Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. All night he stared at the body, which had one arm grotesquely sticking in the air, and wondered why nobody had taken the gold wristwatch off the arm. Now the fight was on. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. sixteen guns stationed next to the western border of Vietnam. 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 weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. . Forget that, he said. Perpetual Siege region. An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires in the towns and villages. I asked one of the men Long Bnh Post and the Vietnam War | Worlds Revealed The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the companys tracks, forming the base of the T on the highway, provided fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammunition. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then charged in shooting. around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then ", "We mustered everyone we could The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was marked as a prime target by the number of radio antennas jutting from it. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. The 2-47s scout platoon had just finished a brutal fight in Widows Village, and at 4 p.m., it was ordered to move to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, and to attack westward through the village of Ho Nai toward Charlie Company, in the hope of pinning the VC between us. VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. The two of them refused evacuation and neither reported his wound. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. [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. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. 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. 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. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. Refine Your Search Long Binh Vietnam 1968 stock footage and images - Showing 1 to 6 of 5537 results Sort by: All All Search Results Decade 1890 - 1899 (3) 1900 - 1909 (18) 1910 - 1919 (136) 1920 - 1929 (83) more Location Aalen Germany (1) Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland USA (1) Afghanistan (2) Africa (3) more Akron Ohio USA (3) Tom Allaback. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. front making it dangerous to return fire. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. 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. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. Talk:Long Bnh, ng Nai - Wikipedia He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. 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, I came upon an unbelievable sight. Ive just been told you work for me again. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. My Account | FAQs - How to Order | Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. about 1/3 mile, All this carried on for about three maybe four days and the dead 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. Tet airstrike Long Binh Ammo Dump - YouTube We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. [3]:220, When the Company F, 51st Infantry LRRP team reported VC/PAVN moving past their position a reaction force from Company C, 4/12th Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent to investigate. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES October continued with construction efforts. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. 11. 0.17 Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. Remembering Tet 1968 Fifty Years Ago - quanloi.org Many of the enlisted personnel with medical MOSs work two to three days per week at the 93 rd Evacuation Hospital, then came back to the 24 th to work on the various construction projects. I had assumed I would be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. and no one was injured. 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. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. 13. 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. Then things started falling out of the sky. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. 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. 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. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, which was placed under the operational control of the 2-47, made a combat air assault under fire into the middle of the Widows Village battle and fought bravely beside the Panthers all day long. Bin Ha Air Base: Memories of Bin Ha, TET 1969, by Larry - VSPA 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. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. 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. it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. I had inherited the job [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. He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. He said I would have to wait. An MP full colonel, along with a deputy sheriff from Los Angeles (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of Vietnamese National Police, drove up to my track. 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. I operated a heavy five Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. In addition, gunships killed many more as they tried to escape from the villages. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 0.28 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. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen.. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. The explosion echoed over an area of 50 miles. License Agreement | 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. The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. 0.08 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. Tet Offensive: The Battles of Bien Hoa and Long Binh - HistoryNet THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. Under fire, Staff Sgt. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. and still no answer. The Long Binh ammunition dump had exploded. 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. Fred Casper, one of the bravest of the brave, was killed during the May offensive at the Y Bridge in Saigon, leading from the front as was his custom. Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. It 15. 0.04 Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time.
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