# Punji traps in Vietnam, **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652 "2016-01-20T03:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/1 "2016-01-20T03:41:23Z")
I read a lot of military.history book. Oddly, I’ve never read of an account of someone in the aftermath of a pundit trap. As a simple weapon, you’d think there were thousands. Still, I may have read fifty books on the Vietnam War and not one mention of treating wounds of Punji stakes. I got to wondering if it was either rare, but well remembered for the sheer barbarity of it, like an iron maiden. Or, which is far worse, it happened with such frequency that it wasn’t worth mentioning. Today it rained, today we pushed through some leaves, eat. I’m watching a documentary where an elderly Vietnamese woman is saying that you got a point for trapping an American this way. If you used explosives, you had to hit three targets to score. So, Punji pits, were they common? Did they work? Damnit, can a mod edit the title? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/2 "2016-01-20T03:52:35Z")
Edited title to fix spelling. Colibri General Questions Moderatpr ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/3 "2016-01-20T03:53:09Z")
Punjab traps I assume are found in India. Pundit traps are commonly seen on cable news channels. Punji sticks I have seen in a documentary shot in Vietnam. I didn’t see a trap, instead they were stuck into the front face of an earth berm to form a sort of stockade. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/4 "2016-01-20T03:54:48Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > I’m watching a documentary where an elderly Vietnamese woman is saying that you got a point for trapping an American this way. If you used explosives, you had to hit three targets to score. Points, like a video game? Collect points like Green Stamps – V & C Red Stamps 🙂 – to redeem for prizes? “Only two more points for a bicycle!” 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/5 "2016-01-20T04:18:30Z")
One got Colin Powell > [@](#): > > Colin Powell: Yes. There was a punji stick on my first tour. I was a young infantry captain, as I mentioned, and I was going through the jungle with my Vietnamese battalion, just myself, one other American and four Vietnamese soldiers and we essentially lived in the jungle. And we were heading to the Special Forces camp, American Special Forces camp one day to come out for a little while. > > The Vietcong, the communist enemy, would place these traps, nothing more than a hole in the ground, a couple of feet deep with bamboo spikes planted in them, just like out of a Tarzan movie. They would cover the spikes with a little bit of buffalo dung, making sure they were quite infectious, and then just put something over it to cover its presence. Usually we knew how to spot these, but that day I just didn’t. I stepped off the side of the trail, and stepped into it. My right foot went down into it and one of the spikes caught the edge of my foot. The sole of my boot missed it and it caught the instep, went all the way through. Of course, I felt it rather immediately and jerked my foot out, which pulled it right back out. > > Colin Powell Interview Photo > It was so quick, I didn’t realize how injured I was. I just knew that I’d punctured my foot. I didn’t realize how serious it was, so I didn’t want to say anything. We just kept marching towards the Special Force camp. In about 15 minutes I realized that I had done something real bad. In about 30 minutes I was having difficulty walking and had to use a stick. Fortunately, we were close to the camp and I was able to get there. The Special Forces medics cut my boot off and they could see my foot was purple by then. The spike had gone all the way through, from the bottom to the top, and then come right back out, totally infecting the wound as it made the wound. So they were (kinda) effective against at least one US soldier. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/6 "2016-01-20T07:09:37Z")
Goddamn. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/7 "2016-01-20T20:24:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I didn’t see a trap, instead they were stuck into the front face of an earth berm to form a sort of stockade. If they are not hidden then they are just sticks. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/8 "2016-01-20T21:35:47Z")
My uncle stepped on one while he was in Vietnam. He had pretty much the same experience as Powell. The infection marked the end of his combat career. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/9 "2016-01-20T22:15:18Z")
Yikes. I didn’t realize they could do that much damage (going right through Powell’s foot) that casually. Has boot design changed to help prevent this, like with a metal shank in the sole? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/10 "2016-01-21T00:19:18Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Yikes. I didn’t realize they could do that much damage (going right through Powell’s foot) that casually. Has boot design changed to help prevent this, like with a metal shank in the sole? In May 1966, the US Army introduced a new “jungle boot” that had a stainless steel plate in the sole. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/11 "2016-01-21T00:45:50Z")
I’ve read a lot of Vietnam books as well and only remember reading about a couple of accounts. One account was in [Frank Miller’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Miller) book. He took a punji stick all the way through his calf, but that wasn’t even the interesting part. He was with 5th Special Forces and spent a lot of time sneaking around large groups of the enemy with about 5-6 Montagnards. They found a vacated enemy position once and behind it was thousands of punji sticks, like a 30 ft wide bed of them. They were deep in enemy territory where they shouldn’t be expecting any attack, why so many? Later, they came across a dead NVA, went on and did whatever they were doing then came back by the dead enemy, only he was gone and a large paw print was nearby. That’s when they figured out they were in tiger country. The NVA had apparently spent the night at that position and put up the punji sticks to keep tigers away while they slept. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/12 "2016-01-22T03:25:11Z")
> [@](#): > > They would cover the spikes with a little bit of buffalo dung, making sure they were quite infectious, and then just put something over it to cover its presence. I’ve always read that they were smeared with _human_ feces. ---
**Author:** ![westhou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f1d935/32.png) [@westhou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/westhou)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/13 "2016-01-22T16:05:09Z")
I was an Infantryman in VN in 1968-69 and saw many booby traps, Most were trip wires connected to some type of explosives such as mortar rounds or gernades. I only saw on punji pit and it looked to be very old (and unused). I suspect they were more widely used earlier in the war. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/punji-traps-in-vietnam/743652/14 "2016-01-22T16:11:52Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If they are not hidden then they are just sticks. Ok, thanks. So it’s a Punji trap, a hole with sticks in it. ETA: [Except this photo caption disagrees with you.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punji_stick#/media/File:Vietnam....Marines_of_Company_H,_2nd_Battalion,_4th_Regiment,_walk_through_a_punji-staked_gully._-_NARA_-_532439.tif)