long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

Perpetual Siege region. 0.22 [3]:210 Instead at approximately 03:30 the VC began firing across the road at the Plantation Compound being met by return fire from the perimeter bunkers. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . 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. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. 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. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. On January 23, during a battalion sweep of a heavily jungled area south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a well-camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled, losing four men killed and more than 20 wounded, including almost all of the officers. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. Jeep parked along road. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. 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 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. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. OK. went off and all hell broke lose. charred. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. At that moment, a burst of VC machine gun fire erupted, 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. 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. 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. Of course you never The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. [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. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. danger and the probable best course of action. Then things started falling out of the sky. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. So, when I was offered a chance to go to II Field Force to help establish a new long-range reconnaissance patrol outfit, I actually turned it down to stay with the company. Back view of jeep with open doors. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. ". My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. About Us | with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. 0.17 The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. [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. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. I had inherited the job I realized we were driving past our objective, halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. The churches were cleared in short order. 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. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. 14. 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. SP4 Lawrence Korteum In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. According to the VC 5th Division official history, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment was supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company; its mission was to overrun the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. Ive just been told you work for me again. and completely out of sync. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . [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. 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. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Incredibly, nobody in my company had been killed the day before. We never saw them again. Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. At 0700, as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. 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. 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. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. 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. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. 200 pounds. 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. Their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Jan. 31. By Vietnam terms Ripped apart barbed wire. We had returned from a Riflemen moving cautiously. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. Now the fight was on. One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an 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. Ly's father is a bricklayer. Forget that, he said. I told him that I wanted to command a company. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, Tet Offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, United States Army Center of Military History, "Tet Offensive: The Battles of Bien Hoa and Long Binh", Video of helicopter gunships and F-100s in action at Bien Hoa AB, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tet_offensive_attacks_on_Bien_Hoa_and_Long_Binh&oldid=1086914863, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1968, Battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States, Attacks on military installations in the 1960s, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States Army Center of Military History, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 May 2022, at 04:36. (Long Binh) ammunition dump. Charlie Company would get the mission. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. Some were complete projectiles weighing 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. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, and Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Tan airfield. When it 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. 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.

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