9 Things Every Point Man Learned Walking First in Vietnam

Описание: Quang Tin Province, 1969. Thirty men on a narrow trail through elephant grass, and one twenty-year-old out in front of all of them, looking at the ground in front of his boots. In Vietnam, an infantry patrol was only as good as its first man.

Nine things the men who walked point learned the hard way: why somebody had to go first, the slack man who covered him, the ground that was the enemy, the silence, the rifle or the shotgun, the machete, the Kit Carson Scouts and scout dogs who sometimes walked in front of him, how point changed the man, and the thirty men behind him. If you walked point, tell us where, and who your slack man was.

0:00 Quang Tin Province, 1969
2:10 #9 Somebody had to go first
3:42 #8 The slack man
5:17 #7 The ground was the enemy
7:23 #6 The silence
9:08 #5 The rifle and the shotgun
11:11 #4 The machete
12:56 #3 The scouts who used to be the enemy
14:39 #2 Point changed the man
16:32 #1 The men behind him
18:07 Back to the trail

Sources: U.S. Army mine and booby trap casualty figures (1967); Kit Carson Scout program records; veterans' oral histories.