This story appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of the Veterans of Khe Sanh's
 "Red Clay Magazine." It has also been posted on numerous Vietnam related websites.

KHE SANH TIGER STORY
By R. D. Foster

In the early days of 1968 Marine Recon teams were reporting more and more enemy sightings and contact in the hills and valleys around Khe Sanh. There were times when the teams were extracted immediately after going in because they had landed in the middle of a large force. The contact out in those thick jungles was not just limited to enemy soldiers, according to Cpl. Lionel Guerra from Bellevue, Washington.

Guerra: "We were waiting for the helicopters to pick us up from a patrol. With me were Junior Reather, Kevin Macaulay and the rest of the team. As we made our way down a hill toward a river we kept hearing a strange noise behind us, but didn’t know what it was. I whispered to the other guys that it sounded like a couple of water buffaloes having sex, and we all had a nervous laugh. We finally stopped and were positioned near the water and were being very quiet. We had seen an elephant that day as well as a lot of other wildlife, but it was quiet at the time. Suddenly we heard a very loud, scary noise. We weren’t laughing anymore when at about that time, pushing its way through the underbrush, stepped this huge, beautiful Bengal tiger not more than twenty feet away. I think it had been following us down the hill. The tiger looked and sniffed around, checking out the area, and then slowly walked over to the water and began to drink. It was a magnificent animal, well over eight-feet long. While we were watching it, Reather slowly took his camera out of his pack and took a picture. When the shudder went ‘click’ the tiger instantly looked directly at us. Our eyes were probably as big as saucers as he gave us the eye. We couldn’t fire our weapons without giving away our position. The tiger stood motionless and stared at us for a moment and gave another loud roar. I thought he was going to charge us, and I did the only thing I knew to do; I roared back. The tiger looked at us for a few more moments and turned and casually walked back into the bush."