Tiger Attacks During the Vietnam War: Predators in the Bushes

SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL thank you for teaching me. I wasn’t there but my father probably dropped you off.

The experience I had with a tiger I'm glad to say didn't involve an attack. I was with another guy within a two man bunker in a jungle setting on Cam Ranh air base, Vietnam area. within 45 feet of our bunker an massive tiger, bigger than both of us put together walked across in front of us but didn't seem to be paying any attention to us. Once He was gone as neither of us even spoke for fear of drawing His attention to us I said to the other guy, "Guess He must have already ate ! " The rest of the night We kept watch hoping He didn't come after us and even though We both had M16s plus even an M60 didn't know if We could react quickly enough if He came at us. We kept watching but He didn't return while We were still on post and of course let the guys that relieved us know about the tiger. That is the one and only time I've seen a tiger in the wild and even that close. and once is enough. Some of the guys had killed other large jungle cats such as one that had been shot which was an Ocelot but as far as i know not any tigers. i didn't see the ocelot when He was shot but did see the dead body of one that was killed with an M16 which had been brought back to our hut area. NOTE: that is NOT a picture We took, We were hanging onto our weapons just in case We got attacked NOT being tourist with a camera. That sure is pretty much the view We had though walking from left to right in front of us.

Quang Tri - brought out of a zone