long binh ammo dump explosion 1968patio homes for rent in blythewood, sc

Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. [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. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. 2. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. 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 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 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. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. At the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry (2-47), nicknamed the Panthers, the commander, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, asked me what job I wanted. 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. GV DUMP At 08:00 the VC south of the Plantation withdrew into the Widows Village. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. 6 comments. 200 pounds. and the gunner replied "VC An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. At the time of the No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. 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. 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. 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. 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. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. Hide. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. I operated a heavy five We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. [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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. charred. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. OK. License Agreement | The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. 3. At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. From our positions we could see and hear the celebratory fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. I called III Corps to report that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait for the Vietnamese National Police to take charge. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. At the meeting I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Tom Allaback. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor He started Blood stains in ambulance. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then 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. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. 0.13 [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. Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. 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). As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. (Long Binh) ammunition dump. danger and the probable best course of action. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. October continued with construction efforts. The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis milling about with boarding passes in hand. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. [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. (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]). 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. Seems like the fighting went on He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. 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. 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. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. About 30 minutes later, the track was back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to get the wounded. 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. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. 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. happened to hit him just over the forehead. 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. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. They bowed and looked confused. 0.54 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. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. During the morning of January 30, the 2-47 Mech was notified that the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and the unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. The two of them refused evacuation and neither reported his wound. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. Their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. I explained to the colonel that this was not a police action, and that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. My Account | Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen.. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. I was never so happy in my life. Jan. 31. AIR V..FIRES All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. Advanced Search | U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. 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. Set. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Painting outside. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. 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. 1.04 Waking Dead. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES [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. ", "I then went to the CP and tried [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. recoil of my M14. Less has been written about the danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy that confronted individual units as they responded to VC attacks on the morning of January 31. was his helmet and flack jacket! Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet When the shooting started it Then things started falling 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. [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. He waved me off. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. Website Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Links [6]:36 In addition airborne "rocket watch" patrols were established in the Saigon-Bien Hoa area to reduce attacks by fire. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. 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. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of Get under! Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. 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. Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. 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. Unfortunately for them, the hapless VC had no weapons other than the RPG launcher, and Dames dispatched them with a burst from his M-16. rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. We use cookies on this website. Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. Then things started falling out of the sky. main target because they were outnumbered 5 to 1. [4], The 179th Military Intelligence Detachment of the 199th LIB had been gathering intelligence on a pending attack on Long Binh for several weeks before the attacks based on human intelligence and ground radar. 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. more that happened that night. Under fire, Staff Sgt. 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. 102 comments 105 shares. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. He replied that I would have to wait. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. 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. 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. known as Widows Village. There was much After the cemetery had been cleared Company B, 2/3rd Infantry joined Company C, 4/12th Infantry and they made a night defensive perimeter north of Ho Nai, while the 2/47th Infantry was withdrawn to Bin Ha. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. Back view of jeep with open doors. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. Our area from the SP4 Lawrence Korteum 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. 11. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. I went through the quarters making sure everyone -- color photo Near Moc Hoa. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. He said I would have to wait. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The G3 adviser told me that they had received intelligence that Vo Nguyen Giap, the North Vietnamese commanding general, had his command post in a Catholic church about 1 kilometer east of III Corps. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. border. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. 0.42 Besides the actions of Charlie Company, under the leadership of the S3, Major Bill Jones, Alpha had conducted an assault on VC positions in a cemetery. 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. 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. 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. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. yelling Kortuem! Tower had called and told me that Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. 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. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the . We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! 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. 0.28 Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. 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. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. 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. 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. 1 comment. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. [American sources in Vien tiane said, as quoted by The Associated Press, that the captured American was prob ably the pilot of a Continent al Air Service plane that was forced to land behind Pathet Lao lines after running out of fuel. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. In another sign that the situation was serious, the battalion commander himself gave map coordinates of company objectives in the clear. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. [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. the light dome that rose from the explosion. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. Summary - October 1966. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base.

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