My old man use to tell me stories of his experiences in Vietnam. He was on a recon team in the 1st Cav 65-66.

He told of one night his team slept in a circle under a large tree, and in the morning as they were moving out they saw a tiger up the tree that they had just slept under.

My dad was in Vietnam in '68 and '69. My father always told me stories about the war if I asked but never volunteered them. I only remember him telling me this story once. This thread made me remember it.

He'd just gotten to Vietnam. He'd only been there a short time. After doing whatever he needed to do upon arrival--to process in to the country at his arrival base, a week or so later he was flown out to his first assignment "base". My dad said it was just some hill in the jungle that the Americans had cleared of all vegatation, surrounded with a large fence, and filled with a bunch of bunkers--holes in the groud surrounded by sand bags topped with plywood and plastic.

Well, he'd just gotten there, his first day, and it had just gotten dark, when all kinds of perimeter alarms started going off. My dad thought, "Holy shit. I just got here and the place is already being overran." He said that he was freckin' out, thinking he might die the very first day he was there. The base/camp went nuts, everyone running and grabbing their guns, jumping into their holes, the whole nine yards. Some guys got to the spotlights and lit up the fence.

Standing there, against the fence was, what my dad described as "a huge panther about the size of a Shetland pony."

Everyone was so shocked that no one did anything. Finally someone asked a commander if they could shoot it. The commander said, "na [with the light now on it] it looks as scared as us." Everyone just watched it for the next few minutes until it slinked away back into the darkness.

Needless to say my dad was damn glad that the hill hadn't been overrun. He said that was an experience that he'd never forget.  

One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing.

IIRC, in Franklin "Doug" Miller's (MOH)  book, he was out with his team in the dark and they came up on a huge array of pungi sticks.   Doug Miller mumbled to himself, "what the hell are all these out here in the middle of damn nowhere".   They heard a Tiger roar in the darkness, the pungi sticks weren't for the Americans but the Tigers.  

When I met Doug Miller, he mentioned the Tigers.  He said they are so quiet and good at stalking chances are your dead meat if it's on to you.   He said they can kill quite quietly too, IIRC, he mentioned of some losses where a guy just damn disappeared.

On the last day of Marine OCS our senior drill instructor had an informal (shocking! at the time) talk with us. Among other things, he told us about one of his comrades on a Force Recon patrol being grabbed at night by a tiger. They never found him.

Quoted: Never get out of the boat

I'm surprised it actually took 59 seconds for someone to post that...

Tag, some good stories here.

tiger, tiger burning bright

in the forest of the night...

My pops hasn't told me any stories about tigers, but he told me a few others. When crossing a river one of his friends was dragged the water under by a croc, they managed to save him and kill the croc.


And lots of stories about rock monkeys pelting my dad and his squad with rocks, branches, and shit.

"12-22-68 Prov Mag 39 Quang Tri Recon Medivac. We're the 46 crew that picked up the Marine and tiger mentioned in picture#1075. Terry Powell and I were on medivac standby when we received a call around midnight to pick up a wounded recon member north of Khe Sanh. The weather was terrible but we found them. Turns out the young Marine had been attacked by a tiger. Of course the Marines won. Ended up bringing the wounded Marine, recon team and tiger back to Quang Tri hospital. This is the picture taken the next morning. Tim Smith was A/C of the other 46. Can't remember all the other crew members names or the Col. in the picture. If this picture brings back any memories and names let us know.
.......
I was one of the Corpsmen on duty at Quang Tri Hospital the night of this attack. The Hospital was designated a "M. U. S. T." unit (I cannot figure out the acronym) and was an experimental inflatable Hospital being tested while more fixed buildings were being assembled. If I remember correctly it was closest to the DMZ or the most northern anyway. That night a call came in for medical assistance in the triage unit and soon the word spead that the call was for a Tiger attack. I was assigned to the surgical ward and was just off duty or taking a break when I arrived there (mostly from curiosity as there were many Doctors/Corpsmen available). I entered the triage area and saw a young Marine, alone in the room, sitting on the edge of a gurney and I asked him where the victim of the Tiger atttack was, he replied that he was the victim. To look at him he just appeared tired, I asked how he was and he said "OK" I ask how he was injured as I could see no outward signs of injury. He reached up and pushed back his hairline above his left eye and I could see a 3/8" hole in his scalp. he had four of these spaced evenly across his head. He was not badly injured (as I recall) and went on to describe this frightening account: He was a member of a recon team waiting for extraction from a bomb crater, near dusk, when suddenly he felt himself moving involuntarily out of the crater, reaching over his head he could feel fur but could not figure out what was happening, then he repeated something I will never forget, as he was being dragged out of the crater he could feel the alternating "cold and hot" breath of whatever it was that had him, swirling in and out over his head and ears. His fellow recon team members did not quite know what do to, the Tiger was dragging him toward water and the team was afraid to fire for fear of both giving away their position and scaring the Tiger to the point that he would arine. They decided to fire and killed the Tiger, gave first aid to the Marine and were soon extracted. The photo appeared in "Stars & Stripes" and the Tiger attack entered the books of the Recon Battalion as a notable, very unusual event. I was rotated out of country the following Feb. after 13 mos, without orders, to Okinawa, eventually back here to the "World" It's been many years since my service, I think I remeber correctly but I know better, this is the best I can do. HM3 John "Doc" McCormick

I thought this thread was going to be about the Tiger Force expose done by the Toledo Blade...

Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing.

WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you?

Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you?

They smell like chicken

ETA: I've been within about 10 feet of a damn big siberian and don't remember a particular smell.  Sorry, no good story to go with it, just an extravagent individual who keeps a couple on his property.

Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you?

Guys like you need to go to the zoo to find out what a tiger smells like and I'll let you figure out how to learn the difference between up-wind and down-wind .

ETA: No experience with Siberian.

That hanger looks pretty skinny, may have been damn hungry enough to take one too many chances.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you? They smell like chicken children ETA: I've been within about 10 feet of a damn big siberian and don't remember a particular smell.  Sorry, no good story to go with it, just an extravagent individual who keeps a couple on his property.

Fixed.  

Kidding, actually.

BTW, Robert, is that you?

My cousin used to work for the LA Zoo in the big cat section. She walked them routinely on chains and even raised a mountain lion cub in her home. Here is a picture of the cub after it had grown up. She brought it out one day especially for us and we all got to pet it. My cousin is on the left.



If you have never been up close to one of these animals, it is an experience like no other. You are at once awestruck by their beauty but you realize that you are lunch any time it wants to eat you. The muscles don't feel like our muscles. They feel like fur laid over a block of steel.

She has a number of interesting stories to tell about her work with the big cats. Like, for instance, she was out walking a cheetah inside a fenced area at the zoo. As you probably know, cheetahs are considerably smaller than tigers. As they were walking, someone rode by on a horse just outside the fence. She said the cheetah took off after it, and dragged her along like a rag doll.  She saw the chain link fence coming up and was fully convinced that the cheetah would clear the six-foot fence, dragging her along with it. She is at least as large as the average guy in VN.

The guy may have overestimated the size of the fence, or whatever, but if the question is whether a tiger could clear a good-sized fence with a human in his mouth, I would bet they could.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you? They smell like chicken children ETA: I've been within about 10 feet of a damn big siberian and don't remember a particular smell.  Sorry, no good story to go with it, just an extravagent individual who keeps a couple on his property. Fixed.   Kidding, actually. BTW, Robert, is that you?

Thanx.  

BTW - Sorry bro, the name's #######.  Is he also a member of the Unlicensed Chili Guilds-Men?

That's why they made tiger-stripe camo... so you'd blend in with the other tigers with M16's and grenades.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you? They smell like chicken children ETA: I've been within about 10 feet of a damn big siberian and don't remember a particular smell.  Sorry, no good story to go with it, just an extravagent individual who keeps a couple on his property. Fixed.   Kidding, actually. BTW, Robert, is that you? Thanx.   BTW - Sorry bro, the name's #######.  Is he also a member of the Unlicensed Chili Guilds-Men?

Too bad that Swindle1984 didn't come back Rincon_11, since it took me about 10 seconds to Google several hits on how smelly tigers are and he was being a prick.  You weren't though and I don't know why the one you ran into didn't stink.  Did find several VN tiger stories too (a lot more interesting - tragic - than mine).

Something else interesting is they've got a "save the tigers" type thing going on over there now.

At the Philly zoo I was watching the tigers out on the island. A large male lept from a relaxed crouch about 20 feet horizontal and 10 feet vertical to smack a pigeon out of the air. I think that animal could have easily carried a 180 pound man over a 10 foot fence. Hell, I was doing some calculations on the height of the wall and width of the moat...

.

Large wild cats are very elusive animals, the bigger they are the more elusive they typically are.  Bobcats live all over the place here in NC, but I've seen only two in my life, and I've been hunting (fur & feathers) for most of it.  I've seen videos of leopards climbing trees with decent sized prey in their mouths.  I imagine a larger and stronger healthy tiger could clear a fence with a small asian man in his mouth, but the 10' part is stretching it a bit.  I've seen videos of Mountain Lions clear 8-10' walls like its an everyday thing BTW.

What do Tigers smell like?  I dunno, but I do know that almost all carnivores have a different scent than herbivores, has something to do with the way their digestive system is set up to process meat instead of vegetation, and the body chemistry that comes with it.  Intestinal tracts in carnivores are very short compared to herbivores.

Would a tiger run away from combat?  I doubt it, and typically it will avoid any trip wires or snares or disruptions in it's path, something I recall from a National Geographic show on Tiger poachers.  It might keep it's distance from combat, but when the shooting is over I imagine they would learn to move in real quick.  Bears do it in elk and moose country.  Shooting a gun in some of those moose/elk areas is like ringing a dinner bell for the bear.  They have learned that a gut pile will be found.  It's a simple Pavlovian response.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you? They smell like chicken children ETA: I've been within about 10 feet of a damn big siberian and don't remember a particular smell.  Sorry, no good story to go with it, just an extravagent individual who keeps a couple on his property. Fixed.   Kidding, actually. BTW, Robert, is that you? Thanx.   BTW - Sorry bro, the name's #######.  Is he also a member of the Unlicensed Chili Guilds-Men? Too bad that Swindle1984 didn't come back Rincon_11, since it took me about 10 seconds to Google several hits on how smelly tigers are and he was being a prick.  You weren't though and I don't know why the one you ran into didn't stink.  Did find several VN tiger stories too (a lot more interesting - tragic - than mine). Something else interesting is they've got a "save the tigers" type thing going on over there now.

Don't know, maybe it was more well kept for than a jungle cat.  Course, I have no idea how they could bath such a large, um, kitty

Could be that I just wasn't paying enough attention.  Either way, I wouldn't want to face one of them suckers face-to-face, heavily armed or not.

Tigers are dangerous... just ask these guys...

I remember a story of a tiger being shot by a doorgunner, and the skin ended up in some mess-hall somewhere. One of the guys at work here saw it there.

-Osprey, is that who I think it is??

Quoted: He killed a rampaging elephant with his M-16.  Multiple head shots finally brought it down.

Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.

Did you suckers camp where the tiger pee'ed to mark it's territory?

Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary.  Hiding from humans in the dark is no big deal but hiding from a Tiger is NOT a good thing. WTF does a tiger smell like and why is that you could smell him but he couldn't smell you?

'

You can be guaranteed that the tiger absolutely knew they were there.....and it ignored them for it's own reasons.....

Quoted: Quoted: <snip> BTW, Robert, is that you? Thanx.   BTW - Sorry bro, the name's #######.  Is he also a member of the Unlicensed Chili Guilds-Men?

Dunno.  Just used to know a guy named Robert who had Siberians and was a huge Caddyshack fan.  The word "Rincon" also meant something to him, and I thought: ya know, stranger things have happened.  Was also going to mention that you owe me an exotic herp, but since you're not Robert, I'll refrain.

Quoted: Not exactly VN, but I remember reading Jim Corbett's "Man-eaters of India" as a kid.  Some scary shit.  Those tigers were athletic, but I dunno about jumping over a 10' fence with a dude in its mouth (even a kid).  Maybe scaling a 5' stone fence or something, but 10' chain link is another thing entirely.

reminds me of what my indian friend told me.  Back in india, if a Tiger got a taste of a human (said they were always running into them, with the vast expanse of building enterprises moving into wild habitats), that they (Local LEO with enfields) would have to track that tiger down and kill it, otherwise it would continue to prey on humans.

Quoted: Quoted: Not exactly VN, but I remember reading Jim Corbett's "Man-eaters of India" as a kid.  Some scary shit.  Those tigers were athletic, but I dunno about jumping over a 10' fence with a dude in its mouth (even a kid).  Maybe scaling a 5' stone fence or something, but 10' chain link is another thing entirely. reminds me of what my indian friend told me.  Back in india, if a Tiger got a taste of a human (said they were always running into them, with the vast expanse of building enterprises moving into wild habitats), that they (Local LEO with enfields) would have to track that tiger down and kill it, otherwise it would continue to prey on humans.

Yeah, the Corbett book mentioned this.  From what I remember, it wasn't so much the act of killing/eating a singular person that earned them the moniker; rather, acquiring a "taste" for humans that caused them to be referred to as "man-eaters".

Quoted: Quoted: One night we smelled one -  REALLY REALLY scary.  Pitch black, never saw it, and eventually he/she moved on but not joking - REALLY REALLY scary. Did you suckers camp where the tiger pee'ed to mark it's territory?

Believe it or not, I've been reading some of those hits I got and I think you're right...  oh shit, now someone will REALLY call BS.  Here... a link

A cat?