"Rat Six," who helped flush out the Viet Cong from underground labyrinths during the Vietnam War, has been a Hopewell Township resident for over two years now.
By Rosalie Ann LaGrutta
Commander "Rat Six" of the intrepid Tunnel Rats, the U.S. soldiers who flushed out Viet Cong from the snake-infested underground labyrinths during the Vietnam War, has found a home in Hopewell Township.
Jack Flowers, 59, of Search Avenue has been living in the township for the past two and a half years with wife, Amy, and children Josh, 11, who is in sixth grade at Timberlane Middle School, and Alexandra, 7, who is in first grade at Toll Gate Grammar School.
Mr. Flowers’ daughters from a previous marriage, Melissa and Leslie, are now in their 20s. Melissa has a child of her own, Jacob, so "Rat Six," the commanders code name, is now a grandfather.
Mr. Flowers story has been told before in Life magazine in April 1985 and in the book, "The Tunnels of Cu Chi: The Untold Story of Vietnam," written by Tom Mangold and John Penycate the first BBC journalists to visit Hanoi and Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) 10 years after the war.
Mr. Flowers’ documented experiences in Vietnam were so compelling that author Frederick Forsyth based his work of fiction, "Avenger," on Capt. Flowers’ life in Vietnam.
In "Avenger," the main character is Calvin Dexter, whose hometown is Pennington. Mr. Forsyth describes Pennington: "There is not much to Pennington, one of a million neat, clean, tidy, neighborly small towns that make up the overlooked and underestimated heart of the U.S. A single major crossroads at the center where West Delaware Avenue crosses Main Street, several well-attended churches of three denominations, a First National Bank (today’s Sun National), a handful of shops, and off-the-street residences scattered down the tree-clothed byroads."
The story finds Mr. Dexter, an attorney, going for an early morning run that would take him over two-and-one-half hours. He was "too early for a coffee at the Cup of Joe or breakfast at Vitos Diner, but even if they had been open, he would not have stopped."
As a result of his experiences in Vietnam, Mr. Flowers has definite opinions about the war in Vietnam and the nation’s current presence in Iraq.
What is it that gets us into wars like Vietnam and Iraq?
"Political expediency becomes more important," said Mr. Flowers.
He said President Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, et al, moved the nation into Vietnam much the same way today’s politicians moved the United States into Iraq.
"As a vet and a citizen, I am very concerned about the U.S. entering into combat in places like Vietnam and Iraq," he said.
Mr. Flowers is now able to talk about his life as commander of the Tunnel Rats, but he admits that it took him about three years to recover from his experiences in Vietnam, a war that was condone by few people in the end and took more than 55,000 lives.
He started his tour of duty in Vietnam as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He was assigned as a platoon leader to the 1st Engineer Battalion at Lai Khe. One day, he was invited to volunteer to become a Tunnel Rat. He accepted.
"The Viet Cong (VC) tunnels were hundreds of miles long and very narrow and very dark," said Mr. Flowers. "There was no room to stand up, and all you had with you were your flashlight and gun, and sometimes a knife. The first man to enter the tunnels was called the point man and the point often didn’t come out alive," said Mr. Flowers.
The tunnels were curved so that some trap doors were above and some went down deeper into the earth. Having to open a trap door that was above was the more dangerous of the two.
Coming up through an overhead trapdoor, an American could be speared through the neck, or garroted, or have his throat slit. One never knew what lay ahead in the dark tunnels.
For example, in addition to tossing hand grenades at the Rats coming into the tunnels, the VC constructed booby traps.
"They put poisonous snakes and scorpions overhead," said Mr. Flowers. "As an American crawled through the tunnel, the scorpions or a deadly snake would be released."
A snake attacking from above would spring and miss a VC, but could spring and hit an American more easily because the VC were much smaller and harder to reach. The VC also used hornets, centipedes and rats. Some of the rats carried bubonic plague. Men going into the tunnels knew if they weren’t hit by gunfire (the VC used AK-47s) or by a grenade, they could be killed by a poisonous creature waiting in a booby trap.
Going into the tunnels, the Americans knew of all these possibilities and, although they had seen the deadly results, each man knew he’d have to go back and continue to rid the tunnels of the VC.
Mr. Flowers made 97 trips ("missions") into those deadly tunnels and often thought he would not get back.
"Most tunnel rats didn’t get back," said Mr. Flowers.
During one of his missions, he opened a trap door overhead and knew instantly that he was in trouble. He saw the trapdoor close again, and it could not close by itself.
"A VC closed the trap door and then immediately opened it just enough to drop a grenade."
For many years, in Mr. Flowers’ mind, he still saw ("in slow motion") that grenade falling through the small space and landing in his lap. Fortunately he was able to move fast enough and far enough to avoid death.
But the grenade had ruptured his ears and punctured his body with shrapnel. He was taken to a hospital where he recovered from his wounds and then went back to the tunnels to continue fighting with his men.
Mr. Flowers spent 11 months entering the VC tunnels and getting out again, with adrenaline pumped by fear. But how long could this go on? How much can a human being take?
Mr. Flowers last mission took place near Saigon. The Americans had found six new holes. His men took turns going down into each of six of the holes, but found no VC. At the seventh hole, the feeling was that there had to be VC down there. Rat Six decided although as commander he didn’t have to go down that hole he wanted to do it.
"I’ve never asked my men to do something I wouldn’t do myself," said Mr. Flowers.
He looked down the 10-foot hole and saw the tunnel beyond it. His men lowered him down into the hole to confront the enemy. Mr. Flowers could picture a VC waiting for him with an AK-47. An AK-47 set on automatic could hit him with 20 rounds within four seconds. Knowing this and keeping his training in mind ("shoot for the face at close range and don’t fire more than three bullets)," he slowly descended into the tunnel.
Three feet from the bottom of the hole, Mr. Flowers signaled his men to lower him the rest of the way. He started firing immediately.
"I hit the VC here," he said, pointing to his forehead, "and then," still gesturing, "one shot to face, one shot to the throat and the last two bullets to the body."
Mr. Flowers had ignored a primary rule for tunnel rats: "Never fire more than three shots, or the enemy will know you’re out of bullets."
When Rat Six caught his breath and looked for the VC he had just killed, there was nothing there save a wall riddled with six bullets.
Rat Six knew he was through. He had spent 11 months in those tunnels and his psyche could take no more. He was sent home to recover and to try to get on with his life. And he has.
What helps a fighter caught in the jaws of hell to come out alive?
"It’s all about heart, upbringing, and training," said Mr. Flowers, "and a belief in God certainly helps."
And Mr. Flowers will tell you, its also about having the best-trained men around you, like his sergeant, Robert Batten (code name, Batman), who survived Vietnam and resides in New Jersey.
When Capt. Jack Flowers Jr. came back to the States, he went back to Rose- Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Ind.), "the number-one engineering school in the U.S.," and graduated.
Born in Indianapolis, Ind., Mr. Flowers is from a long line of military men. The military line goes way back to great-great granduncles who were in the Civil War; his paternal grandfather who served in the army during the Spanish American War; his maternal grandfather who served in the Army during World War I; his father, Jack Flowers Sr., who served with the Eighth Army Air Corps as a tail gunner on a B-17 in England during World War II, and an uncle who served in World War I with the U.S. Marines in the South Pacific.
Mr. Flowers father retired from the Indiana National Guard with the rank of captain the rank Jack Flowers Jr. achieved before finishing his reserve duty after Vietnam.
"My father proudly shows visitors to our home in Indiana a picture of us together in uniform which he calls ‘Captains Flowers.’"
Mr. Flowers attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology for two years. He was drafted in January 1967, and then sent to Officer Candidate School at Fort Knox. He was sent to Vietnam as second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He served in Vietnam from February to August 1969.
After all was said and done, he had received three Bronze Stars, one with the V insignia for valor; two Air Medals; two Army Commendation Medals, one with the V insignia for valor; several campaign medals, and the Purple Heart.