long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

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. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. 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. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. 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. 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. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. (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 yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. Ive just been told you work for me again. Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. Photo Index 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. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79 grenade launcher. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). 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. trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. 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. - night on alert at the Birdcage, I was awakened (trying to sleep 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. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. 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. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. known as Widows Village. the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. I had been in command for five months and had been assured that I would be in command for one year, which suited me fine. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. Talk:Long Bnh, Bin Ha - Wikipedia Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. I told the colonel that this was not a police action, that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. My At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, and we arrived with many times the ammo and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. [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. I said again, "Who is there"? We had returned from a ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. 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. Come back up on the battalion freq.. I told him that I wanted to command a company. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. Perpetual Siege region. Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. As the C-23 track in the lead, Stormy, turned into a side street, a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. As usual, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. 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. Hide. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. The NAM - Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump | Facebook When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. 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. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. I explained to the colonel that this was not a police action, and that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. went off and all hell broke lose. 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 we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. 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. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. 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. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. Click Here. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. Blood stains in ambulance. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. 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 most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. Kortuem! 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. [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. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. [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. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. 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. [2]:347, At 01:00, a 6-man LRRP from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment spotted PAVN/VC moving through rubber trees several hundred meters to the north of Long Binh Post. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. 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. 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. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. all personnel to the flight line. 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. [2]:348, As the rockets hit Bien Hoa AB, 2 battalions of the VC 274th Regiment emerged from a rubber plantation 500m east of the eastern perimeter of Bien Hoa AB. 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. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. 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. I went through the quarters making sure everyone Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. 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. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. The North Vietnamese Army had circled 10. They all blew up! [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. [3]:218, The town of Ho Nai (105812N 1065335E / 10.970N 106.893E / 10.970; 106.893) was located on Highway 1 north of the Widow's Village and Long Binh Post. 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. At dawn on 2 February the US counted approximately 50 VC/PAVN dead in the area and captured 3 VC. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in 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. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. FAQs - How to Order | As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. "What are you firing at? " We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. After all had left for the [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. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. When it He started The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted minimal damage on the bases. Ive just been told you work for me again. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. 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. I was never so happy in my life. 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. Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was a prime target given the number of radio antennas jutting from it. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire, based on the mistaken assumption that the VC would attack from the jungle. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. Hoa. 2. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. 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. 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. 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. -- color photo Near Moc Hoa. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. Then things started falling out of the sky. South Vietnam: Viet Cong Explode U.s. Ammunition Dump. 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. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos SP4 Lawrence Korteum (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. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION A burst of VC machine gun fire erupted nearby, 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. hightForP2 = 330 Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. Riflemen moving cautiously. 13. 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 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. 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. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. 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. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. General Patton's son, then Lt. Col. George Patton III, commander of the U.S. Army's 11th Armored Cavalry (Black Horse), positioned his tanks in between our big bunker hills . 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien The progress was slow and ammo was becoming scarce, particularly grenades, which get consumed at an enormous rate in city fighting. License Agreement | to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help At the meeting I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. charred. The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. Shoe of soldier on ground. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. ", "Then we were all in the bunker Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. border. 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. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. 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. 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. He replied that I would have to wait. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation.

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