8 Things Vietnam Point Men Kept From the Men Behind Them

The point man was the most exposed man in the column. Everybody knew it, and the men behind him were quietly glad it was him and not them. This is what he kept to himself. Eight things, counted down: why a good point man often kept the job, and why the reason was not courage; how he walked by ear and by nose and told the column he had "seen" something; why he never stepped where the trail wanted him to; the slack man he trusted more than any officer; the halts he called on a feeling, twenty times for nothing and once for everything; the day they took him off point; what he did and did not tell the man who took it after him; and the one he walked past. The opening trail scene is a composite, drawn from many accounts. Every other account is attributed. If you walked point, what did you hear, smell or see that you never explained to the men behind you? If you were the slack man, what did you never ask him? One line in the comments is enough. Chapters 0:00 A trail in the morning, 1969 3:19 #8 He asked to keep it 6:35 #7 By ear, and by nose 9:55 #6 Never the easy path 13:19 #5 The slack man 16:01 #4 The halts 19:17 #3 The day they took him off 22:00 #2 The man who came after him 25:29 #1 The one he walked past 28:54 Back on the trail 29:24 Your turn Sources U.S. Army, FM 21-75, Combat Training of the Individual Soldier and Patrolling (1962) — halt and freeze, arm-and-hand signals, smells that give away a position U.S. Army, TC 5-31, Viet Cong Boobytraps, Mines and Mine Warfare Techniques (May 1967) — grenade-in-can trap, punji stakes, enemy warning markers, dud-shell mines U.S. Marine Corps, Mines and Boobytraps special issue (FMFRP 12-43, 1969) — casualty share from mines and booby traps in 1968 John H. Hay Jr., Tactical and Materiel Innovations, Vietnam Studies, U.S. Army Center of Military History (1974) Robin Bartlett (A Co., 1/5th Cavalry, 1968–69), "The Point Man" — robinbartlettauthor.com/the-point-man/ Jim Wilson (B Co., 2/327th Infantry, 101st Airborne, 1966–67), "Point Man," poem — 327infantry.org/point-man/ Tom Brooks (199th Light Infantry Brigade), point man account, Vietnam magazine / HistoryNet, April 2021 Chuck Colgan (1st Cavalry Division, 1969) and Rick Bergquist (1/501st Infantry, 101st Airborne), veterans' accounts, CherriesWriter Mick Lyons (2/7th Marines) and Cletus Ninham, "Walking Point," Wisconsin War Stories, PBS Wisconsin Tom Holm, Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls: Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War (University of Texas Press, 1996) Library of Congress, Veterans History Project — Christopher Cook collection (Americal Division) Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund — names on the Wall U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD Archival photographs and film: U.S. National Archives (NARA) and U.S. Department of Defense, public domain; copies via Wikimedia Commons and the Internet Archive. #VietnamWar #VietnamVeteran #PointMan #MilitaryHistory #Grunts