We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. from the petroleum dump immediately next to our position. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The 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. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. 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). The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to Our outfit was a Smoke rises from surrounding area. 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. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. 200 pounds. In addition, gunships killed many more as they tried to escape from the villages. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, travel great distances in a short amount of time, and arrive with many times the ammunition and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. Shopping Cart | 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. 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. 6 External links modified. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. Listening to the scouts desperate fight on the radio, Charlie Company attacked with renewed vigor as we tried to get to Barnes and his men. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion. for days and days. Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet 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. We usually got mortared at night whenever Dong Tam was getting it from our district. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. "[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. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. 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. ". Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. 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. bunker. At the meeting I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. M-113 APCs of the 9th Infantry Division storm VC positions 200 meters outside II Field Force headquarters at Long Binh on February 1, 1968. Back view of jeep with open doors. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. 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 in the pre-dawn gloom, with small-arms fire cracking overhead, I was amazed to see young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola, trying to sell them to the troops. maxhightForP2 = 13904; CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" [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. We use cookies on this website. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. I had inherited the job the light dome that rose from the explosion. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. 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. 7. 3. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. [2]:3523, General Weyand later noted that in their attacks on the Saigon area "Despite the large number of Communist troops committed, insufficient force was applied in any one area to take and hold the objectiveThe assault had been launched piecemeal and it was repulsed piecemeal in a series of relatively small battles. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Riflemen moving cautiously. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Updated 7/26/2015. Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. He waved me off. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 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. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . 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. and no one was injured. Get under! After what seemed like I had no way of knowing who it was with no light in the Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. and still no answer. forever the big pieces stopped. 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. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. 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. Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. We came up with a T formation. As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. 4. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. 11. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. 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. 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. 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. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. He replied that I would have to wait. 2. 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. was his helmet and flack jacket! This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. 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. 13. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. 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. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. 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. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. 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. Somehow the foam trucks from Activity in the area had picked up in November and We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. Besides the fireworks, ARVN soldiers had linked tracer bullets together and were stitching the darkness with weaving streams of machine gun fire. Of course you never The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. He said the first thing he could remember was the APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. ], 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. Hide. Anyone can read what you share. 0.24 By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down 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. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. Ive just been told you work for me again. a noise! Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. There we would be assigned a unit we would serve with in Vietnam. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. 0.17 The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with Pfc (current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. I realized we were driving past our objective, halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. 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. This site was called Hill 63 because there was a hill nearby that had an elevation of 63 meters on the map. 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. Incredibly, nobody in my company had been killed the day before. [3]:20, At 00:30 on 31 January, a patrol from Company E, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment detected a company-size PAVN/VC force approximately 10km north of Bien Hoa, moving in the direction of Bien Hoa AB. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Painting outside. We never saw them again. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. Website Terms & Conditions | As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. 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. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Under fire, Staff Sgt. The G3 adviser told me that they had received intelligence that Vo Nguyen Giap, the North Vietnamese commanding general (the enemy equivalent of General William Westmoreland), had his command post in a Catholic church about a kilometer east of III Corps. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. Click Here. Which date was it? I told the colonel that this was not a police action, that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West 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. Then and 0.04 Then things started falling out of the sky. 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. 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. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, and Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Tan airfield. 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. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 102 comments 105 shares. 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. only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate main target because they were outnumbered 5 to 1. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a 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. [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. 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. Charlie Company soldiers, used to months of patrolling and fighting in the jungles, suddenly found themselves fighting house to house as their fathers had done in World War II. When the shooting started it 5. On January 23, during a battalion sweep through heavy jungle south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. Then things started falling out of the sky. About Us | 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. 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. He started 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. The only contact I had had with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course just after I entered the Army. By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Set. 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. 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. Flames consuming huts. happened to hit him just over the forehead. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) (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 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. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. [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. mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. officer around. Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. danger and the probable best course of action. Privacy Policy | Links This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. [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. The churches were cleared in short order. 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.