Tunnel rat

The tunnel rats were American, Australian, New Zealand, and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War.

These diverse facilities, coupled with sophisticated ventilation systems, allowed VC guerrillas to remain hidden underground for months at a time.

[citation needed] During the Vietnam War, ANZUS troops uncovered a great number of enemy tunnels while patrolling or conducting larger operations.

[3] Tunnel rats were given the task of destroying them, gathering intelligence within them, and killing or capturing their occupants—often in conditions of close combat.

[7] "A few of the OSS-ordered World War II era suppressed High Standard HD .22 automatics made their way into Tunnel Rat hands.

The "Diehards" of the U.S. Army's 1st Engineer Battalion later were tunnel rats during their rotation through the Củ Chi District of South Vietnam in 1969.

[11][12] SAMOOR (Hebrew: סמור, "weasel"), a formation within Israel's Yahalom elite combat engineer unit, is charged with many of the same missions that tunnel rats performed during the Vietnam War.