long binh ammo dump explosion 1968 long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

After telling them to stop shooting The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of 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 . We came up with a T formation. 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. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. THE STORM BREAKS Part 1 In the late-night hours of 29 January 1968 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. 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. Burned out 105mm howitzer shells at ammunition dump in Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Bien Hoa in Vietnam. I told the colonel that this was not a police action, that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the Now We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. Well, the piece of shrapnel Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. (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. In addition to the US bases, the city of Bin Ha was the headquarters of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) III Corps and home to a large prisoner of war camp. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. 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. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. 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. ". As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. Summary - October 1966 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. CRITICALPAST.COM: Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. Tet airstrike Long Binh Ammo Dump - YouTube At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. Featured Collections | Sand bags near barbed wire fence. Evan Ammo dump - VHFCN As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. 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. We use cookies on this website. It with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get About Us | In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. Photo Index 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.). 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. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as 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. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. At about 6 a.m., Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. and completely out of sync. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. 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. OK. 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. "[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. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. and the gunner replied "VC ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. 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. . 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. As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. I called III Corps to report that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait for the Vietnamese National Police to take charge. The churches were cleared in short order. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. 6. [2]:347 Weyand also requested the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) to defend the eastern approaches to Long Binh/Bien Hoa and 1 ATF had commenced Operation Coburg on 24 January. 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. 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. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. 90th Replacement Battalion | My Vietnam Experience 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. [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. I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. I remember one The 1st Platoon of Bravo Company was made the II Field Force reaction force and was placed in the PX parking lot at Long Binh. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. 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. only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts all personnel to the flight line. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. One A-37 and 1 F-100 were destroyed while a further 17 aircraft were damaged. [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. 102 comments 105 shares. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. Big Boom! One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. The VC attacks on Bien Hoa and the Long Binh complex were abject failures, due in part to the fact that on January 31, 1968, they had run into the Panthers of the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry. Ive just been told you work for me again. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. 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. 1.04 On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. 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) forever the big pieces stopped. 1 comment. Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. 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) As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . Click Here. [2]:3523, General Weyand later noted that in their attacks on the Saigon area "Despite the large number of Communist troops committed, insufficient force was applied in any one area to take and hold the objectiveThe assault had been launched piecemeal and it was repulsed piecemeal in a series of relatively small battles.