We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. Anyone can read what you share. build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. As the 2/47th Infantry approached the town a Vietnamese warned that it contained many VC and the VC then launched an ambush on the column knocking out 3 ACAVs with RPGs setting off a 4-hour battle as the US forces engaged the VC position and rescued the survivors in the damaged ACAVs. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. Lookout tower in the background. Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. 12. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. [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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . Now I operated a heavy five In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Advanced Search | . Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. 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 the time of the The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the tracks, forming the base of the T, gave fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammo. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES The churches were cleared in short order. My Lightboxes | Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. ], 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. Contact Us | (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. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. He waved me off. The attacks on Bin Ha, Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh Post, occurred during the early hours of 31 January 1968 and continued until 2 February 1968. (Vietnam War period). They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. At 0300 hours I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as S3, stating that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. 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. Then things started falling out of the sky. [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. happened to hit him just over the forehead. 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. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. [2]:349, At dawn several AH1 Cobra gunships from the 334th Assault Helicopter Company joined the defense spraying the VC with rockets and machine gun fire which started fires causing the VC assault to lose its impetus. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scout platoon into the edge of Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. 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. 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. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. 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. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Story Text: 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. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. 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. The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. 2 comments. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. (Vietnam War period). Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. 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.). Love was so startled, he didnt fire. But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. My It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep We use cookies on this website. Jeep parked along road. 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. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!. To ensure you can use all the features please enable it. 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. 9. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. ". That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. 10. 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) He said the first thing he could remember was the Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. more As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. "I was the 1SGT of the As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. 0.13 [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. When I arrived at the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry, nicknamed the Panthers, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, the commander, asked me what job I wanted. Which date was it? The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. 200 pounds. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. GV AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79 grenade launcher. "What are you firing at? " 15. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. [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. 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. Website Terms & Conditions | As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. The battle proved significant, as Alphas leadership was seriously depleted immediately prior to Tet. [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. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. (Note: According to Colonel Sonny Craven, then leader of a combat photo team on the scene, these combat sequences was filmed by soldiers of the 221st Signal Company [Pictorial]). Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. We never saw them again. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. 2. After a eventful - only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. -- color photo Near Moc Hoa. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. [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. I realize now that the track was high enough that the rounds would have passed over the troops in front of the vehicle, Love recalls. 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. He An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. View of surrounding areas. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. Featured Collections | 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. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. At 4 a.m., Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move, and told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. 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. 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. Ive just been told you work for me again. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. [2]:350, With the base returned to full operation, that afternoon C130s landed the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment to help ARVN forces fighting the VC in Bin Ha city. I sounded off, "who is there"? 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. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. 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. 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. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. border. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. I told him that I wanted to command a company. As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. 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. agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help Come back up on the battalion freq.. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. Click Here. About 30 minutes later, the track came back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to evacuate the wounded. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 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. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Our outfit was a 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. 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. After all had left for the The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. 1.04 yelling Kortuem! A spokesman for the South Vietnamese command said that, according to unconfirmed re ports, satchel charges, of the type used by Vietcong sabotage squads were found near the dump. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion.He said: Forget that. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. 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. 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.
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