When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and fewer than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong., I told him we could not take the tracks off Highway 1 and into town because the streets and alleys were too narrow. 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. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES Big Boom! 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. 1. Our area from the SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. The 2-47s scout platoon had just finished a brutal fight in Widows Village, and at 1600 hours, it was ordered to move to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, and to attack westward through the village of Ho Nai toward Charlie Company, in the hope of pinning the VC between us. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. At the time of the EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. [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. -- color photo Near Moc Hoa. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed Featured Collections | Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. Which date was it? 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. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. (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. Shoe of soldier on ground. The 2nd Platoon, under Lieutenant Fred Casper, led the way, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. As we rolled back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to find the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. The battle proved significant, as Alphas leadership was seriously depleted immediately prior to Tet. 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. 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. 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. I told the colonel that this was not a police action, that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. Updated 7/26/2015. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. "I was the 1SGT of the checkered) water tower by the main gate. Riflemen moving cautiously. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The 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. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . My Lightboxes | In another sign that the situation was serious, the battalion commander himself gave map coordinates of company objectives in the clear. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. I realized we were driving past our objective, halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. When it USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. 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 churches were cleared in short order. ", "I then went to the CP and tried As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. Here was another sign that the situation was serious: The battalion commander personally gave out map coordinates of company objectives in the clear.Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. Anyone can read what you share. Then things started falling out of the sky. By some veterans' accounts, it had the unofficial name "Long Binh Junction." In 1968, the base fell under attack during the Tet Offensive, and the Viet Cong assault force was repelled by American troops. 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. 5. My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. 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. on the water tower". Bucks County Pennsylvania United States USA, Del Rio Texas Laughlin Air Force Base USA, Roxborough Pennsylvania United States USA, U-Tapao Royal Thai Air Force Base Thailand. (Note: According to Colonel Sonny Craven, then leader of a combat photo team on the scene, these combat sequences was filmed by soldiers of the 221st Signal Company [Pictorial]). 1.19 LV DITTO 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. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. AIR V..FIRES Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. and no one was injured. 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. At 08:00 the VC south of the Plantation withdrew into the Widows Village. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. FAQs - How to Order | 1 comment. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . I asked one of the men THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. Charlie Company would get the mission. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Terms & Conditions | We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. 8. 0.48 All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. The helmet had stopped 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. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. License Agreement | Summary - October 1966. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. 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. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as At the meeting I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. His two daughters, Ly's mother and her sister, are disabled. while we were gone. 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. build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. I had inherited the job The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. danger and the probable best course of action. Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. We use cookies on this website. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. 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. At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. Kortuem! I sounded off, "who is there"? When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. I [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. for days and days. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. about 1/3 mile, All this carried on for about three maybe four days and the dead Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. 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. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to 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. He said the first thing he could remember was the Tom Allaback. 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 had assumed I would be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. I dismounted the platoons and placed them on line on each side of the road: the second on the left, or north, and the first on the right, or south. . I told him that I wanted to command a company. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. Some were complete projectiles weighing The VC/PAVN attacked the position that night in a 6 hour long assault which was met initially by US mortar and artillery fire, then helicopter gunships and then napalm strikes. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. [3]:23950, In the late afternoon of 31 January after clearing the Widow's Village 2/47th Infantry advanced into Ho Nai from the south, the town appeared deserted. Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/02/archives/big-ammunition-dump-near-saigon-hit-by-blasts-laotian-reports.html. and completely out of sync. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. Bomb squads disarmed seven of the charges, but at 07:30 the remainder exploded with three igniting pallets of artillery shells and their Propellant bags causing a massive explosion, blast wave and mushroom cloud. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into Construction on the 24 th. VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. [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. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then charged in shooting. 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. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. 4 Joseph Dames was tasked to return to the tracks for more grenades. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. charred. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen.. 0.04 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. 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. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" To ensure you can use all the features please enable it. Fires were burning late into the afternoon. Painting outside. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. 2. I With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. 0.28 Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. In October, the 2-47 was given the mission of securing engineers as they cleared Highway 1 from Xuan Loc to the II Corps boundary near Phan Thiet. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. 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. At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. Now the fight was on. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. 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. I operated a heavy five Lookout tower in the background. The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. Come back up on the battalion freq.. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. (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. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. Chu Lai and LZ Baldy Photos. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. front making it dangerous to return fire. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a NEARER AIR V..SMOKE At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. LV EXPLOSIONS By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. sixteen guns stationed next to the western border of Vietnam. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was 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. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. They bowed and looked confused. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. The VC concentrated their attack on Bunker 10 an old French concrete bunker on the eastern perimeter, hitting it with Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and mortar fire, however the Security Police in Bunker 10 and adjacent bunkers fought back keeping the VC from penetrating far into the base. He said I would have to wait. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. 939939. was his helmet and flack jacket! and the gunner replied "VC I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. Hoa. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the I went through the quarters making sure everyone The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. 0.13 Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. more that happened that night. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. The attacks on Bin Ha, Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh Post, occurred during the early hours of 31 January 1968 and continued until 2 February 1968. This is the story of one rifle companycomprised of some of the finest soldiers to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Armyand what they all faced on that decisive day. We usually got mortared at night whenever Dong Tam was getting it from our district. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the Ive just been told you work for me again. 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. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. Website Terms & Conditions | After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day.
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