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The VC/PAVN attacked the position that night in a 6 hour long assault which was met initially by US mortar and artillery fire, then helicopter gunships and then napalm strikes. ", "We mustered everyone we could 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) He started 0.13 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. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. 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. I had assumed I would be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. Tom Allaback. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was further shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion, rather than be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. They bowed and looked confused. 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. 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. happened to hit him just over the forehead. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. Summary - October 1966. There was much (Long Binh) ammunition dump. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. bunker. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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 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. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. 8. 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. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. A VC commander captured later in the battle revealed that his orders were only to start the attack after several hundred rockets had hit the Plantation, but as the rocket sites had been neutralized before the rocket threshold was reached, the ground assault on the Plantation never began. 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. But no one would be leaving the country that day. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. The 2-47s scout platoon had just finished a brutal fight in Widows Village, and at 1600 hours, 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. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. 0.28 We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. 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. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. 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 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 combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. Come back up on the battalion freq.. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). AIR V..FIRES The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as while we were gone. Website Terms & Conditions | 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) Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. checkered) water tower by the main gate. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. They bowed and looked confused. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. 0.54 SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. Privacy Policy | Links 12. I was having a few beers with several other sailors in the outside screened patio area of the Navy EM Club when we heard a noise to our left. 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. 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. 1 comment. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. AIR V..AMMUNITION DUMPS AND FIRES 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. 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. 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 village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. ", "Then we were all in the bunker 0.35 [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. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. [6]:36 In addition airborne "rocket watch" patrols were established in the Saigon-Bien Hoa area to reduce attacks by fire. Riflemen moving cautiously. Later, captured VC said many guerrillas only had two magazines for their weapons in expectation that the population would rise up against the Americans and have plenty of captured weapons to fight with. 0.48 The VC concentrated their attack on Bunker 10 an old French concrete bunker on the eastern perimeter, hitting it with Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and mortar fire, however the Security Police in Bunker 10 and adjacent bunkers fought back keeping the VC from penetrating far into the base. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. 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. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. 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. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. Flames consuming huts. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. 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.). Long Binh ammo dump was one of the 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. 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. The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. 6. 1. 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. Their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. more As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. 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. Burned out 105mm howitzer shells at ammunition dump in Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Bien Hoa in Vietnam. In fact, the Communists had already infiltrated the city of Bien Hoa, suburban Ho Nai village and Widows Village, where pensioned families of deceased ARVN soldiers lived. 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. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 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. 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. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. It knocked a dimple in the side of the track as I fired up the gunner., Later in the fighting, Casper and several 2nd Platoon troops were pinned down next to a building. (Vietnam War period). August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 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. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. Contact Us | A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. Lookout tower in the background. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. 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. Painting outside. . was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West View of surrounding areas. 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. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. My Lightboxes | In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . There we would be assigned a unit we would serve with in Vietnam. At the end of the previous day, Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. Then and Page contents not supported in other languages. danger and the probable best course of action. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. [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 told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion. I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. 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. [6]:66. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether.