Thought I'd share a story when I was in a S2 intel section while with the 2nd 47th Mech Inf Bn in Vietnam, during 1969.
The story is about a practical joke done by Sgt Rudy, my SFC NCO S2 sergeant. Rudy was his nickname. His real name was Polish, very long with lots of syllables, hard to pronounce, so we just called him Sgt. Rudy. Rudy was a darn good sergeant who was very sharp. He could be evil though.
Near our base was a small ARVN base that had a few American MACV advisors assigned to it. We often exchanged intelligence info. One morning we had a radio message to visit them (about 3 miles away), something of interest for us to receive. Off I go in our jeep with Sgt Rudy to visit the MACV guys.
An ARVN patrol, early that morning, had found a Chinese antitank mine and it was sitting on top of a picnic table the MACV guys used. I'm chatting with the MACV first LT while Rudy is closely examining the antitank mine on the table. My back is to Rudy. Suddenly the Lt. yells at Rudy and then dives to the ground, behind a sandbag wall that surrounded the picnic table area. I turn around to see Rudy with his hand on what should be the detonator when he twists it and then tip toes away, holding his head. Yikes, I too dived behind the sandbag wall. It was kinda funny to me, yea, quick stepping away from the table by Rudy would save his butt if the mine exploded. It didn't explode as the mine had no fuse/detonator. Rudy was unscrewing the protective cap for the fuse hole.
We put the antitank mine in the jeep and head back to our base. I park our jeep in front of our battalion headquarters and carry the antitank mine. By the way, being a mechanized unit with APCs, we'd not experienced a loss of any of our tracks to a chicom tank mines....why it was of interest to us, something new to worry about. Anyway, Rudy enters Headquarters first with me just behind him. As soon as he walked into a room that was next to our S2 office, Rudy stops and tells me to hand him the mine. Room we are in has desk about 18 feet from us where one of our Bn Majors worked and he is sitting at his desk, head down, taking care of some paperwork. Rudy tells me, watch this and begins to walk towards the major. As he is walking, Rudy begins swinging the tank mine. The mine has a carry handle on its rim. Major never looks up until Rudy is close enough to release the mine when on an upward swing with it, while telling the Major, "Major, I have a gift for you."
Major looked up and saw the tank mine in mid air, heading for his desk top. He will promptly try to do a back flip out of his chair. I was surprised by how quick the Major reacted. Well, the major had a set of low wall shelves behind him and he will hit the back of his head on the top shelf and then fall to the floor. He quickly jumped up from the floor and began to step around the desk when he passed out from hitting his head. Major will hit his forehead on corner of his desk when he passed out.....so the major has a cut on back of his head and one on his forehead.....there was a fair amount of bleeding. Others that worked in majors room began yelling to get a medic. Our base medical unit/hospital was maybe 35 yds away. Rudy, says "oh sh-t", and trots past me into another part of Bn headquarters. I flee into my office in the next room. There was an opening in a wall that allowed me to view into the Majors room, where he was passed out from hitting his head...twice.
The Major will partially recover and stand up, while holding on to top of his desk to steady himself, when Rudy returns, following behind our Bn commander. Rudy had made a beeline to the colonel, telling him what had happened. Rudy had a good relationship with our Bn commander and he sure as heck wasn't going to face the major alone.
Lt. Colonel Smith, who would retire as a brigadier general years later, had a smile on his face. The major was highly irritated, to say the least, when he was able to focus his eyes and see Rudy walking behind Colonel Smith. Can't write the words the Major said, upon seeing Rudy, but he managed to step from behind the desk and stagger towards him. I'm thinking, Jeez the Major, who had quite a temper and was built like a brick, was going to lay into Rudy, and I don't mean with a verbal lashing.
So, the colonel is between Rudy and the Major. Major goes to the right, Rudy circles to the right, keeping the Colonel between them. Major goes to the left, Rudy circles to the left. The whole time, the colonel is rotating with the Major, telling him to clam down....if you think about it, its kinda funny. It took the Major awhile to gain control of himself and realize the Colonel wasn't going to let him deck Rudy, grudgingly admitting it was a good joke Rudy had played....but if looks could have killed, Rudy was a dead Sgt.
