long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

11. 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. 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 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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. 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. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. At 08:00 the VC south of the Plantation withdrew into the Widows Village. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 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. I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. Then things started falling out of the sky. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. In April 1967, I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. 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. border. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. OK. He started 2023 CriticalPast LLC. Contact Us | The battle proved significant, as Alphas leadership was seriously depleted immediately prior to Tet. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in hightForP2 = 330 The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. We came up with a T formation. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. Ripped apart barbed wire. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. 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. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. 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. USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. 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. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. 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. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. "[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. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard 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. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. He said I would have to wait. 1.13 We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. Hide. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. 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. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. Seems like the fighting went on 0.08 As you know there were no officers Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. 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. Company B, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment had arrived by helicopter from Bearcat and joined up with 2/47th Infantry to sweep the Widows Village. Tower had called and told me that Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. When the shooting started it As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. . 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. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Get under! 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) F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. 15. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. 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. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. [3]:2289, The Tt ceasefire began on 29 January, but was cancelled on 30 January after the VC/PAVN prematurely launched attacks in II Corps and at 17:30 the 7th Air Force commander General William W. Momyer ordered all air bases in South Vietnam to security condition red. The North Vietnamese Army had circled John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. [2]:347, At 01:00, a 6-man LRRP from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment spotted PAVN/VC moving through rubber trees several hundred meters to the north of Long Binh Post. I called III Corps and reported that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait until the Vietnamese National Police arrived to take charge. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. [2]:352[3]:2067, At approximately 05:30, the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, mounted on M113 Armored Cavalry Assault Vehicles (ACAVs) coming from Bearcat approached the Plantation from the southwest and formed a skirmish line to engage the VC, while helicopter gunships from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment swept in to rocket and machine gun the VC positions. LV EXPLOSION, SIGN ON BOARD "DISNEY LAND FAR EAST" Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly. bunker. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. The churches were cleared in short order. October continued with construction efforts. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. 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. 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. Officer and soldiers examine barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated Long Binh ammunition dump. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield.

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