Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. October continued with construction efforts. 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. 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. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. License Agreement | 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. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to Construction on the 24 th. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. 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. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . sixteen guns stationed next to the western border of Vietnam. 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. 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 we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . 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. 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. 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. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. 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. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. The North Vietnamese Army had circled Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. Set. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians seeking refuge. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. LV WATER TRUCKS ALONG ROAD, EXPLOSION IN B/G. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES hightForP2 = 330 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. around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! 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. 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. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the known as Widows Village. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. 0.13 At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. As the sun sank low, 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. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and fewer than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong., I told him we could not take the tracks off Highway 1 and into town because the streets and alleys were too narrow. and the perimeter was still intact. 6. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Get under! I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. I went through the quarters making sure everyone The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. [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. In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. 1.19 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. This site was called Hill 63 because there was a hill nearby that had an elevation of 63 meters on the map. AIR V..EXPLOSION Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. He replied that I would have to wait. 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 the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. 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. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. 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. 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. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). This fire was observed by the helicopter gunships that had been circling the area north of Long Binh and they quickly moved to attack the launch sites and were soon joined by an AC-47 Spooky gunship and their combined fire soon stopped the rocket/mortar fire. I have . Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. on the water tower". All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. It I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. 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. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in 0.22 Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. We fired everything we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. 102 comments 105 shares. I operated a heavy five convoy about two days before and were repairing anything that had failed checkered) water tower by the main gate. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. 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. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into 2023 CriticalPast LLC. My They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. Seems like the fighting went on 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. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. ", "Then we were all in the bunker The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. the bunker. At 3 a.m. on January 31, I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as operations officer. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. . OK. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES The churches were cleared in short order. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 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. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. Dismounted troops of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, stay close to their M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) as they clear Widows Village, near Long Binh Army Post, of Viet Cong who had overrun it during the Communist 1968 Tet Offensive (National Archives). 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. 0.24 The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. 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. The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. Of course you never 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. Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Website Terms & Conditions | As usual, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. 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. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. happened to hit him just over the forehead. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. Then and Flames consuming huts. The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 14. 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. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. 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. 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. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE [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. Well, the piece of shrapnel 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. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. into the bunkers. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. 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. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. We never saw them again. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. At the time of the He said I would have to wait. 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. "[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. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. 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. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. 0.35 Ive just been told you work for me again. 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. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. 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. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. Other than temporarily disrupting operations at Bien Hoa AB for half a day and destroying ammunition at the Long Binh ammunition dump, the VC/PAVN inflicted minimal damage to the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex. 9. 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. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. 0.42 We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. To ensure you can use all the features please enable it.
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