Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. I went through the quarters making sure everyone and the perimeter was still intact. At the time of the 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. more I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. I was never so happy in my life. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. ", "Then we were all in the bunker The 2-47 was one of several units he pulled in from the jungles to guard the Long Binh headquarters and logistical complex 15 miles northeast of Saigon. 0.17 all personnel to the flight line. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. We use cookies on this website. At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . 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. The first explosion was When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. 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. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. This article incorporates public domain material from the .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Air Force Historical Research Agency. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. For additional reading, see: The Battle for Saigon, Tet 1968, by Keith Nolan; and History of the 5th Division, by Ho Son Dai and Nguyen Van Hung. The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. He replied that I would have to wait. Rolling back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to come upon the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. [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. I almost did Anyone can read what you share. Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. 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. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . 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. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. Later, captured VC said many guerrillas only had two magazines for their weapons in expectation that the population would rise up against the Americans and have plenty of captured weapons to fight with. A burst of VC machine gun fire erupted nearby, 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. Besides the fireworks, ARVN soldiers had linked tracer bullets together and were stitching the darkness with weaving streams of machine gun fire. 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. As a result long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment were positioned north of Long Binh to detect PAVN/VC approaching the base. [2]:347, At 01:00, a 6-man LRRP from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment spotted PAVN/VC moving through rubber trees several hundred meters to the north of Long Binh Post. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Ive just been told you work for me again. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. 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. My Account | 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. 11K views 9 years ago This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. 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. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. I sounded off, "who is there"? In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. (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. Something was definitely about to happen. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. [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. Waking Dead. wire on the top of LBJ (Long Binh Jail). All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into I asked one of the men Jan. 31. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. 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. the light dome that rose from the explosion. 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. 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) The VC/PAVN attacked the position that night in a 6 hour long assault which was met initially by US mortar and artillery fire, then helicopter gunships and then napalm strikes. But no one would be leaving the country that day. 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. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians seeking refuge. 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. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. forever the big pieces stopped. 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. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. 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. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. Perpetual Siege region. for days and days. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the 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. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. [2]:347 Within Bien Hoa AB, the USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron was responsible for security manning bunkers and operating mobile patrols within the base perimeter. 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. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Terms & Conditions | As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. 102 comments 105 shares. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. 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). hightForP2 = 330 [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. 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. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. 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. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. We never saw them again. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 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. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. 0.54 The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . and the gunner replied "VC We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. 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. [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. 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. USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. known as Widows Village. 1.04 Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. was out of the bldgs. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen. (Casper, one of the bravest of the brave, died during the May offensive in Saigon, leading from the front.). . In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis, boarding passes in hand, milling about. a noise! Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. Back view of jeep with open doors. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. Get under! After what seemed like Ly's father is a bricklayer. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. 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. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only Artillery The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. Blood stains in ambulance. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. 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. Then things started falling out of the sky. 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. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. about 1/3 mile, All this carried on for about three maybe four days and the dead Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. 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. 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. 1. maxhightForP2 = 13904; That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. [6]:36 In addition airborne "rocket watch" patrols were established in the Saigon-Bien Hoa area to reduce attacks by fire. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . This site was called Hill 63 because there was a hill nearby that had an elevation of 63 meters on the map. 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. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. The colonel explained that since we were infantry soldiers and did not know the proper method of searching a house, he and his crew had come to teach us. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policyand cookie policyand for us to access our cookies on your device. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire, based on the mistaken assumption that the VC would attack from the jungle. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. I operated a heavy five After all had left for the 13. Of course you never With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. 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. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 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. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. He waved me off. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. Painting outside. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. checkered) water tower by the main gate. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Service Battery 6/27th I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. The churches were cleared in short order. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion.He said: Forget that. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. 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. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. 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. During the last week of January, the battalion patrolled the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. [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. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. 8. NEARER V..EXPLOSIONS
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