He waved me off. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company, and in a fight, the company had 22 .50-caliber machine guns, a 106mm and several 90mm recoilless rifles, and more radios and M-60 machine guns than a walking company could ever carry. Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. I charred. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. checkered) water tower by the main gate. in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. This is the airstrike on snipers at the 195th AHC perimeter and the Long Binh ammo dump explosion set off by sappers the morning of the 1968 Tet offensive with sound effects added. I realized we were driving past our objective, halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. A spokesman for the South Vietnamese command said that, according to unconfirmed re ports, satchel charges, of the type used by Vietcong sabotage squads were found near the dump. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. As a result long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment were positioned north of Long Binh to detect PAVN/VC approaching the base. The churches were cleared in short order. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. An MP full colonel, accompanied by a Los Angeles deputy sheriff (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of National Police, drove up to my track. An MP full colonel, along with a deputy sheriff from Los Angeles (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of Vietnamese National Police, drove up to my track. secondary explosions. [2]:349, At dawn several AH1 Cobra gunships from the 334th Assault Helicopter Company joined the defense spraying the VC with rockets and machine gun fire which started fires causing the VC assault to lose its impetus. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. Lookout tower in the background. I remember telling him that if the shooting persisted, or if they hit one of my troops, I wouldnt be responsible if my troops shot back. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79 grenade launcher. The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. My When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, a base camp near Long Thanh. Somehow the foam trucks from trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down Policy was to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags when we left a position, to leave nothing the VC might use against us. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the Ive just been told you work for me again. ], The Laotian representative said six members of the Meo special forces were also cap tured with the American on May 7 in Xieng Khouang Province near the North Vietnamese bor der. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, and we arrived with many times the ammo and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. As we cleared the ambush, the column suddenly came to a halt because of some kind of block in the road; simultaneously, someone keyed the company net. 7. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. My Lightboxes | Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. The NAM - Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump | Facebook Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. He replied that I would have to wait. - To get to the church, we had to run a gantlet of fire, through the VC 238th Regiment and into the flank of the 275th, which was fighting the 2-47s scout platoon in Widows Village. Having been struck by mortars or rockets, the fuel tanks at the air base, as well as several buildings throughout Bien Hoa, were burning brightly. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. CRITICALPAST.COM: Hide. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. The ammunition dump contained high explosives like: C-4, artillery rounds, mortar rounds, aerial flares, 50 caliber rounds, M-60 machine gun rounds, and aerial rockets for the Huey Cobra and gunships. His two daughters, Ly's mother and her sister, are disabled. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls what the fighting near III Corps was like: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. [3]:2515, A VC/PAVN attack on the prisoner of war camp in Bin Ha which held over 2000 prisoners was repulsed by a platoon from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and a platoon from Company D, 17th Cavalry and their ACAVs. II Field Force commander LG Frederick C. Weyand had also ordered the 9th Infantry Division to be prepared to send its 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base 16km south of Long Binh to Bien Hoa-Long Binh in the event of an attack. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires in the towns and villages. According to the VC 5th Division official history, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment was supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company; its mission was to overrun the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. Smoke rises from surrounding area. I realize now that the track was high enough that the rounds would have passed over the troops in front of the vehicle, Love recalls. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. Riflemen moving cautiously. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly predicted a major attack during Tet, and his anticipation no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. "[3]:205, The Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa AB and Tan Son Nhut Air Base slowly led to an improvement in air base defense across South Vietnam, with improved bunkers and heavier defensive armament including 0.50 cal machine guns, M67 recoilless rifles and M29 mortars. To get to the church, we had to run a gantlet of fire, through the VC 238th Regiment and into the flank of the 275th, which was fighting the 2-47s scout platoon in Widows Village. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . 6 comments. This fire was observed by the helicopter gunships that had been circling the area north of Long Binh and they quickly moved to attack the launch sites and were soon joined by an AC-47 Spooky gunship and their combined fire soon stopped the rocket/mortar fire. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and for the next three days, fires burned out of control. After we finished clearing the area around the compound and as our wounded were being dusted off, I received an absolutely incredible order from III Corps. Long Binh Vietnam 1968 stock footage and images - CriticalPast At about 6 a.m., Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. During the last week of January, the battalion patrolled the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. The fog of war was especially thick on the morning of January 31, 1968. Perpetual Siege region. We came up with a T formation. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. PDF Scanned Document - United States Army Ly's father is a bricklayer. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. on the water tower". At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Come back up on the battalion freq.. 90th Replacement Battalion | My Vietnam Experience As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with then- Pfc (and current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. In addition to the US bases, the city of Bin Ha was the headquarters of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) III Corps and home to a large prisoner of war camp. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the [2]:352[3]:2067, At approximately 05:30, the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, mounted on M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles (ACAVs) coming from Bearcat approached the Plantation from the southwest and formed a skirmish line to engage the VC, while helicopter gunships from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment swept in to rocket and machine gun the VC positions. ", "Then we were all in the bunker 5. I explained to the colonel that this was not a police action, and that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. went off and all hell broke lose. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. At 07:30 the VC/PAVN force stopped and made a stand in a cemetery where they continued to be hit by the gunships and the ACAVs of Company C. At 08:00 Company C was joined by a force from 2/47th Infantry and they proceeded to methodically kill all the VC/PAVN in the cemetery. [American sources in Vien tiane said, as quoted by The Associated Press, that the captured American was prob ably the pilot of a Continent al Air Service plane that was forced to land behind Pathet Lao lines after running out of fuel. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires that ravaged the towns and villages. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. [3]:2289, The Tt ceasefire began on 29 January, but was cancelled on 30 January after the VC/PAVN prematurely launched attacks in II Corps and at 17:30 the 7th Air Force commander General William W. Momyer ordered all air bases in South Vietnam to security condition red. Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a 0.42 Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. For additional reading, see: The Battle for Saigon, Tet 1968, by Keith Nolan; and History of the 5th Division, by Ho Son Dai and Nguyen Van Hung. He stated that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. Having been struck by mortars or rockets, the fuel tanks at the air base, as well as several buildings throughout Bien Hoa, were burning brightly. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls the fighting near III Corps: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. sixteen guns stationed next to the western border of Vietnam. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. After commanding 180 paratroopers, taking on four APCs and 40 troops seemed like a dreamexcept that now I was responsible for troops in combat, not training. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. FAQs - How to Order | It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . Long Binh Ammo Dump - '67 & '68 | Facebook United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES At the end of the previous day, Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. Bravo Company was sent to protect the Long Binh ammunition dump and Charlie Company was ordered into downtown Bien Hoa, where the ARVN III Corps headquarters was in danger of being overrun. Long Binh Vietnam 1969 stock footage and images - CriticalPast As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Under fire, Staff Sgt. Maps of Heavily Sprayed Areas and Dioxin Hot Spots Then, for the last week in January, the 2-47 was sent south of the 9th Divisions base camp to patrol the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. Then things started falling out of the sky. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white [3]:210 Instead at approximately 03:30 the VC began firing across the road at the Plantation Compound being met by return fire from the perimeter bunkers. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. Of course you never The North Vietnamese Army had circled Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. Less has been written about the danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy that confronted individual units as they responded to VC attacks on the morning of January 31. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policyand cookie policyand for us to access our cookies on your device.
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