I went through the quarters making sure everyone 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. 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. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. While much has been written about Tet and the political firestorm that resulted, in the hundreds of surprise battles and skirmishes that unfolded, individual units found themselves thrust into intense danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy as they responded to Viet Cong (VC) attacks. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Charlie Company soldiers, used to months of patrolling and fighting in the jungles, suddenly found themselves fighting house to house as their fathers had done in World War II. [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. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor CRITICALPAST.COM: All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. 9. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. bunker. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. 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. Tower sent Major Jones to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. Something was definitely about to happen. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 11. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). 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. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. 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. 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. 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. ], The Laotian representative said six members of the Meo special forces were also cap tured with the American on May 7 in Xieng Khouang Province near the North Vietnamese bor der. 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. 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. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. They all blew up! Big Boom! 8. At about 6 a.m., Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. After commanding 180 paratroopers, taking on four APCs and 40 troops seemed like a dreamexcept that now I was responsible for troops in combat, not training. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. 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. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was I had been in command for five months and had been assured that I would be in command for one year, which suited me fine. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. 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. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. 15. a noise! 939939. . 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. Hoa. 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. the light dome that rose from the explosion. was his helmet and flack jacket! Ive just been told you work for me again. 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. There was much 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 Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. Hide. At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos For additional reading, see: The Battle for Saigon, Tet 1968, by Keith Nolan; and History of the 5th Division, by Ho Son Dai and Nguyen Van Hung. 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. In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. (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. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. 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. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. Tower had called and told me Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. The North Vietnamese Army had circled U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. According to the official history of the VC 5th Division, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment, supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company, had the mission of overrunning the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. 3. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. He waved me off. him in. 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. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. 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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. Most of these photos were taken in an area a few miles north of Chu Lai and south of Hoi An. Ive just been told you work for me again. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. 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. 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. 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. 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. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard By Vietnam terms Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. from the petroleum dump immediately next to our position. The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. 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. [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. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. more that happened that night. ", "We mustered everyone we could Dismounted troops of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, stay close to their M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) as they clear Widows Village, near Long Binh Army Post, of Viet Cong who had overrun it during the Communist 1968 Tet Offensive (National Archives). We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. The chrome 6 comments. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. [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. The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. AIR V..FIRES He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. GV DUMP The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted minimal damage on the bases. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. 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. only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. The 2-47 was one of several units General Weyand pulled in from the jungles to guard the Long Binh headquarters and logistical complex 15 miles northeast of Saigon. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. [3]:2501, On the evening of 1 February 3 platoons from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and 2 platoons from Company D, 17th Cavalry Regiment were ordered 2km north of Ho Nai to establish an outer defense against any renewed VC/PAVN attack. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. 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. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. Charlie Company soldiers, used to months of patrolling and fighting in the jungles, suddenly found themselves fighting house to house as their fathers had done in World War II. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. Construction on the 24 th. Here was another sign that the situation was serious: The battalion commander personally gave out map coordinates of company objectives in the clear.Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a nightmare. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. All night he stared at the body, which had one arm grotesquely sticking in the air, and wondered why nobody had taken the gold wristwatch off the arm. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 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. 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) [2]:352[3]:2067, At approximately 05:30, the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, mounted on M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles (ACAVs) coming from Bearcat approached the Plantation from the southwest and formed a skirmish line to engage the VC, while helicopter gunships from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment swept in to rocket and machine gun the VC positions. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. 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. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. At the meeting I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. In October, the 2-47 was given the mission of securing engineers as they cleared Highway 1 from Xuan Loc to the II Corps boundary near Phan Thiet. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, which was placed under the operational control of the 2-47, made a combat air assault under fire into the middle of the Widows Village battle and fought bravely beside the Panthers all day long. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 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. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. M-113 APCs of the 9th Infantry Division storm VC positions 200 meters outside II Field Force headquarters at Long Binh on February 1, 1968. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and for the next three days, fires burned out of control. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the Of course you never ", "Then we were all in the bunker The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES I 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. View of surrounding areas. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). was out of the bldgs. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. 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. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. 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. about 1/3 mile, All this carried on for about three maybe four days and the dead Some were complete projectiles weighing The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. At dawn on 2 February the US counted approximately 50 VC/PAVN dead in the area and captured 3 VC. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. This site was called Hill 63 because there was a hill nearby that had an elevation of 63 meters on the map. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Ripped apart barbed wire. After telling them to stop shooting He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. 200 pounds. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. 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. Waking Dead. This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of I have . I I told him that I wanted to command a company. It was Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. 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. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. According to him, I told him 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. Service Battery 6/27th The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. https://www.historynet.com/tet-offensive-the-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. Cambodian border to the South China sea was already considered a When the shooting started it My Account | 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. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. I operated a heavy five 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.
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