long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

First was sand then bigger stuff. 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. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. Ive just been told you work for me again. Our outfit was a I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe He waved me off. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Perpetual Siege region. Shopping Cart | We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. 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. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens 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. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in The helmet had stopped 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 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. I was never so happy in my life. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. 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. 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. I have . in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. . LV DITTO 11K views 9 years ago This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. . ", "I then went to the CP and tried 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. The explosion echoed over an area of 50 miles. 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. 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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. 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. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. 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. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. I almost did I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion. Widows Village made a perfect attack position for the VC, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters in the Long Binh complex. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 200 pounds. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 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). Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. It The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . License Agreement | The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white I had been in Vietnam about nine months. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. 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. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. 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. 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) GV AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . him in. 2 comments. LV EXPLOSIONS Big Boom! As was our normal practice, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. 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. Hide. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. 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. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. II Field Force commander LG Frederick C. Weyand had also ordered the 9th Infantry Division to be prepared to send its 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base 16km south of Long Binh to Bien Hoa-Long Binh in the event of an attack. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. known as Widows Village. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. 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. The 2-47 was one of several units he pulled in from the jungles to guard the Long Binh headquarters and logistical complex 15 miles northeast of Saigon. Somehow the foam trucks from happened to hit him just over the forehead. The only contact I had had with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course just after I entered the Army. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 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. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. According to the VC 5th Division official history, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment was supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company; its mission was to overrun the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. Riflemen moving cautiously. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Ammo Dump Explosion 18 Feb 1968 where 8 pads detonated with a total ammo value of $2,774,348: f. On 18 February 1968 at approximately 0300 an attempted penetration of the depot was. After all had left for the The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. 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. 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. 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. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Now the fight was on. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. NEARER V..EXPLOSIONS 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. But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. 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. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. 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. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. 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. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. Many of the enlisted personnel with medical MOSs work two to three days per week at the 93 rd Evacuation Hospital, then came back to the 24 th to work on the various construction projects. AMMUNITION DUMP. 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. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for [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. 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. 5. As usual, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a nightmare. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard AIR V..EXPLOSION 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. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Get under! The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. As the sun sank low, 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. 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. Click Here. 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. Then things started falling out of the sky. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. 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. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 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. 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. 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. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. My 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. 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.). The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the companys tracks, forming the base of the T on the highway, provided fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammunition. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. Of course you never Back view of jeep with open doors. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. 939939. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. The VC attacks on Bien Hoa and the Long Binh complex were abject failures, due in part to the fact that on January 31, 1968, they had run into the Panthers of the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry. the light dome that rose from the explosion. wire on the top of LBJ (Long Binh Jail). Burned out 105mm howitzer shells at ammunition dump in Bien Hoa Air Force Base, Bien Hoa in Vietnam. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. 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. We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. GV DUMP We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, travel great distances in a short amount of time, and arrive with many times the ammunition and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. 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. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Ly's father is a bricklayer. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis, boarding passes in hand, milling about. hightForP2 = 330 Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of When it Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. 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. I had no way of knowing who it was with no light in the Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . He waved me off. At dawn on 2 February the US counted approximately 50 VC/PAVN dead in the area and captured 3 VC. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES 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. 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. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. At 08:00 the VC south of the Plantation withdrew into the Widows Village. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. What we came up with was a T formation. Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. [4], The 179th Military Intelligence Detachment of the 199th LIB had been gathering intelligence on a pending attack on Long Binh for several weeks before the attacks based on human intelligence and ground radar. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. 1 comment. 4 and future U.S. senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel) had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widows Village fight. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. At dusk, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. Featured Collections | 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. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. They bowed and looked confused. An MP full colonel, along with a deputy sheriff from Los Angeles (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of Vietnamese National Police, drove up to my track. OK. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. "I was the 1SGT of the 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. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. At 3 a.m. on January 31, I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as operations officer. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing.