long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. charred. 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. This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. Then and 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. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. 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. 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. CRITICALPAST.COM: We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. ", "I then went to the CP and tried As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . Get under! After what seemed like Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. Updated 7/26/2015. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. 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. Get under! 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. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get 1.04 Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. When I arrived at the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry, nicknamed the Panthers, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, the commander, asked me what job I wanted. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. As the C-23 track Stormy, which was in the lead, turned into a side street, an RPG slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. When the shooting started it 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. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. Page contents not supported in other languages. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. 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. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. 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. Advanced Search | As the C-23 track in the lead, Stormy, turned into a side street, a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. 0.04 A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Our area from the Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. 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. 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. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. 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. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. Artillery M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. But no one would be leaving the country that day. Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. [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 assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. "What are you firing at? " Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. 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. License Agreement | I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. This site requires JavaScript. 1. Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. About 30 minutes later, the track was back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to get the wounded. 9. A force from Company C, 2/3rd Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent north from Ho Nai and pinned the VC/PAVN in a crossfire. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. . 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. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. To get to the church, we had to run a gantlet of fire, through the VC 238th Regiment and into the flank of the 275th, which was fighting the 2-47s scout platoon in Widows Village. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. 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. Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. I operated a heavy five For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. 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. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. The scout platoon had fought . By some veterans' accounts, it had the unofficial name "Long Binh Junction." In 1968, the base fell under attack during the Tet Offensive, and the Viet Cong assault force was repelled by American troops. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. GV AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. 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. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. The helmet had stopped VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. 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. Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard When we arrived, we filed off the busses . 2. SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! I said again, "Who is there"? 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. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. Waking Dead. I told him that I wanted to command a company. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. 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. The view is from the compound of the 20th. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. out of the sky. 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. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 4. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). 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. Besides the fireworks, ARVN soldiers had linked tracer bullets together and were stitching the darkness with weaving streams of machine gun fire. [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. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. He started At 0700, as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. After the battles for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre incidents of the day. 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. Back view of jeep with open doors. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. checkered) water tower by the main gate. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. No answer. At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. 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) 14. 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)

Complete Drop In Marine Engines, How Did Tom Nichols Become A Paraplegic, Celebrity Proposal At Dodger Stadium 2021, Miami Dade Property Tax Search, Articles L