long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. 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. 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. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. [5], USAF losses were 4 killed in action with another dying of a heart attack, while 26 were wounded. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. We packed up all of our gear, rolled up our concertina wire and waited. He waved me off. (Vietnam War period). As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. Get under! After what seemed like The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. opened his mouth but, SGT Cuffee, the supply SGT. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. Jan. 31. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. the light dome that rose from the explosion. 1. trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. [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. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West 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. The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. I sounded off, "who is there"? We closed within a few hundred meters of the scout platoon and watched as helicopter gunships destroyed a large yellow house from which the VC were pinning down Barnes troops. 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. The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. 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. 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. Then, for the last week in January, the 2-47 was sent south of the 9th Divisions base camp to patrol the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. AIR V..FIRES Perpetual Siege region. The progress was slow and ammo was becoming scarce, particularly grenades, which get consumed at an enormous rate in city fighting. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. 9. 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. forever the big pieces stopped. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. I have . But no one would be leaving the country that day. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. My Account | 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. Well, the piece of shrapnel Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. 0.17 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 (Mechanized), 47th Infantry. [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. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. 3. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. 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. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. 0.59 The unit left their position at Firebase Concord north of Bin Ha and moved east proceeding along trails north of Ho Nai towards the LRRP position. ", "We mustered everyone we could The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. The 1st Platoon of Bravo Company was made the II Field Force reaction force and was placed in the PX parking lot at Long Binh. No answer. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate known as Widows Village. 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. At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. 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. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. 0.13 I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. 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. Anyone can read what you share. 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. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. 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. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. 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. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. ", "I then went to the CP and tried 4 Joseph Dames was tasked to return to the tracks for more grenades. 0.42 Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly and, despite what was reported in the press, American and ARVN forces handed the VC a devastating defeat during Tet. 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. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 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. One A-37 and 1 F-100 were destroyed while a further 17 aircraft were damaged. [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. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. The scout platoon had fought . He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, started off down Highway 1. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. and still no answer. Burned out 105mm howitzer shells at ammunition dump in Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Bien Hoa in Vietnam. I went through the quarters making sure everyone 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. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. . This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. When offered the chance to go to II Field Force to help establish a new long-range reconnaissance patrol outfit, I turned it down to stay with the company. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. 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. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Later, captured VC said many guerrillas only had two magazines for their weapons in expectation that the population would rise up against the Americans and have plenty of captured weapons to fight with. We use cookies on this website. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . Seems like the fighting went on 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. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. [3]:2015, At 04:00 a 60-man VC sapper team penetrated the northeastern perimeter of the base killing three MPs and entered the massive ammunition dump (105646N 1065436E / 10.946N 106.91E / 10.946; 106.91) where they planted eighteen Satchel charges before being forced to withdraw by the 720th Military Police Battalion. Our outfit was a Back view of jeep with open doors. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. 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. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented Now the fight was on. 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. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get [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. Somehow the foam trucks from The view is from the compound of the 20th. I operated a heavy five 0.22 At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. 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. 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.

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