i can’t find it but i remember reading an anonymous letter to a senator from a marine in vietnam complaining that his (notoriously unreliable) m-16 had jammed right as he was about to nail his commander and that the malfunction had cost him the pooled $500
i got it!
from “the perfect war: technowar in vietnam” by william james gibson. a good book about yhe american way of war that is still very relevent
Wow
Apparently most fragging incidents involved rear duty troops involved in logistics, food, artillery and the like, basically anyone not directly going into combat, while fighting men learned to get along relatively well with their superiors.
Perhaps the most infamous fragging incident in Vietnam actually involved the
101st Airborne when that unit’s Lt. Col. Wendell Honeycutt ordered and led a
fruitless, costly charge on Hamburger Hill, high ground with no strategic value.
The U.S. took horrible casualties but “won” the hill, only to abandon it a short
time later. Hamburger Hill is often viewed as a key event in bringing home the
idea for officer and enlisted man, for Green Beret and peace protestor, for
young and old all across America, that the country’s involvement in Vietnam was
futile and pointless.
In the aftermath of Hamburger Hill, G.I. SAYS, one of many underground papers
published by enlisted men in Vietnam at the time, offered a $10,000 bounty for
the killing of Lt. Col. Honeycutt who, despite the heavy losses incurred by the
101st, bragged that he had been successful in his mission which was to kill the
enemy and destroy his equipment. The colonel, despite several attempts on his
life, probably mostly done by his own men, completed his Nam tour and returned
home safely.
