Does anyone know about tunnel rats? 

No, they weren't rats crawling around in a tunnel. In Vietnam, the Viet Cong of which we were fighting created tunnels underground to hide in, they had barracks, storage of supplies and weapons and some even had hospitals. The Americans discovered these in 1965 and 1966, so then some soldiers from the Air Cav and 1st Infantry Division volunteered to go into the tunnels for information and to kill the Viet Cong.

Thus the term, "tunnel rats," came about. These men displayed incredible bravery. One of these soldiers was Priest River's Gary Bell, who recently passed away. The Viet Cong were small so our men also had to be small; 5-foot, 6-inches tall was about the maximum height. 

The tunnel rats would go down into these very small tunnels with just a flashlight, a pistol, a bayonet, and sometimes with a sawed-off shotgun. They would encounter poisonous snakes, rats, bats and you name it. Many times the tunnels led to underground rooms that were headquarters or sleeping quarters, or storage of ammunition and weapons. 

These tunnels and rooms were not occupied at all times, they were hiding places, but a tunnel rat didn't know what he would find when entering the tunnel. It was an extremely dangerous job. In fact, they say that one out of three American soldiers who were tunnel rats was either killed or wounded.  

So most of us would say, where do these brave men come from? One was our local hero, Gary Bell. God bless his soul.

Roger Gregory is a Vietnam veteran and business owner in Priest River.