A booby trap is a device set up to be triggered by an unsuspecting victim. As the word trap implies, they often have some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The device is triggered when the victim performs some type of everyday action e.g. opening a door or container, picking something up, kicking a can or something similar on a trail or moving an obstacle in your jungle path to name a few. Some are lethal and will kill a single or many soldiers when tripping a wire. Others traps are designed to cause injury or pain, thus taking away from the military effectiveness of a small group of soldiers – the injured soldier and equipment must be carried by two fellow soldiers – removing 3 soldiers from a single squad effects its overall effectiveness and ability to react quickly in an ambush. Secondly, the injured soldier must be evacuated to a hospital, so when the medivac helicopter lands, the aircraft and soldiers are caught in the open…offering the enemy an opportunity to inflict more damage.
Thank you for taking the time to view this article! Don’t miss out on the many other stories, pictures and videos available to you on this website (see below).
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Should you have a question or comment about this article, then scroll down to the comment section below to leave your response.
If you want to learn more about the Vietnam War and its Warriors, then subscribe to this blog and get notified by email or your feed reader every time a new story, picture, video or changes occur on this website – the button is located at the top right of this page.
I’ve also created a poll to help identify my website audience – before leaving, can you please click HERE and choose the one item best describing you. Thank you in advance!
CherriesWriter - Vietnam War website 
Interesting Site and Article,Semper Fi From an old Vietnam Grunt.
LikeLike
hi
LikeLike
Where are the image citations? I’m using some of the ones you used above for a school project that I’m presenting tomorrow. For now, I’m just citing the artist as the name of the novel you wrote. You have some great content. Thanks for your work and sharing these interesting facts and history with us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Most photos are pulled from Google search or Pinterest and seldom have citations listed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
3 weeks in country, on point stepped in one spent next 8 months in full leg cast. Every step today I’m reminded why I came home and others didn’t.
LikeLiked by 2 people
One item left out was the important fact of marking mines, Booby traps all jungle Warfare and I.E.D.s’ in Vietnam. Depending on the resources of the area for the type of tags, markings and even signs. Signs were my favorite type generally little signs, painted white that say “TU DIA” placed next to the traps. What I called tags were simply parts of snakes, frogs, bird parts or chicken parts, again resources was the clue. Markings were a little harder to pick up when sweeping the jungle; little rice pile on the side of the path, little pile of fire wood left behind or an old farmers hat in a bush. All these resources had but one purpose, to save Vietnamese lives. Most of the American Troops never learned to read the land, they were in to see things out of place. Also a cause of death and injury for American Troops was the inability to understand the basic information they were given “The easy way is the most deadly way” walk in the water, clime the hill, stay off the paths and never ever walk on a patty dike. I spent two years in Vietnam I was lucky enough as a Combat Engineer to learn early many of the thing I needed to survive and help as many as I could survive. One of the funniest thing I ever heard was when I came back from my second year a Trooper ask me how was “Jungle School” I laughed all the way to Germany where it was six below zero in my summer uniform.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The GI could not walk past a can without kicking it. When I did my training this was beat in your head. We had different traps that we were taught what to look for. Helmet in the trail a rifle stacked next to the door. The instructors must have been ex nam vets this was serious crap to them.
I came home all in one piece.
LikeLike