Early on January 30, we were told the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and our unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. the bunker. Another VC battalion infiltrated near the area of the 3rd Ordnance (Long Binh) ammunition dump [and] in a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball. [2]:347 Within Bien Hoa AB, the USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron was responsible for security manning bunkers and operating mobile patrols within the base perimeter. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. When the shooting started it The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. The progress was slow and ammo was becoming scarce, particularly grenades, which get consumed at an enormous rate in city fighting. all personnel to the flight line. The scout platoon had fought . Long Bnh Post and the Vietnam War | Worlds Revealed In fact, the Communists had already infiltrated the city of Bien Hoa, suburban Ho Nai village and Widows Village, where pensioned families of deceased ARVN soldiers lived. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. maxhightForP2 = 13904; probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the The acting commander of the 199th LIB, Col. Frederic E. Davison, ordered three of his infantry companies operating north of Long Binh to attack the rocket launch site, while LG Weyand ordered the 9th Infantry Division to send the 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. Bien Hoa Air Base was the largest air base in the country, home to over 500 United States Air Force (USAF) and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) aircraft, while Long Binh Post was the US Army's largest logistics base, headquarters of II Field Force, Vietnam, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (199th LIB) and the 12th Aviation Group and home to over 20,000 US personnel. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Elements of B Company, 2/47th Infantry (Mechanized) and C Company, 4/39th Infantry, clearing North Vietnamese Army regulars from "Widows' Village" (a hamlet of housing provided by the government of the Republic of Vietnam for widows and children of fallen ARVN soldiers). Rambo claims that the bunker guards were MPs with the call sign of Filmy Milker. According to him, I told their commander that any fool could see that the VC did not have M-113s, and that we had 22 .50-calibers and a 106mm recoilless rifle and they, for sure, did not want us to return fire. On January 23, during a battalion sweep of a heavily jungled area south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a well-camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled, losing four men killed and more than 20 wounded, including almost all of the officers. About Us | while we were gone. Bin Ha Air Base: Memories of Bin Ha, TET 1969, by Larry - VSPA As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Waking Dead. First was sand then bigger stuff. We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. 0.59 History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. About 30 minutes later, the track came back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to evacuate the wounded. Evan Ammo dump - VHFCN Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. Ripped apart barbed wire. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. Summary - October 1966 0.04 I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. No answer. I jumped down and ran from track to track, pounding on the sides and yelling, Check your handsets! As I ran back through the weapons platoon, I came upon an unbelievable sight. The 2-47 was one of several units he pulled in from the jungles to guard the Long Binh headquarters and logistical complex 15 miles northeast of Saigon. He said I would have to wait. 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. Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. When I arrived at the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry, nicknamed the Panthers, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, the commander, asked me what job I wanted. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. "What are you firing at? " When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. 0.24 When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was further shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion, rather than be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. He read a memorandum charging that 100 days after the signing of the Vientiane ceasefire accords, the seven men had been planning to take command of groups of saboteurs recently infiltrated into the area., See the article in its original context from. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. [2]:347, The VC 275th Regiment had taken up positions in a residential area known at the Widows' Village (105731N 1065237E / 10.9587N 106.877E / 10.9587; 106.877), which housed the wives and families of dead ARVN soldiers and was located across Route 316 from the Plantation Compound. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. [2]:346, The US 199th LIB was responsible for security in the towns and countryside around Long Binh, while the 720th Military Police Battalion was responsible for security within the base perimeter. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in I told him that I wanted to command a company. I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. went off and all hell broke lose. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. The churches were cleared in short order. 102 comments 105 shares. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. Summary - October 1966. Get under! Sand bags near barbed wire fence. Long Binh Vietnam 1969 stock footage and images - CriticalPast While much has been written about Tet and the political firestorm that resulted, in the hundreds of surprise battles and skirmishes that unfolded, individual units found themselves thrust into intense danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy as they responded to Viet Cong (VC) attacks. He said the first thing he could remember was the Widows Village made a perfect attack position for the VC, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters in the Long Binh complex. Activity in the area had picked up in November and I asked one of the men 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. The churches were cleared in short order. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. [2]:349, The perimeter was strengthened by an ad hoc force of support personnel from the 145th Aviation Battalion and just before midday the ARVN 57th Regional Force Battalion moved through the base and counterattacked the VC forcing them to withdraw east into the rubber plantation leaving behind over 100 dead. When the G3 adviser told me to lend the rangers a track, I told the sergeant that the M-113 was not a tank and to be extremely careful with it. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. AMMUNITION DUMP. GV DUMP Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was marked as a prime target by the number of radio antennas jutting from it. Now the fight was on. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. Kortuem! EOD in Vietnam 1966-1967, Photo Album - ZiaNet The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. (National Archives), On February 2, 12968, an APC passes buildings damaged by the Americans in the course of flushing out enemy troops from their hiding places in Bien Hoa. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. 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. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. It was 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. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. Rolling back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to come upon the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. In fact, VC effectiveness was so degraded that, after 1968, they were mainly replaced on the battlefield by North Vietnamese regulars, and were never a viable force after that. [2]:350, With the base returned to full operation, that afternoon C130s landed the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment to help ARVN forces fighting the VC in Bin Ha city. I called III Corps and reported that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait until the Vietnamese National Police arrived to take charge. Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. night on alert at the Birdcage, I was awakened (trying to sleep Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. The unit left their position at Firebase Concord north of Bin Ha and moved east proceeding along trails north of Ho Nai towards the LRRP position. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! 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. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched Talk:Long Bnh, Bin Ha - Wikipedia Chu Lai and LZ Baldy Photos. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. . Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. Maps of Heavily Sprayed Areas and Dioxin Hot Spots After the cemetery had been cleared Company B, 2/3rd Infantry joined Company C, 4/12th Infantry and they made a night defensive perimeter north of Ho Nai, while the 2/47th Infantry was withdrawn to Bin Ha. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. The VC attacks on Bien Hoa and the Long Binh complex were abject failures, due in part to the fact that on January 31, 1968, they had run into the Panthers of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. Perpetual Siege region. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly guessed that a major attack was going to come during Tet, and his anticipation of the attacks no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. When the G3 adviser told me to lend the rangers a track, I told the sergeant that the M-113 was not a tank and to be careful with it. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. As the 2/47th Infantry approached the town a Vietnamese warned that it contained many VC and the VC then launched an ambush on the column knocking out 3 ACAVs with RPGs setting off a 4-hour battle as the US forces engaged the VC position and rescued the survivors in the damaged ACAVs. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate But no one would be leaving the country that day. AIR V..EXPLOSION [7], The Tet offensive attacks and previous losses due to mortar and rocket attacks on air bases across South Vietnam led the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze on 6 March 1968 to approve the construction of 165 "Wonderarch" roofed aircraft shelters at the major air bases. Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. (National Archives), https://www.historynet.com/lt-col-john-e-gross-recalls-the-tet-battles-of-bien-hoa-and-long-binh/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. About 30 minutes later, the track was back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to get the wounded. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. 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. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. The 1st Platoon of Bravo Company was made the II Field Force reaction force and was placed in the PX parking lot at Long Binh. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Then and APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. I remember one History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Tower had called and told me Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. charred. 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. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into A VC commander captured later in the battle revealed that his orders were only to start the attack after several hundred rockets had hit the Plantation, but as the rocket sites had been neutralized before the rocket threshold was reached, the ground assault on the Plantation never began. Forget that, he said. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. 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. Vietnam War-Stories.com: Sapper Attack, Ammo Dump Explosion, Bin Ha Jeep parked along road. USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. It knocked a dimple in the side of the track as I fired up the gunner., Later in the fighting, Casper and several 2nd Platoon troops were pinned down next to a building. The first explosion was When we arrived, we filed off the busses . They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. Some were complete projectiles weighing The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. At the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry (2-47), nicknamed the Panthers, the commander, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, asked me what job I wanted. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. [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. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" Long Binh Ammo Dump - '67 & '68 | Facebook As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. LONG BINH, South Viet Nam (UPII A thunderous explosion that shook the heart of Saigon 11 miles away ripped through a U.S. ammunition depot tonight and wounded a handful of Americans. As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered back to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. Artillery M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. Ammo Dump Explosion 18 Feb 1968 where 8 pads detonated with a total ammo value of $2,774,348: f. On 18 February 1968 at approximately 0300 an attempted penetration of the depot was. . Talk:Long Bnh, ng Nai - Wikipedia We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. [3]:2305 By dawn the VC/PAVN were retreating northwards pursued by helicopter gunships and at 06:15 Company C, 4/12th Infantry began moving north in pursuit, intending to pin the VC/PAVN against a force from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment which was moving south. At that moment, a burst of VC machine gun fire erupted, causing the colonel, the deputy and their Vietnamese escorts to pile into their vehicles and roar off in the direction from whence they had come. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. The attacks by Vietcong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces were one of several major attacks around Saigon in the first days of the Tet offensive. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES Tower had called and told me that Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. HANOI, North Vietnam, June 1 (Agence FrancePresse)An American major was captured last month in a Communistcon trolled area of northern Laos by Pathet Lao forces, a Laotian representative said here today. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Set. According to him, I told him that any fool could see that the VC did not have M-113s, and that we had 22 .50-calibers and a 106mm recoilless rifle and they, for sure, did not want us to return fire. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens We were in a cloud of disarray Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. Hoa. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. 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. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. [6]:12, Several dozen of the PAVN rockets exploded near the II Field Force and 199th LIB headquarters in the Plantation Compound (105728N 1065241E / 10.9577N 106.878E / 10.9577; 106.878) causing minimal damage. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. The VC attacks on Bien Hoa and the Long Binh complex were abject failures, due in part to the fact that on January 31, 1968, they had run into the Panthers of the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry. 14. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly and, despite what was reported in the press, American and ARVN forces handed the VC a devastating defeat during Tet. As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. A force from Company C, 2/3rd Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent north from Ho Nai and pinned the VC/PAVN in a crossfire. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Story Text: STOCKPILES OF BOMBS AND ARTILLERY SHELLS AT THE U.S. ARMY AMMUNITION DUMP AT LONG BINH, IN SOUTH VIETNAM, ERUPTED YESTERDAY (SATURDAY) WHEN TIME CHARGES, PLACED BY VIET CONG RAIDERS, DETONATED AMID TONS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
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