long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. 0.35 We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. 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. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. Construction on the 24 th. Company B, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment had arrived by helicopter from Bearcat and joined up with 2/47th Infantry to sweep the Widows Village. AMMUNITION DUMP. 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 North Vietnamese Army had circled Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. Get under! VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. Helicopter gunships took off from Bien Hoa AB to investigate, but were unable to locate the force in the darkness. PDF Scanned Document - United States Army HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. I was never so happy in my life. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the As you know there were no officers Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. front making it dangerous to return fire. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. AIR V..EXPLOSION The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. (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. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. After all had left for the I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. [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. This fire was observed by the helicopter gunships that had been circling the area north of Long Binh and they quickly moved to attack the launch sites and were soon joined by an AC-47 Spooky gunship and their combined fire soon stopped the rocket/mortar fire. [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. 4 and future U.S. senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel) had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widows Village fight. Advanced Search | Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. Rambo claims that the bunker guards were MPs with the call sign of Filmy Milker. According to him, I told their commander that any fool could see that the VC did not have M-113s, and that we had 22 .50-calibers and a 106mm recoilless rifle and they, for sure, did not want us to return fire. 2 comments. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. 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. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. OK. 3. 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. It An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires that ravaged the towns and villages. 939939. mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Summary - October 1966. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. Something was definitely about to happen. A spokesman for the South Vietnamese command said that, according to unconfirmed re ports, satchel charges, of the type used by Vietcong sabotage squads were found near the dump. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. 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. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a (Vietnam War period). LV EXPLOSIONS A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. 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. South Vietnam: Viet Cong Explode U.s. Ammunition Dump. Shoe of soldier on ground. 14. He started There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. 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. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. Unfortunately for them, the hapless VC had no weapons other than the RPG launcher, and Dames dispatched them with a burst from his M-16. Seems like the fighting went on with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get 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. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. 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. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. Early on January 30, we were told the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and our unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented Tet airstrike Long Binh Ammo Dump - YouTube 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. The fog of war was especially thick on the morning of January 31, 1968. Under fire, Staff Sgt. Website Terms & Conditions | 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. [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. 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. maxhightForP2 = 13904; [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. It was it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. Many of the enlisted personnel with medical MOSs work two to three days per week at the 93 rd Evacuation Hospital, then came back to the 24 th to work on the various construction projects. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. [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. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. This site requires JavaScript. Jan. 31. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. After telling them to stop shooting 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. 0.08 Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. 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. Maps of Heavily Sprayed Areas and Dioxin Hot Spots On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. 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. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. 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.. When offered the chance to go to II Field Force to help establish a new long-range reconnaissance patrol outfit, I turned it down to stay with the company. from Bien Hoa City. 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. about 1/3 mile, All this carried on for about three maybe four days and the dead He waved me off. I realize now that the track was high enough that the rounds would have passed over the troops in front of the vehicle, Love recalls. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . 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. more that happened that night. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . 8. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position.

Paychex Payroll Reports, What Did The Geonosians Do To Captured Clones, Secret City Cancelled, Articles L