We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. 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. . [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. He started Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. 11. One A-37 and 1 F-100 were destroyed while a further 17 aircraft were damaged. 1.04 As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. Our outfit was a Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. 2. So, when I was offered a chance to go to II Field Force to help establish a new long-range reconnaissance patrol outfit, I actually turned it down to stay with the company. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the tracks, forming the base of the T, gave fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammo. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. NEARER V..EXPLOSIONS 0.48 According to the official history of the VC 5th Division, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment, supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company, had the mission of overrunning the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. The VC who had fired the RPG slipped away, but Pfc Jim Love, who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers killing the jeep with his M-16. 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. agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help Set. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. 0.54 APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. while we were gone. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. Painting outside. It was All night he stared at the body, which had one arm grotesquely sticking in the air, and wondered why nobody had taken the gold wristwatch off the arm. Back view of jeep with open doors. 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). SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. I told him that I wanted to command a company. Long Binh Vietnam 1969 stock footage and images - Showing 1 to 6 of 5540 results Sort by: All Decade 1890 - 1899 Location (1) Norfolk Virginia USA (2) Normandy France (12) Norman Oklahoma USA (1) (1) (1) North Carolina United States USA (2) North Chicago Illinois USA (1) North Dakota United States USA (1) North Haven Maine USA (1) North Korea (1) The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. I have . Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. The VC who had fired the RPG slipped away, but Pfc Jim Love, who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers killing the jeep with his M-16. He waved me off. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. 4 and future U.S. senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel) had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widows Village fight. The colonel explained that since we were infantry soldiers and did not know the proper method of searching a house, he and his crew had come to teach us. Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, which was placed under the operational control of the 2-47, made a combat air assault under fire into the middle of the Widows Village battle and fought bravely beside the Panthers all day long. 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. 11K views 9 years ago This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. Many of the enlisted personnel with medical MOSs work two to three days per week at the 93 rd Evacuation Hospital, then came back to the 24 th to work on the various construction projects. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. 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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 0.24 Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. 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. I I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. . I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. 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. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. They all blew up! On the morning of 31 January 1968, the Bien Hoa Air Base, III Corps HQ, the Prisoner of War Compound, and other key installations around Bien Hoa--Long Binh area received enemy mortar and rocket fire. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a 4. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. 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. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. (Vietnam War period). Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. 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. Somehow the foam trucks from During the morning of January 30, the 2-47 Mech was notified that the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and the unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard 3. 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. Dressed as travelers returning to ancestral homes for the Tet holiday, the guerrillas had quietly drifted into their urban assembly areas and put together their weapons. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. "[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. As I walked around the front of a track, the .50-caliber gunner accidentally hit the trigger and pumped five rounds into the ground about three feet in front of me. Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, Tet Offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, United States Army Center of Military History, "Tet Offensive: The Battles of Bien Hoa and Long Binh", Video of helicopter gunships and F-100s in action at Bien Hoa AB, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tet_offensive_attacks_on_Bien_Hoa_and_Long_Binh&oldid=1086914863, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1968, Battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States, Attacks on military installations in the 1960s, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States Army Center of Military History, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 May 2022, at 04:36. I was having a few beers with several other sailors in the outside screened patio area of the Navy EM Club when we heard a noise to our left. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. 939939. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. At 4 a.m., Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move, and told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. 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. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. 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. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. As we fought our way toward the scout platoon, we were blocked by two large churches that were directly across Highway 1 from each other, both occupied by the VC. The 2nd Platoon led the way under Lieutenant Fred Casper, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" 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. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . This site requires JavaScript. 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. After a eventful At 0300 hours I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as S3, stating 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. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. He replied that I would have to wait. AMMUNITION DUMP. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien They had been told that the population would rise up against the Americans and that there would be plenty of captured U.S. weapons to fight with. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. In Bin Ha itself the 3rd Ranger Task Force, consisting of the 35th and 36th Ranger Battalions, provided a rapid reaction force supported by 2 155-mm howitzer battalions located on the southeast of the city. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. 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. 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. 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. At 0700, as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis, boarding passes in hand, milling about. At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. The view is from the compound of the 20th. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . 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. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. from Bien Hoa City. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. [3]:2204, On 1 February Company B, 2/3rd Infantry, Company C, 4/12th Infantry and elements of 2/47th Infantry swept Ho Nai finding only dead VC/PAVN and civilians who had been murdered by the VC or killed in the fighting in the town. After all had left for the As the C-23 track Stormy, which was in the lead, turned into a side street, an RPG slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis milling about with boarding passes in hand. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. Incredibly, nobody in my company had been killed the day before. Flames illuminated the clouds, forming an eerie glow; flares hung in the sky and helicopter gunships crossed back and forth firing red streams of tracers into the city. [3]:220, When the Company F, 51st Infantry LRRP team reported VC/PAVN moving past their position a reaction force from Company C, 4/12th Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent to investigate. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. 7. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. 4 Joseph Dames was tasked to return to the tracks for more grenades. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. He waved me off. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog of war. 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. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. Ive just been told you work for me again. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. This article incorporates public domain material from the .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Air Force Historical Research Agency. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of Sand bags near barbed wire fence. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. 0.17 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. and the perimeter was still intact. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. Sappers had placed satchel charges on pallets of artillery ammunition, and the resulting mushroom cloud caused all its witnesses to think the VC had employed a tactical nuclear weapon. 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. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. Well, the piece of shrapnel We came up with a T formation. 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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. Advanced Search | https://www.historynet.com/tet-offensive-the-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. By Vietnam terms They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. 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. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. 1.13 His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. It only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. out of the sky. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. [2]:347 Weyand also requested the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) to defend the eastern approaches to Long Binh/Bien Hoa and 1 ATF had commenced Operation Coburg on 24 January. The colonel explained that since we were infantry soldiers and did not know the proper method of searching a house, he and his crew had come to teach us. The Long Binh ammunition dump had exploded. October continued with construction efforts. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield.
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