FOREST LAKE — Anything could be waiting in the darkness of the Viet Cong tunnels—booby traps, snakes, enemy soldiers and other perils. The tunnel rats encounter On Reddit, a terminally-ill Vietnam veteran recounted a story of his time in Vietnam that he was going to take to his grave but opted to put it on r/nosleep instead . Armed with only a flashlight, a single pistol, or maybe just a knife, a "tunnel rat" didn't have much in the way of … “Non gratus anus rodentum” is a Latin phrase that, when translated into English, means “not worth a rat’s ass.” This tongue-in-cheek expression was the motto of the Tunnel Rats, an informal name given to a group of infantry soldiers and combat engineers in the Vietnam War with a very hazardous specialty. 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. Their motto was the tongue-in-cheek Latin phrase Non Gratus Anus Rodentum ("not worth a rat's arse").. They dig several feet down and then suddenly the earth in … A few specialty soldiers known as “tunnel rats” When they finally arrived in the main room, they were astonished that no booby traps were set and an oil lamp was still lit. A onetime war resister who became a highly decorated Army officer, Flowers in 1969 served as ''Rat Six,'' commander of the crack Tunnel Rat unit of … And so that was my burden for the war, to be a “Tunnel Rat”, climbing down into deep, dank, dangerous tunnels filled with people and animals who wanted to kill me. This Tunnel Rat was crawling into the deepest tunnel he'd ever been in, along with his partner. "Tunnel rats," as American soldiers who worked in the Cu Chi tunnels during the Vietnam War were known, used the evocative term "black echo" to describe the experience of being in the tunnels. The only thing they found was a tarp, but when they moved the tarp, it revealed a set of stone stairs, moving deeper underground. During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers and infantrymen from Australia and the United States who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. The numerous 'spider holes,' as the tunnel entrances were sometimes called, were conveniently located and well camouflaged — nearly impossible to detect.