long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. They bowed and looked confused. 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. 0.28 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). We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. The chrome Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. ], The Laotian representative said six members of the Meo special forces were also cap tured with the American on May 7 in Xieng Khouang Province near the North Vietnamese bor der. 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. LV EXPLOSIONS Long Binh ammo dump was one of the 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. Privacy Policy | Links As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. ", "I then went to the CP and tried All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. (Long Binh) ammunition dump. hightForP2 = 330 mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. View of surrounding areas. 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. 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. 6 comments. [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 realize now that the track was high enough that the rounds would have passed over the troops in front of the vehicle, Love recalls. 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. the bunker. The VC who had fired the RPG slipped away, but Pfc Jim Love, who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers killing the jeep with his M-16. We never saw them again. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. Something was definitely about to happen. After all had left for the remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. 5. 200 pounds. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. 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. 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. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. 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. 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. Ive just been told you work for me again. Ripped apart barbed wire. [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. He said the first thing he could remember was the We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 9. At 0300 hours I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as S3, stating 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. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. Come back up on the battalion freq.. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 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. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. 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. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. At the time of the In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. The first explosion was around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then - him in. 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. bunker. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. ", "Then we were all in the bunker The Long Binh ammunition dump had exploded. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. [5], USAF losses were 4 killed in action with another dying of a heart attack, while 26 were wounded. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. AMMUNITION DUMP. Contact Us | A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. 15. 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. My Lightboxes | On the morning of 31 January 1968, the Bien Hoa Air Base, III Corps HQ, the Prisoner of War Compound, and other key installations around Bien Hoa--Long Binh area received enemy mortar and rocket fire. I Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. CRITICALPAST.COM: All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. 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. [6]:66. Riflemen staying close behind. 4. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). Of course you never I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a nightmare. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. Blood stains in ambulance. the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. Sappers had placed satchel charges on pallets of artillery ammunition, and the resulting mushroom cloud caused all its witnesses to think the VC had employed a tactical nuclear weapon. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. 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. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls what the fighting near III Corps was like: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. Big Boom! Well, the piece of shrapnel Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79 grenade launcher. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. 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. Shopping Cart | 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. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. The VC who had fired the RPG slipped away, but Pfc Jim Love, who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers killing the jeep with his M-16. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. 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. 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. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. Riflemen moving cautiously. [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. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. 1. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. [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. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls the fighting near III Corps: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Most of these photos were taken in an area a few miles north of Chu Lai and south of Hoi An. 13. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Which date was it? As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. 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 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. 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. 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. They bowed and looked confused. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. checkered) water tower by the main gate. Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. What we came up with was a T formation. [3]:2515, A VC/PAVN attack on the prisoner of war camp in Bin Ha which held over 2000 prisoners was repulsed by a platoon from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and a platoon from Company D, 17th Cavalry and their ACAVs. 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. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. HANOI, North Vietnam, June 1 (Agence FrancePresse)An American major was captured last month in a Communistcon trolled area of northern Laos by Pathet Lao forces, a Laotian representative said here today. 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. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. main target because they were outnumbered 5 to 1. Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. Get under! After what seemed like and no one was injured. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. In fact, VC effectiveness was so degraded that, after 1968, they were mainly replaced on the battlefield by North Vietnamese regulars, and were never a viable force after that. Then things started falling out of the sky. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). 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. [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. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. 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. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. Hoa. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could Script is copyright Reuters Limited. [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.