History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen.. 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. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). 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. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. Charlie Company would get the mission. My Account | USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. In another sign that the situation was serious, the battalion commander himself gave map coordinates of company objectives in the clear. [7], The Tet offensive attacks and previous losses due to mortar and rocket attacks on air bases across South Vietnam led the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze on 6 March 1968 to approve the construction of 165 "Wonderarch" roofed aircraft shelters at the major air bases. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. ", "Then we were all in the bunker 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. 3. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. . When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. CRITICALPAST.COM: 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. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . Summary - October 1966. 0.42 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. 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. I almost did 4. As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered to move back the way it had come, to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the companys tracks, forming the base of the T on the highway, provided fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammunition. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. Shopping Cart | Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an 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. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. 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. Our area from the 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. [2]:352[3]:2067, At approximately 05:30, the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, mounted on M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles (ACAVs) coming from Bearcat approached the Plantation from the southwest and formed a skirmish line to engage the VC, while helicopter gunships from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment swept in to rocket and machine gun the VC positions. I I told him that I wanted to command a company. Get under! . The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. 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. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. 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 . recoil of my M14. [3]:2305 By dawn the VC/PAVN were retreating northwards pursued by helicopter gunships and at 06:15 Company C, 4/12th Infantry began moving north in pursuit, intending to pin the VC/PAVN against a force from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment which was moving south. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. After telling them to stop shooting 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. All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. 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. What we came up with was a T formation. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. He said the first thing he could remember was the 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. [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. 0.54 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. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. Updated 7/26/2015. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Our outfit was a Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. [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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. 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. 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. Perpetual Siege region. Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. 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. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Ly's father is a bricklayer. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. Flames consuming huts. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. [6]:36 In addition airborne "rocket watch" patrols were established in the Saigon-Bien Hoa area to reduce attacks by fire. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. Website Terms & Conditions | Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. 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. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed 1 comment. 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. the light dome that rose from the explosion. Another VC battalion infiltrated near the area of the 3rd Ordnance (Long Binh) ammunition dump [and] in a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball. . Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. The progress was slow and ammo was becoming scarce, particularly grenades, which get consumed at an enormous rate in city fighting. Company B, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment had arrived by helicopter from Bearcat and joined up with 2/47th Infantry to sweep the Widows Village. [2]:350, With the base returned to full operation, that afternoon C130s landed the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment to help ARVN forces fighting the VC in Bin Ha city. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis milling about with boarding passes in hand. In mid-September, when Ionoff moved to battalion headquarters to become the operations officer (S3), I assumed command of Company C. In October, the 2-47 was tasked to secure engineers as they cleared Highway 1 from Xuan Loc to the II Corps boundary near Phan Thiet. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. When the shooting started it Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a 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. But no one would be leaving the country that day. [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. I asked one of the men As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. [2]:350, At approximately 16:45 F-100 Super Sabres of the 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron conducted a Napalm strike against a PAVN/VC company at the east end of the base runway. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. His two daughters, Ly's mother and her sister, are disabled. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . yelling Kortuem! him in. border. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to 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. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Terms & Conditions | However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply.

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