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By Chuck N. Baker 
(Boulder City) – Nevada is currently the home of a veteran who goes by the name Fearless. It’s a name that could either be a satirical reference or someone who’s seriously earned and lives the name. In the case of Fearless Fredy King (Yes, it’s Fredy with one “d”), it’s the latter definition. King is a Vietnam veteran who served in combat as a Tunnel Rat. Tunnel Rats for the most part were small-framed, skinny Americans who could fit into tight holes in the soil leading to underground cities where the Viet Cong operated, out of sight. 
 
King entered the Army twice in his long life. In 1958, with the military draft creeping up behind him, he volunteered to go ahead of his scheduled time. “My draft number was coming up,” he said. When I asked him why he joined the Army early on, he simply said, “Well, I wanted to.”  
 
Currently a resident of southern Nevada, he was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, and worked as an electrician on overhead lines. When he wasn’t repairing electric lines, he said he was “electric” as a flyweight boxer in the Midwest. “I had 61 fights and 61 wins,” he said. “I was Flyweight Champion in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago.” That was Part One of earning the name Fearless. 
 
King said he was also Flyweight Champion of the Army, working out of Ft. Carson, Colorado. He left the service after two years and went back to being a lineman. In 1964 with fighting in Southeast Asia making headlines, he felt a patriotic urge to join the Army again. He wanted to help the U.S. in what he initially felt was a noble cause. The second time around as a soldier, the Army didn’t require his services as a boxer.”I went straight to Vietnam,” he said. At first he was shuttled around various units, but always ended up underground. “Engineers, Cavalry, Infantry, at every unit I just got my mail. I was in the 164th Combat Engineers, and later in the 1st Infantry Division. But my primary job was tunnels.” 
 
While in the First Infantry, King said when Gen. William Westmoreland visited his unit, he personally “pretty much picked me” to work in the tunnels, “Because I was a little skinny guy. He knew I was in good shape.” That’s when his Fearless name began to gain more traction. 
 
He recalled his first time entering the tunnels. “The division knew where the tunnels were. But they didn’t know where all the (hidden auxiliary) trap doors were located. So we had to hunt for them.” He said the enemy had rigged the tunnels and the areas around the entrances with explosives, “Bouncing Bettys,” trip wires and other ordnance. “Bettys” is the name given to a class of extremely lethal mines that when triggered launch into the air and detonate at about three feet high, decimating anyone standing nearby.  
 
King said many of the Tunnel Rats he knew became casualties once they entered the underground lairs. They were more than just long tunnels. “I seen the ventilation shafts, the hospitals, the kitchens, the medical where they slept. They had ammo rooms set up, and punji sticks with poison on the ends. It was like a city in there where they all met.” The punji sticks were made of thin stakes of bamboo and planted in pits that were covered with foliage. When an individual stepped on the covering, he or she would fall into the pit. The stakes would enter the skin, and the poison would cause deep life-threatening infections unless quickly and properly treated. King was able to avoid such a fate. 
 
King said when he entered the shafts he wore only a lightweight shirt, shorts, boots and a light strapped to his forehead. He often encountered the enemy. He said when he did, it was kill or be killed.  
 
King had other brushes with death. He explained that once when he was a passenger in an Army helicopter, the pilot either passed out or was shot and was unable to operate the aircraft. King said that although he was not trained as a pilot, he had watched enough of them in action to be able to grab the controls and bring the chopper down safely. “Not too clean,” he laughed. “But safe.”  
 
But although love of country brought him back to the Army, he said over time he became somewhat disillusioned about the war effort. Although he continued to be proud of the military and serve as a Tunnel Rat, he was concerned about America’s policies. He felt that the White House was inherently politicizing the war, but at the same time he was angry when he learned about protesters back home. He felt they had little understanding about what was going on in Vietnam. 
 
When several past Vietnamese combat locations were recently mentioned to him, like thousands of other American soldiers, he couldn’t be certain what happened where. “I didn’t know where I was, to tell you the truth. All I know is what I had to do, and I did it.” He did recall being in such areas named “The Iron Triangle” and “The Hobo Woods,” and a few scattered villages. His own living quarters, when he wasn’t hunting Viet Cong, was a “hootch” made out of tin. He had a television, radio and refrigerator, all battery operated. “The TV used rabbit ears,” he said. All the TV shows were telecast from Saigon in the Vietnamese language, which King did not understand. But the images gave him something different to keep entertained. “I (lived) right there, right at the end of the bush,” he said. In 1970 he left Vietnam and the active duty Army, but he stayed with the National Guard until he was able to retire.  
 
Now 80 years old, it’s been a long haul from Minnesota, to a hootch in Vietnam, to Nevada. At various times he has also lived in Tonopah and Pahrump. But now he calls Boulder City home, where he is a resident of a senior facility. A modest room where he keeps his belongings, it’s a far cry from his tin shelter in the Jungle. “I live in a penthouse now!” he exclaimed.