By Caleb McClain
Two men stood sentry over the LZ while the others slept, just waiting for the weather to clear so that a helicopter could pick them up. The six-man team from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marines had just carried out a scouting mission without incident. All was quiet that night in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam. But the funny thing about Vietnam was that the façade of peace was nothing more than the calm before the storm.
A scream of sheer terror erupted from among the men, followed by another voice repeatedly yelling, “It’s a tiger!” As the jaws of the beast snapped shut on his prey, the striped cat leapt into a bomb crater to finish his feast alone.
The men, no longer blissfully resting, pursued with their M16s. Now directly in sight of the ferocious cat, they opened fire, as if it was Charlie himself. As five magazines emptied into it, the tiger slowly began to resemble Swiss cheese, now laying lifeless under the jungle canopy. When the Marines were airlifted out, they, of course, brought the 400-pound trophy along with them. The tiger was believed to be a local man-eater. Unfortunately for the five men who had just bagged a trophy that would make Jim Corbett jealous, they never knew who actually dealt the cat it’s final blow.
Prowling the ‘Nam
The Indochinese tiger once reigned the forests from China all the way down to southern Vietnam and Cambodia. While not quite as big as their Bengal or Siberian cousins, they still can tip the scales well over 400 pounds, with some potentially even breaking 500. During the Vietnam War, it was kill or be killed, and the 40,000 Indochinese tigers made quite the trophy for a 18-year-old grunt—and killing it was better than a sharply dressed man having to knock of your mother’s door.
In another incident, Staff Sgt. Benard Yost and Spc. 4 Wendell Rose of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment were on a similar recon mission in the Binh Thuan Province when they spotted a tiger stalking their point man. They drew their guns and sent the cat to its eternal home, one three-round burst at a time. When later asked about the event, Yost simply replied that he had to kill it because “point men are hard to come by.”
Similar stories were common throughout the jungles, especially for recon units who spent days on end in the hellish terrains of Southeast Asia. Larry Flanagan with the 75th Rangers was posted up with a four-man team at an ambush point in a place called the VC Valley. He recounted that “a group of wild water buffalo came down the stream to drink. While there, we saw a tiger only about 25 feet away from us stalking the herd. I fired one shot from my M-16, hitting him behind his right shoulder; killing him instantly. My CO sent a copter to pick up the tiger and left us out there for four more days.”
Death in the Jungle
They weren’t all happy endings though. In 1970, Sgt. Robert Phleger had just returned to the jungles after marrying his high school sweetheart in Hawaii. He had proven himself invaluable and was on his very last recon mission before taking a cushier role. Suddenly, a commotion arose from the bush, followed by muffled screams. Then silence. Despite having been only five feet away from the nearest soldier, Phleger had vanished into thin air. The detachment sat perfectly still all night, not daring to compromise the mission. At daybreak, the men followed drag marks to Phleger’s half-consumed corpse, the tiger still guarding its kill. As the men fired at the cat, even throwing a grenade at it, it gracefully slipped away into the jungles forever.
Unfortunately, the Indochinese tiger, like many endangered species, has fallen victim to poaching due to folklore associated with tradition medicine. The population is falling quickly, down to just over 200 specimens—much lower than the 40,000 or more that roamed the jungles during the Vietnam War. While I share in the lamentations of those who are disheartened in knowing that we will almost certainly see the last of these poached for black market pharmaceutical purposes, I must admit that I wish I was among the lucky servicemen who could have bagged one while Charlie was on his tail.
