Matterhorn (86 page)

request mast
Every Marine has the right to request an interview with his commanding officer. The term “request mast” hasn’t changed since
the days when Marines served on wooden sailing ships and the interview took place “before the mast.”

RHIP
Rank has its privileges.

Route 9
A mostly dirt or gravel two-lane highway that connected the coastal plain around Quang Tri to Vandegrift Combat Base, Khe
Sanh, and Laos. During the Vietnam War it was the only easy way to cross the mountains and supply Marines operating in them
with land-based transportation. It also ran through the only easy way to get from Laos into the populated coastal lowlands,
and was the most direct way for the NVA to reach Quang Tri, particularly with armor; hence, it was of immense strategic value.

RPD
Ruchnoi Pulemet Degtyarev, one of the lightest and most effective machine guns ever produced, was the standard machine gun
used by the NVA and the Vietcong. It used the same 7.62-millimeter bullet as the AK-47 and the SKS. Beneath the barrel, it
had a 100-round drum that contained the belted ammunition. The drum protected the ammunition from getting fouled by jungle
dirt and plants, further increasing the RPD’s effectiveness. This weapon could fire about 150 rounds per minute for an effective
range of around 800 meters (about half a mile). The bipod is permanently attached but can be folded alongside the barrel for
ease in movement. The RPD weighed 19.4 pounds fully loaded.

RPG
Stands for rocket-propelled grenade. This is a small rocket with an explosive head that can be fired by a single man. It
is very effective and is still used in Iraq by the insurgents.

RTO
Stands for radio operator, from “radio telephone operator,” a defunct name no longer used by the time of the Vietnam War.

scuttlebutt
Gossip, rumor. A scuttlebutt is a water fountain on a ship, a place where people congregate and exchange informal talk.

Semper Fi
Short for
Semper Fidelis
, Latin for “always faithful,” the Marine Corps motto. It means always faithful to the country’s call, but for Marines it
primarily means always faithful to each other.

senior squid
The Navy hospital corpsman assigned to a company headquarters who is in charge of the corpsmen assigned to the platoons in
the company. The table of organization rank called for a hospital corpsman
first class (HM1 or HM-1), a naval petty officer equivalent to a Marine staff sergeant (E6 or E-6). Each Marine company had
one senior hospital corpsman at the company headquarters. Tactically he reported to the company commander, but administratively
he reported to the battalion surgeon, a Navy doctor, usually a Navy lieutenant. In Vietnam, because of shortages, this post
was often filled by a lower-ranking hospital corpsman second class (HM2 or HM-2), the equivalent of a Marine sergeant (E5
or E-5), and there was often only one corpsman to a platoon.

shit-kicker
A paperback western novel.

shit sandwich
A particularly tough firefight.

short-timer
A standard tour of duty for a Marine in Vietnam was thirteen months. Around month eleven or twelve, most Marines began behaving
differently. At this time, in contrast to the previous months, they could entertain the hope that they were going to get through
alive and unscathed, but this hope destroyed the earlier psychological numbness and fatalistic thinking of the combat infantryman
that had made fear easier to deal with. Short-timers’ behavior took all sorts of forms, like wearing two flack jackets, refusing
to come out of a fighting hole to urinate, or refusing to brush one’s teeth (on the assumption that brushing made one’s smile
too bright). Some of these behaviors were consciously opera buffa, but others were a result of serious psychological disturbances.

short-timer’s stick
Wooden staff from three to five feet long and about two inches in diameter. It was marked in some way each day, elaborately
or simply, depending on the skill and taste of the carver. A few contrarians would mark all the days at once and then lop
off a mark for each day that passed, until the lucky ones carried just a stub. The sticks served as walking sticks, canes,
tent poles, and even weapons in a pinch. Some of the short-timer’s sticks were works of art.

sick bay
This was where the battalion medical staff was available for nonemergency illnesses and injuries. The term also meant the
activity of providing routine medical care, as in “Sick bay will be at 0830 hours every day.”

Six
Radio code for the commanding officer of a unit the size of a company or larger.

skipper
Casual term of affection and respect used by Marines to designate a company commander, no matter what his rank. Sometimes
it is used for the leader of larger formations, such as a battalion or Marine Air Group or squadron. In the Navy, it refers
to the commanding officer of a ship or boat, no matter what his rank, and has much the same connotation.

Skoshi cab
A small Japanese taxi. “Skoshi” means small or little in Japanese. Small Marines often were nicknamed Skosh, for example,
Bass’s radio operator.

SKS
Standard-issue semiautomatic weapon used by the North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong. It fired the same 7.62-millimeter bullet
as the AK-47, but it did not fire automatically: the trigger had to be pulled for each shot. Being longer than the AK-47,
it was much more accurate.

snoopy
Slang for a poncho liner, so called because one could hide under it in the jungle when “snooping around.” The name also evoked,
comfortingly, the cartoon beagle Snoopy.

snuff or snuffy
A young Marine of low rank.

Slausens
A gang of the 1960s in Los Angeles.

splib
Among Marines in the bush during Vietnam, this was a non-derogatory term for a black Marine. It was used by both blacks and
whites as a rather “hip” way of identifying an African-American, usually a male. A common example is “He’s a splib dude” for
a black Marine, in contrast to “He’s a chuck dude” for a white Marine.

squad
Unit designed to consist of thirteen Marines: three four-man fire teams and a squad leader. Usually, however, it operated
with about ten or eleven Marines. A squad was designed to be led by a sergeant (three stripes), a noncommissioned officer
with at least four years of experience or more; in Vietnam, though, most squads were led by corporals (two stripes) or even
lance corporals (one stripe), most of whom were teenagers.

squid
Slang for a Navy hospital corpsman. The Navy provides all the medical services for the Marine Corps. (The Army, by contrast,
has its own medical services; the Army equivalent of a corpsman is called a medic.) Corpsmen wore Marine uniforms and trained
for service with the Marine Corps in special schools run by the Navy at Marine Corps facilities called field medical services
schools (“Field Med” for short). The table of organization called for two corpsmen for each platoon, but there was often only
one.

stand to
Most attacks come at dawn or dusk, when the light is favorable enough for the attacker but makes him hard for the defender
to see. For this reason all Marines would be required to man (stand to) their fighting holes at these critical times.

super-grunts
Reconnaissance Marines. Reconnaissance personnel were all volunteers who operated far from friendly units in very small groups.
Only highly recommended and experienced Marine infantry personnel were selected from the rifle companies; hence the half-derogatory,
half-admiring nickname “super-grunts.” Marines still in rifle companies had mixed feelings about reconnaissance teams. On
the one hand, these teams were admired because they were brave, were frequently sent on dangerous missions, and had already
proved themselves as ordinary grunts. On the other hand, they lived in relative comfort in the rear when they weren’t out
in the bush, and if they got into trouble they sometimes had to be bailed out by a rescue operation, which usually involved
a firefight. There were two levels of reconnaissance: division and force. Force reconnaissance personnel received more extensive
training than division reconnaissance personnel; for example they were all highly trained scuba divers and parachutists. Force
recon is generally considered to be the crème de la crème of the Marine Corps, equivalent to (although the Marines would say
better than) the Navy’s SEALs.

TAOR
Tactical area of responsibility. A geographic area assigned to any unit for which that unit has sole operating authority
and responsibility.

TBS
See Basic School.

Three
The officer in charge of the staff tasked with planning operations. Major Blakely is in charge of First Battalion’s operations
staff, S-3, so he is called “the Three.”

tubing
When an armed mortar shell is dropped into the mortar tube, an explosion propels it from the tube toward its target. The
sound of this explosion is very distinct and is called tubing. Usually, if one hears tubing, there are several seconds before
the round hits, because the sound of tubing arrives much faster than the high-arcing mortar round itself.

twelve and twenty
A Marine’s tour in Vietnam was thirteen months, as opposed to the Army’s standard tour of twelve months. The thirteenth month
was added because initially Marines were transported to Vietnam and back by sea, and the two voyages took roughly a month.
Even though the Marine Corps later adopted the Army’s practice of moving personnel by air, the tour of duty remained unchanged.
However, there was an unwritten policy that no Marine would spend his last ten days in Vietnam out on an operation. Marines
would often get so nervous and spooked, worried that they would die just before they were to be sent home, that many stopped
functioning. This unwritten policy of getting out of the bush on one’s “twelve and twenty” was generally adhered to.

utes or utilities
Camouflaged trousers and jackets used by Marines in the jungle. Also called jungle utilities, cammies, and jungle utes. Marines
referred to their working non-dress uniforms as utilities; the Army referred to them as fatigues.

VC
Vietcong, the guerrilla army based in South Vietnam and supplied by the North Vietnamese. The Vietcong were the “peasants
in black pajamas” of folklore, but this force ranged in quality from “peasants” to well-equipped cadres virtually indistinguishable
from a traditional regular army. Early in the war the Vietcong had nationalist as well as communist elements, having grown
out of the Vietminh movement that opposed French colonial rule. The Vietcong were purposefully virtually eliminated as a fighting
force by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive of 1968. They were deliberately thrown into battle,
inadequately equipped or inadequately trained to withstand American firepower, while the regular NVA units, better equipped
and better trained, were held back. This was done because the North Vietnamese government feared that the Vietcong would form
an opposition to its eventual rule.

VCB
Vandegrift Combat Base, located in a small valley in the eastern side of the Annamese Cordillera about midway across Vietnam.
VCB was originally called LZ Stud the primary LZ from which the Marines and the 1st Air Cavalry division launched their relief
of Khe Sanh. When the Marines withdrew from Khe Sanh, they turned LZ Stud into a forward staging area from which smaller units
of company size could be inserted into the mountains. The Marines named it after the hero of Guadalcanal General Alexander
Archer Vandegrift, recipient of a Medal of Honor and the eighteenth commandant of the Marine Corps.

VFR
Stands for visual flight rules, operational standards and procedures that are in place when flying conditions are good enough
that pilots need not rely on instruments.

wake-up
It was extremely important, psychologically, to know exactly how many days a man had left until his tour of duty was over
and he could leave Vietnam. However, there was an ambiguity. Do you call the day you board the plane for home your last day
in Vietnam or your first day out of Vietnam? This was resolved by calling that day a “wake-up.” It didn’t count as in or as
out, and this was the most accurate way of expressing how much time was left until the date of departure. (That date was called
the RTD, “rotation of tour date,” by the Marines, and DEROS, “date eligible for return from overseas,” by the Army.) It is
the day you wake up in Vietnam, but the day you go to sleep somewhere else.

WIA
Stands for wounded in action.

XO
Stands for executive officer.

N
UMERICAL
T
ERMS

.44 Magnum
Staff NCOs (four stripes) and higher ranks could carry personal firearms of their choice, and a favorite was the Smith &
Wesson Model 29 or Colt .44 revolvers designed to fire the powerful .44 magnum cartridge. (Another favorite was the slightly
smaller .357 Magnum.) The original .44 Magnum revolver was developed jointly by Remington, which developed the .44 cartridge
(actually a .429), and Smith & Wesson, which beefed up its standard .44 Special to accommodate the cartridge. The weapon was
developed in the 1950s but did not become widely known to the general public until later, because it was carried by Clint
Eastwood’s famous character Dirty Harry Callahan.

.45
Standard-issue .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol. It was issued during the Vietnam War to officers, noncommissioned officers,
corpsmen, and machine-gun and mortar crews. It was developed by John Browning in 1905 as a result of Marine action against
the Moros in the Philippines, where it was found that a .38-caliber revolver, without a direct hit to either the heart or
brain, could not stop a man who had bound his limbs and body with vines or ropes to stop bleeding and prevent shock. The .45
fires a very heavy bullet, at low velocity, and will knock a man down when it hits him in nearly any part of the body. The
disadvantages of the .45 are that it has only a few shots before having to be reloaded and that it is notoriously inaccurate.
The reputation for inaccuracy is somewhat unfair: because of their far shorter barrel lengths all pistols are less accurate
than rifles, and accuracy up to fifty feet is quite good with a skilled shooter. Mastery of the weapon, however, is difficult.
It has immense recoil that puts the next shot off target; and accuracy requires sighting time and a steady hand, both of which
are often lacking in combat. In Vietnam, most junior officers, corpsmen, and even machine gunners carried both .45s and M-16s.
Controversy still rages over the .45. In 1985 the U.S. military replaced it with the 9-millimeter Parabellum semiautomatic
pistol, but the Marine Corps still retained the .45, though not as standard issue. Reports from Iraq
indicate that the 9-millimeter is too light, and demand for .45s, which, among their other virtues, can penetrate concrete
blocks and still kill someone on the other side, has risen sharply in that theater.