For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. Well, the piece of shrapnel
and completely out of sync. Rolling back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to come upon the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. I had no way of knowing who it was with no light in 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. The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly predicted a major attack during Tet, and his anticipation no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. main target because they were outnumbered 5 to 1. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of
After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 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.
Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly and, despite what was reported in the press, American and ARVN forces handed the VC a devastating defeat during Tet. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Page contents not supported in other languages. Policy was to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags when we left a position, to leave nothing the VC might use against us. . F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. [6]:12, Several dozen of the PAVN rockets exploded near the II Field Force and 199th LIB headquarters in the Plantation Compound (105728N 1065241E / 10.9577N 106.878E / 10.9577; 106.878) causing minimal damage. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 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. 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. yelling Kortuem! Artillery
Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. We usually got mortared at night whenever Dong Tam was getting it from our district. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?.
Vietnam War-Stories.com: Sapper Attack, Ammo Dump Explosion, Bin Ha 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.
Talk:Long Bnh, Bin Ha - Wikipedia As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. 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. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. We never saw them again. 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. Lookout tower in the background. Of course you never
recoil of my M14. 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. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest.
Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh - Wikipedia Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. 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. 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. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. 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. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. 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. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires in the towns and villages. [3]:23950, In the late afternoon of 31 January after clearing the Widow's Village 2/47th Infantry advanced into Ho Nai from the south, the town appeared deserted. 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. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed
The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. The view is from the compound of the 20th. more
Activity in the area had picked up in November and
Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 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. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. Contact Us |
AIR V..FIRES Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. 5. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . 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. Tom Allaback. We were in a cloud of disarray
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. 0.35 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. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. The first explosion was
To ensure you can use all the features please enable it. 6 External links modified. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . About two days later one the huge fuel bags next
M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. 13. With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with Pfc (current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). 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. 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. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scout platoon into the edge of Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. When it
I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. But no one would be leaving the country that day. Chu Lai and LZ Baldy Photos. 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.
Long Binh Vietnam 1968 stock footage and images - CriticalPast As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. The churches were cleared in short order. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate
", "We mustered everyone we could
The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Ive just been told you work for me again. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. After the battles for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre incidents of the day. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). They all blew up! When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and fewer than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong., I told him we could not take the tracks off Highway 1 and into town because the streets and alleys were too narrow. 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. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched Most of these photos were taken in an area a few miles north of Chu Lai and south of Hoi An. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. known as Widows Village. 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 . 0.22 This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. I told him that I wanted to command a company. 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. 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. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. 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. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe
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. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens
As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. I
Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79 grenade launcher. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. Then things started falling out of the sky.
Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Privacy Policy | Links
Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. We never saw them again. from Bien Hoa City. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in
front making it dangerous to return fire.
PDF Scanned Document - United States Army Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply.