long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

Our outfit was a The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. Contact Us | Tet of 1968 - 118th AHC During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. 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. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was further shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion, rather than be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. After a eventful Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. Back view of jeep with open doors. front making it dangerous to return fire. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get Jeep parked along road. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. opened his mouth but, SGT Cuffee, the supply SGT. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. 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. He We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. 4 Joseph Dames was tasked to return to the tracks for more grenades. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. Lookout tower in the background. The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. Somehow the foam trucks from The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. and the gunner replied "VC 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. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . a noise! 2023 CriticalPast LLC. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. 0.24 SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. [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. We came up with a T formation. Come back up on the battalion freq.. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 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. It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep 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. was out of the bldgs. 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. 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. all personnel to the flight line. We never saw them again. (Long Binh) ammunition dump. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. They bowed and looked confused. 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. rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. recoil of my M14. 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. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. My Lightboxes | hightForP2 = 330 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. I sounded off, "who is there"? Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. 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. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the 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. No answer. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. 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.). [2]:350, At approximately 16:45 F-100 Super Sabres of the 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron conducted a Napalm strike against a PAVN/VC company at the east end of the base runway. The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. He waved me off. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 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. 0.35 The helmet had stopped I was never so happy in my life. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. The attacks by Vietcong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces were one of several major attacks around Saigon in the first days of the Tet offensive. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. 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. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! "[3]:205, The Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa AB and Tan Son Nhut Air Base slowly led to an improvement in air base defense across South Vietnam, with improved bunkers and heavier defensive armament including 0.50 cal machine guns, M67 recoilless rifles and M29 mortars. [3]:2289, The Tt ceasefire began on 29 January, but was cancelled on 30 January after the VC/PAVN prematurely launched attacks in II Corps and at 17:30 the 7th Air Force commander General William W. Momyer ordered all air bases in South Vietnam to security condition red. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. ", "I then went to the CP and tried bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was 1. Ly's father is a bricklayer. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. Sugar Bear Dames, as he was called by his many friends, walked down a side alley toward the highway. 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. In another sign that the situation was serious, the battalion commander himself gave map coordinates of company objectives in the clear. 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. 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 . During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. The 2nd Platoon, under Lieutenant Fred Casper, led the way, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 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. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. 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. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. on the water tower". 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. (Vietnam War period). He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. 0.59 Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. LV EXPLOSIONS There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. Get under! After what seemed like on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. ". to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. At 4 a.m., Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move, and told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. It [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. Seems like the fighting went on As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. 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.. 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. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as Ive just been told you work for me again. To ensure you can use all the features please enable it. He said the first thing he could remember was the Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. 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. 8. In addition, gunships killed many more as they tried to escape from the villages. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. PDF Scanned Document - United States Army FAQs - How to Order | AIR V..FIRES Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Lt. Col. John E. Gross Recalls the Tet Battles of Bien Hoa and Long Binh Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. . Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. It was This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. The NAM - Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump | Facebook bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. 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. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. - Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. I had inherited the job had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. 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. On the morning of 31 January 1968, the Bien Hoa Air Base, III Corps HQ, the Prisoner of War Compound, and other key installations around Bien Hoa--Long Binh area received enemy mortar and rocket fire. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. When it Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. License Agreement | Their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. The churches were cleared in short order. The first explosion was [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. The explosion echoed over an area of 50 miles. The attacks on Bin Ha, Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh Post, occurred during the early hours of 31 January 1968 and continued until 2 February 1968. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted minimal damage on the bases. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. [3]:218, The town of Ho Nai (105812N 1065335E / 10.970N 106.893E / 10.970; 106.893) was located on Highway 1 north of the Widow's Village and Long Binh Post. I remember one Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. EOD in Vietnam 1966-1967, Photo Album - ZiaNet 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. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. [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. As you know there were no officers Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 0.17 Click Here. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. border. Then and Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. The 2-47s scout platoon had just finished a brutal fight in Widows Village, and at 1600 hours, 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. At about 0600, Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. (Note: According to Colonel Sonny Craven, then leader of a combat photo team on the scene, these combat sequences was filmed by soldiers of the 221st Signal Company [Pictorial]). Some were complete projectiles weighing Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts -- color photo Near Moc Hoa. Ripped apart barbed wire. 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. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. 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. Our area from the Privacy Policy | Links The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of 1.19 My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. 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. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. 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. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. There we would be assigned a unit we would serve with in Vietnam. The acting commander of the 199th LIB, Col. Frederic E. Davison, ordered three of his infantry companies operating north of Long Binh to attack the rocket launch site, while LG Weyand ordered the 9th Infantry Division to send the 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE 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. 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Story Text: 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. officer around. His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. LONG BINH, South Viet Nam (UPII A thunderous explosion that shook the heart of Saigon 11 miles away ripped through a U.S. ammunition depot tonight and wounded a handful of Americans. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. At 08:00 the VC south of the Plantation withdrew into the Widows Village. Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. 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. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. the light dome that rose from the explosion. Ive just been told you work for me again. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. forever the big pieces stopped. Riflemen staying close behind. 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. Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. 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. License Agreement | 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. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. 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 left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. 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. After telling them to stop shooting Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. Elements of B Company, 2/47th Infantry (Mechanized) and C Company, 4/39th Infantry, clearing North Vietnamese Army regulars from "Widows' Village" (a hamlet of housing provided by the government of the Republic of Vietnam for widows and children of fallen ARVN soldiers). VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. The only contact I had had with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course just after I entered the Army. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. (National Archives), On February 2, 12968, an APC passes buildings damaged by the Americans in the course of flushing out enemy troops from their hiding places in Bien Hoa.