what they do? I do not have the answer, but if you ask yourself these five essential questions, you might just be of use!

Ooh-rah!

We have Machine Guns, Helicopters, Gunships, Napalm, Artillery, Smoke Grenades and all hell to let loose on those VC. And yet you go running in wanting to be the first to kill a VC? Talk to me, Private! Tell your squad leader he should mark that building bursting with VC, all wanting to be the first to kill a GI! We'll send in Napalm, Artillery, anything! You must help us help you!


Look what happened to this VC's friends! When your commander asks you for marks, he has Artillery waiting in the wings that he wants to use, why wait? Get some Binoculars and mark the position you want to strike, be it the objective, or even the area the VC need to travel through to get to the objective!

If their pathway is blocked by Napalm then you and your fellow Marines can swoop in and make yourselves at home. But you need to cooperate with those Marines, not compete against!