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(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]). "I was the 1SGT of the 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. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. 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. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. 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. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched 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. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. 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. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. [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. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . 0.42 The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. Website Terms & Conditions | and no one was injured. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. [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. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. 4. Set. 2 comments. During the last week of January, the battalion patrolled the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls what the fighting near III Corps was like: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. secondary explosions. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. 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. officer around. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to 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. 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. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. 1.04 Something was definitely about to happen. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. As the ammo dump burst into flames, secondary explosions erupted in other storage areas, and . and the gunner replied "VC First was sand then bigger stuff. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. 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. 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. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. 1. . During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. We never saw them again. The North Vietnamese Army had circled [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. ", "I then went to the CP and tried carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. 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. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. 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). Helicopter gunships took off from Bien Hoa AB to investigate, but were unable to locate the force in the darkness. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . known as Widows Village. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. 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. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The 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. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. Burned out 105mm howitzer shells at ammunition dump in Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Bien Hoa in Vietnam. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into Flames consuming huts. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. 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. 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. 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. License Agreement | Elements of B Company, 2/47th Infantry (Mechanized) and C Company, 4/39th Infantry, clearing North Vietnamese Army regulars from "Widows' Village" (a hamlet of housing provided by the government of the Republic of Vietnam for widows and children of fallen ARVN soldiers). 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. Waking Dead. Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/02/archives/big-ammunition-dump-near-saigon-hit-by-blasts-laotian-reports.html. I operated a heavy five A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. Bomb squads disarmed seven of the charges, but at 07:30 the remainder exploded with three igniting pallets of artillery shells and their Propellant bags causing a massive explosion, blast wave and mushroom cloud. Updated 7/26/2015. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). (Vietnam War period). Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. But no one would be leaving the country that day. 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. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. The scout platoon had fought . He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. Our outfit was a 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. and still no answer. rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. 0.59 Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. the bunker. Shoe of soldier on ground. 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. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. I The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. The Long Binh ammunition dump had exploded. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Big Boom! They bowed and looked confused. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, and we arrived with many times the ammo and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. Get under! After what seemed like from Bien Hoa City. As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. Then things started falling out of the sky. 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. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 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. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. The fog of war was especially thick on the morning of January 31, 1968. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. 0.13 The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos 13. About Us | View of surrounding areas. After the cemetery had been cleared Company B, 2/3rd Infantry joined Company C, 4/12th Infantry and they made a night defensive perimeter north of Ho Nai, while the 2/47th Infantry was withdrawn to Bin Ha. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. The first explosion was more that happened that night. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. . - The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 5. Then things started falling We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. 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. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. 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. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. I had no way of knowing who it was with no light in the [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and less than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong.. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed 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 . Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. It was We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. Then and Painting outside. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. the light dome that rose from the explosion. I explained to the colonel that this was not a police action, and that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. 6. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, and Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Tan airfield. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. 939939. 1.13 As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Besides the actions of Charlie Company, under the leadership of the S3, Major Bill Jones, Alpha had conducted an assault on VC positions in a cemetery. Our area from the SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. When it As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. 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. There we would be assigned a unit we would serve with in Vietnam. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. hightForP2 = 330 0.17 During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. Bucks County Pennsylvania United States USA, Del Rio Texas Laughlin Air Force Base USA, Roxborough Pennsylvania United States USA, U-Tapao Royal Thai Air Force Base Thailand. 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. Rambo claims that the bunker guards were MPs with the call sign of Filmy Milker. According to him, I told their commander 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. Kortuem! The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. [3]:2015, At 04:00 a 60-man VC sapper team penetrated the northeastern perimeter of the base killing three MPs and entered the massive ammunition dump (105646N 1065436E / 10.946N 106.91E / 10.946; 106.91) where they planted eighteen Satchel charges before being forced to withdraw by the 720th Military Police Battalion. Back view of jeep with open doors. Of course you never We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. 4 Joseph Dames was tasked to return to the tracks for more grenades. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. 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. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. 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. 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. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 12. 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. He said the first thing he could remember was the The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. "[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. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls the fighting near III Corps: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep Ive just been told you work for me again. Anyone can read what you share. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company, and 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. [3]:2204, On 1 February Company B, 2/3rd Infantry, Company C, 4/12th Infantry and elements of 2/47th Infantry swept Ho Nai finding only dead VC/PAVN and civilians who had been murdered by the VC or killed in the fighting in the town. ", "Then we were all in the bunker while we were gone. 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. 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. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. LV EXPLOSIONS Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. 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. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Advanced Search | forever the big pieces stopped. agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. more [3]:20, At 00:30 on 31 January, a patrol from Company E, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment detected a company-size PAVN/VC force approximately 10km north of Bien Hoa, moving in the direction of Bien Hoa AB. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog of war. 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. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, a base camp near Long Thanh.