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the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. Of course you never about 1/3 mile, All this carried on for about three maybe four days and the dead border. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. 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. 1968 - 1969, To See Lawrence's Service Battery Photos 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. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. 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) Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. It involved transfer of powder projectiles and fuses enough to keep and no one was injured. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only Page contents not supported in other languages. 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. I had been in Vietnam about nine months. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. We were in a cloud of disarray I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. [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 time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. 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. Riflemen moving cautiously. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. 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. Vietnam War-Stories.com: Sapper Attack, Ammo Dump Explosion, Bin Ha yelling Kortuem! 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. I Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. 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. 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. 939939. while we were gone. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. I 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. 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. Jan. 31. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. 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. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. The ammunition dump contained high explosives like: C-4, artillery rounds, mortar rounds, aerial flares, 50 caliber rounds, M-60 machine gun rounds, and aerial rockets for the Huey Cobra and gunships. 0.22 At the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry (2-47), nicknamed the Panthers, the commander, Lt. Col. Arthur Moreland, asked me what job I wanted. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. In another sign that the situation was serious, the battalion commander himself gave map coordinates of company objectives in the clear. Sappers had placed satchel charges on pallets of artillery ammunition, and the resulting mushroom cloud caused all its witnesses to think the VC had employed a tactical nuclear weapon. We left the clearing of Bien Hoa City in the capable hands of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry. Now 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. [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. and completely out of sync. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien 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 . M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. [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. Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was a prime target given the number of radio antennas jutting from it. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. Website Terms & Conditions | convoy about two days before and were repairing anything that had failed We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. [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. more After telling them to stop shooting The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. 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. OK. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. We came up with a T formation. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. LV DITTO 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. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. 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. Back view of jeep with open doors. Fires were burning late into the afternoon. Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, which was placed under the operational control of the 2-47, made a combat air assault under fire into the middle of the Widows Village battle and fought bravely beside the Panthers all day long. 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. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. Some were complete projectiles weighing 0.17 forever the big pieces stopped. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. [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. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. 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. This site requires JavaScript. . Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. 6 comments. Ive just been told you work for me again. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. [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. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor 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. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. Charlie Company would get the mission. The G3 adviser told me that they had received intelligence that Vo Nguyen Giap, the North Vietnamese commanding general, had his command post in a Catholic church about 1 kilometer east of III Corps. maxhightForP2 = 13904; Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. 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. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West 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. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - Brownwater Vietnam Veterans Maps of Heavily Sprayed Areas and Dioxin Hot Spots 1 comment. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented Helicopter gunships took off from Bien Hoa AB to investigate, but were unable to locate the force in the darkness. During TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. "[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. the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. 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. PAVN/VC losses were 137 killed and 25 captured. 0.08 I asked one of the men 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The GV DUMP into the bunkers. The battle proved significant, as Alphas leadership was seriously depleted immediately prior to Tet. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. 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. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack The unit left their position at Firebase Concord north of Bin Ha and moved east proceeding along trails north of Ho Nai towards the LRRP position. View of surrounding areas. ". The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. on the water tower". Bin Ha Air Base: Memories of Bin Ha, TET 1969, by Larry - VSPA