SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 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. yelling Kortuem! NEARER AIR V..SMOKE 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. Flames consuming huts. 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. 7. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. 1.13 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. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then on the water tower". Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was a prime target given the number of radio antennas jutting from it. (Vietnam War period). At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. Remembering Tet 1968 Fifty Years Ago - quanloi.org USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. I almost did Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. 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. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track, as we called it. Talk:Long Bnh, ng Nai - Wikipedia The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. 939939. As I walked around the front of a track, the .50-caliber gunner accidentally hit the trigger and pumped five rounds into the ground about three feet in front of me. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. [6]:12, Several dozen of the PAVN rockets exploded near the II Field Force and 199th LIB headquarters in the Plantation Compound (105728N 1065241E / 10.9577N 106.878E / 10.9577; 106.878) causing minimal damage. Summary - October 1966 They all blew up! That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. 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. Kortuem! 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. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army used the base as a logistics and command center. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. Activity in the area had picked up in November and At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. 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. 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. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! I have . 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. and the gunner replied "VC I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. [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. [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. This is the story of one rifle companycomprised of some of the finest soldiers to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Armyand what they all faced on that decisive day. As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES 0.28 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. Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. 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. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. 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. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 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. [3]:210 Instead at approximately 03:30 the VC began firing across the road at the Plantation Compound being met by return fire from the perimeter bunkers. Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. convoy about two days before and were repairing anything that had failed 4 and future U.S. senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel) had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widows Village fight. 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. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. 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. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. As I walked around the front of a track, the .50-caliber gunner accidentally hit the trigger and pumped five rounds into the ground about three feet in front of me. Advanced Search | [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. 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. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. Long Binh Ammo Dump Explosion, Tet, 1968 - YouTube The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . Then things started falling out of the sky. The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with then- Pfc (and current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. At 08:00 the VC south of the Plantation withdrew into the Widows Village. I was never so happy in my life. 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 view is from the compound of the 20th. Incredibly, nobody in my company had been killed the day before. 0.54 We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. 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. At that moment, a burst of VC machine gun fire erupted, causing the colonel, the deputy and their Vietnamese escorts to pile into their vehicles and roar off in the direction from whence they had come. more As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. [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. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. There was much As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. We usually got mortared at night whenever Dong Tam was getting it from our district. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. Hide. 14. Ly's father is a bricklayer. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. 6 External links modified. 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. . When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! All rights reserved. [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. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. 13. They had been told that the population would rise up against the Americans and that there would be plenty of captured U.S. weapons to fight with. recoil of my M14. 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. 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. for days and days. 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. Hoa. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. LV DITTO Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. I sounded off, "who is there"? He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. Then and (National Archives), https://www.historynet.com/lt-col-john-e-gross-recalls-the-tet-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.
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