Actually there was one bayonet charge in Vietnam. Only one in that ridiculously long war.

That qoute has been going around for at least 20 years. Sometimes credited to a Marine General in Vietnam, an Army General in the 1st Gulf war, and recently an Army General during Enduring Freedom and OIF.

IMO it's another bit of lore that had it's beginning on the close combat course at one of the MCRD's kind of a military urban legend. In as their is never a name given to the General who spoke it.

The only purpose it serves is to have Soliders remind Marines about Bayonet Hill and the last Bayonet Charge ( as witnessed above) by US forces.

one ANZAC morning i heard an old digger (wwII vet) comment on the length of todays bayonets;

"bah, useless. i used to fit three germans on mine. had to pull the trigger to get them off"


i bought him a drink.



and tried not to piss him off.....after all, he may still have that bayonet!

Captain Lewis Millett, US Army the CO of Easy Company, 27th Infantry Regiment led his unit in its bayonet assault of Hill 180, Soam-Ni Korea, February 7, 1951.

Millett led his men up Hill 180 as part of Operation Punch. Throwing grenades, turning back to call for more firepower when he saw the ground ahead crawling with Chinese, he seemed constantly upright and exposed standing under fire, urging the others on. At the crest he took shrapnel from a grenade. The men saw him silhouetted on the skyline and heard him shouting, Use grenades and cold steel!"

That day the bayonet was used liberally. Some say it was the most complete bayonet charge by American troops since the Civil War. Of 47 enemy dead, 18 had been killed by the bayonet. For his courage and leadership in the action, Captain Millett was awarded the Medal of Honor. And atop Hill 180, like their own special medal to their commander, the men left a bayonet stuck in a crack in a rock holding a sign which read, "Compliments of Easy Company."

That is the last bayonet charge in US military history that I can find any record of, 13th Redneck. I'd be interested in any dates and names you can attach to the bayonet charge you say occurred in Vietnam. I can find no record or any mention of one save your own.

Devilwasp, we don't need to be given any knives. We already have them. If you look at the kneehigh socks Scots wear you'll see a knife handle pocking up. It's called the "Sgian Dubh" and means "dagger black" or the the black dagger. "Black" doesn't refer to the color though but the violence it might employ when an enemy might forget we have it there.

http://www.georgehernandez.com/xMartialArts/Knives.htm

I thought all a Scotsman needed was a fifth of Whiskey to kill a few men?

Originally Posted by Charge 7

Captain Lewis Millett, US Army the CO of Easy Company, 27th Infantry Regiment led his unit in its bayonet assault of Hill 180, Soam-Ni Korea, February 7, 1951.

Millett led his men up Hill 180 as part of Operation Punch. Throwing grenades, turning back to call for more firepower when he saw the ground ahead crawling with Chinese, he seemed constantly upright and exposed standing under fire, urging the others on. At the crest he took shrapnel from a grenade. The men saw him silhouetted on the skyline and heard him shouting, Use grenades and cold steel!"

That day the bayonet was used liberally. Some say it was the most complete bayonet charge by American troops since the Civil War. Of 47 enemy dead, 18 had been killed by the bayonet. For his courage and leadership in the action, Captain Millett was awarded the Medal of Honor. And atop Hill 180, like their own special medal to their commander, the men left a bayonet stuck in a crack in a rock holding a sign which read, "Compliments of Easy Company."

That is the last bayonet charge in US military history that I can find any record of, 13th Redneck. I'd be interested in any dates and names you can attach to the bayonet charge you say occurred in Vietnam. I can find no record or any mention of one save your own.

The misconception about bayonet charges in the Vietnam war probably comes from Hollywood's incorrect portrayal in the Movie We Were Soldiers See this quote I got from a Google Search of bayonet charge Vietnam

For if the Seventh Cavalry’s courage did not falter in fighting the original battle of the Ia Drang Valley, the filmmakers' courage certainly did in retelling that story. In the film’s climactic moment, the early morning of the third day of battle, Colonel Moore’s men are exhausted, outnumbered and running out of ammunition. It’s all too clear that one more determined enemy attack would crack the line. But Colonel Moore/Mel Gibson saves his men and wins the day by ordering the troopers to fix bayonets and charge into the teeth of the coming North Vietnamese assault. As the Americans swept aside their foes and charged to victory and glory, I could feel the elation in the theater.

What kept me from sharing the elation was the knowledge that the events on the screen suddenly had no bearing on the actual historical events they pretended to depict. Automatic weapons and hand grenades rendered massed bayonet assaults in the 20th century about as anachronistic as cavalry charges. The last recorded bayonet assault by American soldiers took place in the Korean War—and even then it was considered a wildly outmoded tactic. And, as anyone who has read Colonel Moore and Joe Galloway’s book knows, they make no claim that any such thing took place.

Source:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6579

However I did find one other claim by a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade @ Dak To in 1967 on this website:
http://www.patriothall.com/vfw/dunne.htm

Originally Posted by Ranger6

I thought all a Scotsman needed was a fifth of Whiskey to kill a few men?

This is actually a myth as well. We are quite capable of being pissed off nasty whilst completely sober.

Best one I remember is from the movie "The Odd Angry Shot",
Grahame Kennedy's character, see's Brian Browns character sharpening the bayonet mounted on the SLR, and Grahame Kennedy gose
"s t, If they get that close, I'm going home"

My Gramps said, "It depends on if its the pointy kind or the knife kind I would imagine. the pointy ones would be great for grilling shiskabobs... The knife ones are good for whittling I would think."