“For the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War, the word grunt was not just a nickname but also a commentary on their status in the hierarchy of war. To be a grunt was to be in the infantry. It meant leaping out of helicopters into landing zones that were sometimes under enemy fire. It meant marching through elephant grass taller than a man and as sharp as a knife or slogging across streams and rivers so deep and muddy that men sometimes disappeared beneath the surface or found themselves mired in mud so thick it sucked the boots off their feet. It meant suffering from heat, humidity, rain and insects while straining under the burden of equipment, which could weigh as much as eighty pounds. It meant enduring endless marches up and down mountains, through jungles and into villages, looking for an enemy who was hard to find and sometimes even harder to fight. All the while being on the lookout for booby traps and ambushes. Finally, it meant tolerating hours and sometimes days of boredom and frustration, punctuated by moments of terror when contact was made with the enemy. Being a grunt may have been the least enviable and most underrated task of the Vietnam War.” – www.encyclopedia.com