long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

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. 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. Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. 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. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. He read a memorandum charging that 100 days after the signing of the Vientiane ceasefire accords, the seven men had been planning to take command of groups of saboteurs recently infiltrated into the area., See the article in its original context from. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. 2. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. I told him that I wanted to command a company. it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. ", "Then we were all in the bunker We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. In Bin Ha itself the 3rd Ranger Task Force, consisting of the 35th and 36th Ranger Battalions, provided a rapid reaction force supported by 2 155-mm howitzer battalions located on the southeast of the city. My We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. Vietnam War-Stories.com: Sapper Attack, Ammo Dump Explosion, Bin Ha I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Come back up on the battalion freq.. 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. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog of war. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. 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. was his helmet and flack jacket! Anyone can read what you share. I remember telling him that if the shooting persisted, or if they hit one of my troops, I wouldnt be responsible if my troops shot back. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe 2023 CriticalPast LLC. An MP full colonel, accompanied by a Los Angeles deputy sheriff (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of National Police, drove up to my track. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. There was much Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. Set. 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. 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. Charlie Company would get the mission. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor Some were complete projectiles weighing Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. As usual, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. Hide. and the gunner replied "VC Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. 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 churches were cleared in short order. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. Shoe of soldier on ground. It knocked a dimple in the side of the track as I fired up the gunner., Later in the fighting, Casper and several 2nd Platoon troops were pinned down next to a building. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . 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. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West I was having a few beers with several other sailors in the outside screened patio area of the Navy EM Club when we heard a noise to our left. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. 2 comments. Long Binh Vietnam 1969 stock footage and images - Showing 1 to 6 of 5540 results Sort by: All Decade 1890 - 1899 Location (1) Norfolk Virginia USA (2) Normandy France (12) Norman Oklahoma USA (1) (1) (1) North Carolina United States USA (2) North Chicago Illinois USA (1) North Dakota United States USA (1) North Haven Maine USA (1) North Korea (1) We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. 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. FAQs - How to Order | We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. 856th RRD-Defending Long Binh - ASA LIVES build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. - 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. A VC commander captured later in the battle revealed that his orders were only to start the attack after several hundred rockets had hit the Plantation, but as the rocket sites had been neutralized before the rocket threshold was reached, the ground assault on the Plantation never began. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. Blood stains in ambulance. I went through the quarters making sure everyone The two of them refused evacuation and neither reported his wound. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Summary - October 1966 F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. Talk:Long Bnh, Bin Ha - Wikipedia THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen.. 10. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. 0.08 The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. 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. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. 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. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could He By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. 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. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. officer around. Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. Tower had called and told me Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). was out of the bldgs. 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. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. 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. When the shooting started it Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. Which date was it? As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered back to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. bunker. When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and less than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong.. We use cookies on this website. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. 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. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. 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. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. Evan Ammo dump - VHFCN The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. EOD in Vietnam 1966-1967, Photo Album - ZiaNet 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. In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. 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. Here was another sign that the situation was serious: The battalion commander personally gave out map coordinates of company objectives in the clear.Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 0.13 ", "We mustered everyone we could As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. The NAM - Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump | Facebook [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. During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. As we rolled back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to find the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. 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. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. 1. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. What we came up with was a T formation. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. LV WATER TRUCKS ALONG ROAD, EXPLOSION IN B/G. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION [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. Of course you never History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. The scout platoon had fought . trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. 13. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. 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. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. 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. 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. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. According to him, I told him 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. General Patton's son, then Lt. Col. George Patton III, commander of the U.S. Army's 11th Armored Cavalry (Black Horse), positioned his tanks in between our big bunker hills . Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. [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. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. Riflemen moving cautiously. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. . Back view of jeep with open doors. ". This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. License Agreement | As we fought our way toward the scout platoon, we were blocked by two large churches that were directly across Highway 1 from each other, both occupied by the VC. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. 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. For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! 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. . 1.19 The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. 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. Ive just been told you work for me again. By Vietnam terms At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. The 2nd Platoon led the way under Lieutenant Fred Casper, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. South Vietnam: Viet Cong Explode U.s. Ammunition Dump. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. him in. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. 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. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. We came up with a T formation. [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. (Vietnam War period). We were in a cloud of disarray We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. 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. He started The G3 adviser told me that they had received intelligence that Vo Nguyen Giap, the North Vietnamese commanding general (the enemy equivalent of General William Westmoreland), had his command post in a Catholic church about a kilometer east of III Corps. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. Then things started falling 0.22 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]: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 STORM BREAKS Part 1 In the late-night hours of 29 January 1968 [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. 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. The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. Something was definitely about to happen. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . I told the colonel that this was not a police action, that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. forever the big pieces stopped. The unit left their position at Firebase Concord north of Bin Ha and moved east proceeding along trails north of Ho Nai towards the LRRP position.