"Two other Marines held the tunnel rat's feet as they lowered him into the tunnel with a flashlight and pistol at the ready.
They lowered the tunnel rat into the hole and he proceeds to walk about six feet along the tunnel when he stops abruptly and makes for the exit. "Holy shit! There's a gook down there!", he tells the others as he emerges from the tunnel. He tells them that he saw a bloodied either dead or severely wounded man in the tunnel.
The tunnel rat tells the other marines where on the surface the man is beneath and start digging to get down to him from the top. They dig several feet down and then suddenly the earth in the hole they are digging collapses into the tunnel. The next thing that happened was a grenade comes flying up out of the hole. The Marines on top all dive for cover onto the ground and brace themselves for an explosion. The grenade, which was thrown straight up out of the hole, came straight down, exploding on the wounded man who had thrown it.
The Marines then reached down into the hole and pulled the man out. He was unconscious and they assumed he was dead. However, he regained consciousness and began launching a vitriolic tirade in Vietnamese at the Marines. They asked their ARVN translator what he was saying. He tells them he's saying, "The Marines are number ten, and the VC are number one". He proceeded to continually berate the Marines for the next forty-five minutes, until he breathed his last breath, finally succumbing to his multiple injuries." - Lcpl Pierce Malmquist, Echo Co. 2/5 Marines, Vietnam, Sept. 1968 #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #vietnam #war #reality