Tearstone

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

As the echoes died down from the report of gunfire and grenades, one of which he was guilty of, Elijah made sure he was reloaded, then glanced around. Seeing no more movement, he shuddered a bit. Scooting around, he peered into the gory mess that was the cockpit then sighed. "Guess we don't have to scuttle the chopper. The radio is down, and nothing else looks like it's salvageable," he reported. Gingerly he searched the bodies and pulled a couple pistol mags from them, slipping them into a pocket.

Pulling off his ALICE pack, he opened the top flap and pulled out his boonie hat and put it on. With his pack ratcheted back down he squinted a little. For the moment, he wasn't giving much thought to the situation. It was just another day in Charlie's outhouse. The whole thing was a shit sandwich as far as he was concerned. His hands were shaking a bit, but he felt exhilarated, alive and ready for more. "What's the play, Sergeant. Think we got time to scavenge or we just gonna book it?"

The jungle would be crawling with VC. That much was certain, but he also knew if they just picked a direction and ran for it, they wouldn't get very far. If they stayed at the crash site playing with their dicks for too long, the VC would swarm them like ants, and then it wouldn't matter how many grenades and ammo they had. Right now they had a fair bit of gear strapped to them, but it wouldn't last. The dead, of course, had more. That was why he'd taken a couple mags from the pilots for his pistol. Already he was thinking about putting a grenade in his pocket... just in case it looked like he might wind up in Charlie's hands. One last present from Uncle Sam, right? Not right now though. Thing's weren't nearly that bad.

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Great information on the weapons. It explains a lot as to why I always heard the AK series had trouble with feeding/jamming. The sad thing is, I've also heard and seen that the AK series were meant to be tougher and more rugged than the soldiers that used them, to the point that Russian soldiers used to do pushups ON the AK's, with pressure being put on the grip and mag well (with mag inserted) and all. I've heard stories of guys putting 10,000 rounds through the AK, pulling it apart, dipping a shoe lace in used 10w-30 motor oil and running it through the barrel and slapping it back together and putting another 10k rounds through it. If you upgrade the internals a bit, put match grade barrel on one, with match ammo, I hear you can get quite a bit of accuracy out of them.

As for the M-16's feeding and ammo problems, yeah... that I definitely knew about. That's why I went with the newer M16A1 for Eli. Chrome internals, forward assist, and the newest of the A1's also had the brass deflector. That's a little thing, but I don't feel like having 5.56 hickeys all the time.

Great info all around, HeySeuss and RoadRash.

I want to get both platforms when I get enough disposable income. I've been really really poor the last few years but that should be changing soon, which means I can start picking up some needs/wants that have a bigger pricetag.

Edit: Posting now...

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Eli groaned, as he came to, swimming out of a dark black pool of silence and numbness. His heart hammered in his head like sledgehammers and his ears were ringing. He felt dazed, disoriented, confused as he rolled over. The pain in his head married with the dizziness he felt and suddenly his stomach rebelled hard. The smell of burning flesh did not help as his other senses began to catch up even as he quietly wretched, his body wringing itself out like a dishrag.

Finally empty, he heaved again, but it was dry and nothing came up. Collapsing back to the ground from his knees, he sighed, only to slowly sit up, reaching around for his canteen. As he pulled it off his belt a dribble of water ran out of it. Shrapnel or a bullet had punctured it, making it pretty much useless. "Great," he muttered as he flopped the canteen down, then pulled another free from his belt. It was solid, and full. He took a swig and washed his mouth out, then spat it out on the ground. Taking another pull, he took in some water, which his guts didn't rebel against.

Weapons check, he decided. His newer M16A1 (Named Rebecca, or Becca for short) seemed to be okay. His pistol was strapped to him, and he still had several mags. By then he was aware that half the unit were up and moving. Like hte rest, his joints felt as though they were made from crushed glass and every movement hurt. Last time he'd felt like this was either falling down Beverly Cliffs back home, or a bar fight the day after. Machete, knife, and all his gear was there. his helmet he found which had a piece of metal sticking into it. Tossing the pot, he shook his head. He'd been sitting on it for a seat on the way in. Apparently it had saved his balls from getting blown off but he'd gotten a concussion for it, he guessed.

As the Sergeant outlined the situation he said nothing, and instead moved toward the interior of the chopper, after picking up Thumper from the ground. He loaded a 40 mikemike but didn't snap it shut. The noise would give them away. Instead he flipped his selector to semi-auto and belly crawled to the nose of the huey, bracing his rifle there, while making sure his grenade launcher was ready to rock and roll. As soon as Sar'nt's grenade went off he snapped his launcher closed then looked for muzzle flashes for return fire.

A moment after he had them he plotted for the drop and fired, sending a 40mm grenade sailing with it's characteristic BlOOp! With the shell whizzing on it's way he jerked back down behind the wreckage. He didn't feel like being a target while his hands reloaded. They shook a bit as he pulled a grenade out from the bandolier and put it in place. Snapping it shut, he paused for a moment to see how conditions were shaping up.

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Posting...

Edit: Posted. Bloop!

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Go for it, Sar'nt.

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Oops, I meant M79.

I guess I got them mixed up or a typo or something.

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

I'll take a M72. Having 2 in the unit wouldn't hurt.

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

@TomeBinder

I thought about making an ARVN translator. I dunno if you're cool with doubling... Not sure I wanna try to pick up an extra character for this. It usually doubles my workload. So... I'm not going to claim 'dibs' on it or anything.

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Okay, I think Eli is ready for a review

Jungle Fever: A Vietnam War Survival RP

Name: Elijah Dodgers
Nicknames: Dodge
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Rank: Cpl
Ethnicity/Nationality: Caucasian/American

Physical Description:

Standing 5'9" with brown hair and green eyes, Eli is of average but sturdy build. With outdoor life in the semi-arid desert of the Texas Panhandle being the norm until the Nam, he is well tanned, and in good shape. Basic has hardened his frame.

Hider

Skillset:

Eli has a couple tours under his belt at least, giving him some familiarity with the VC, the jungle, and operation of his weapon systems. He as proven to be capable under fire, and has demonstrated leadership capabilities among his peers. As such he has recently been minted as a Corporal and given charge of a few others.
With a youth spent outdoors, a gun in hand, hunting, exploring, and being in dangerous country sometimes, has attributed to his survival in the jungles of Viet Nam.
M16 Expert
M203 Qualified
Land Navigation Qualified
Army hand to hand

History:

Elijah was born in Borger Texas in 1945. His father was Dale Dodgers, a WWII vet. His mother was Helen who was the daughter of a displaced farmer from the dust bowl. Dale spent most of his time working the oilfield and carbon black after returning home from military to provide for his wife and son. Eli attended public schooling in Borger. He gained a few friends, and even had a girlfriend, Regina Warren. For a time, Regina was all he was about, and intended to marry the girl until the Draft came along.

His dad taught him to shoot and Elijah took to hunting and fishing with his grandfather and father (When he had the time). During his school years, he was a typical kid of the day, when he wasn't parked next to the radio or TV, he would sometimes venture down to Electric City, the small township that had sprung up around the steam-based powerplant that had been erected to power the Phillips-Chevron Refinery as well as the oilfield drilling locations in the area when his dad was a boy. By the time he was old enough to go to Electric City, it had been all but abandoned. Exploring old houses and structures was a fun activity, and occasionally he found something nifty while he was there. More than once he'd found a rattlesnake there, but he'd learned how to handle them, and was always careful about such things.

Something of a loner because of this, as mentioned before he had only a few friends, maybe enough to count on one hand. But those that he had were good ones. Occasionally he would spend time with his cousins, of whom he had several, which between his friends and family allowed him to be decently well-rounded and instilled the value of family. He still maintains a sense of independence and self-reliance.

It was during the last year or so of high school he took an interest in Regina Warren, a dark-haired girl with blue eyes who'd grown up in the same town. At first she turned him down, but with charm and persistence she finally decided he was serious, or at least seriously interested in her. The two started seeing each other outside of school, a little at first, but then more so, even going out on dates.

By this time, Eli's mother had become a working woman at the local J.C. Penny's. Better that than the alternative, as inflation soared. Being well old enough to take care of himself, Eli was left to his own devices much of the time, especially with his father becoming increasingly absent from his life, spending more time at the local watering holes after work, and often stumbling home drunk. This meant it was much harder for his parental unit to wrangle in his 'extracurricular' activities. This gave him something of a badboy vibe, which Gina was drown to, and Eli probably didn't do much to dispel it.

Just before graduation, his father wound up running his car off the bridge of the Canadian River on Highway 136, after traveling down it the opposite way in a drunken stupor. The car dropped a couple stories below and crashed into the river. Unable to free himself, his father drowned, leaving his mother a widow. A month later the Draft came through, and pulled him away from his mom and Gina.

At first Eli resented the military and the draft pulling him away from his little life in Borger, sometimes it was the thought of home that kept him going, as well as the letters back and forth. Basic training kept him pretty busy, and was a distraction needed. After that he attended training at Fort Benning for training regarding the new 11th Air Assault Division. Serving with the 11th, he gained several tours, but wasn't entirely happy about the 11th being rolled over into 1st Cavalry Divsion (Air Mobile) but since then not a whole lot has changed

Equipment:

• M79 grenade launcher - "Thumper" - 5 grenades, 3 smoke
• M16A1 (w/ brass deflecter, newer model), "Rebecca" - 3 extra magazines (1 mag empty)
• Colt 1911, 4 extra mags (one loaded in weapon)
• M1942 machete, scout carry (small of back)
• Gerber Mk II fighting knife
• Jungle fatigues, boots, boonie hat, OD Bandana,
• Canteen, e-tool, poncho, 50' 550 paracord, FAK, other soldier sunderies
• pictures of mom and Regina
• couple cans of "dip", pack of cigs, zippo lighter, pack of playing cards