Training
Overall, tunnel rat soldiers received little, if any, specific training. Some of the basic combat training (BCT) soldiers undertook helped though. BCT included lessons on hand-to-hand combat, chemical-warfare defense, map reading, first aid, bayonet fighting, guard duty, and the use of hand grenades. Most useful for tunnel rats, however, was the experience gained in the dreaded gas chambers. Here, leaders forced soldiers into specific chambers and made to recite their name, rank, and service number. It helped give them the experience and confidence to cope with gas, should they encounter it in combat.
Infantry Advanced Individual Training also helped them to deal more in-depth with other issues. Over eight weeks, soldiers learned about tactical skills, squad and platoon offensive and defensive tactics, and how to use certain weapons. Most helpful for tunnel rats, however, was the brief amount of training time spent detecting, removing, and laying booby traps. Though this article will explore specific examples later, these traps were particularly brutal in the tunnels. Soldiers learned to carefully probe the sides, roof, and floor of the tunnels attentively listening and trying to smell the enemy or look for trap doors.
Some tunnel rats were also fortunate enough to take part in Combat Engineer Advanced Individual Training. Since tunnel rats extensively used explosives to collapse tunnel entrances and destroy what they found inside, combat training was particularly valuable. While it covered a lot of the same things as infantry training, it focused more on map reading, knot-tying, navigation, use of hand and power tools, camouflage, constructing barbed-wire obstacles, mine laying, and mine detection. All useful to the experiences of tunnel rats.
Finally, some of the unique training centers would provide tunnel system replicas. The Tropic Lightning Tunnel Rat School at Cu Chi base camp provides an example of this. The center offered classes designed to show the best techniques of searching, detecting, and destroying hiding places. However, other than being underground, they were actually very different from the real Viet Cong tunnels.