long binh ammo dump explosion 1968 long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

One of the children in the Hope System of Care is Nguyen Thi Ly, born in 2001 with a deformed face, head and chest. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. License Agreement | 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. 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. All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. I told him that I wanted to command a company. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. forever the big pieces stopped. 2. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. [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. 0.48 Well, the piece of shrapnel The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. 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 fog of war was especially thick on the morning of January 31, 1968. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. By late afternoon the 275th Regiment retreated north, leaving over 200 dead. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. Charlie Company would get the mission. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Tom Allaback. The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. After the battles for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre incidents of the day. Terms & Conditions | At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. For additional reading, see: The Battle for Saigon, Tet 1968, by Keith Nolan; and History of the 5th Division, by Ho Son Dai and Nguyen Van Hung. 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. We never saw them again. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. 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. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. Flames consuming huts. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. 6. 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. GV DUMP By Vietnam terms The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly guessed that a major attack was going to come during Tet, and his anticipation of the attacks no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. went off and all hell broke lose. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. [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. the light dome that rose from the explosion. I told him that I wanted to command a company. 0.28 [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. Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. He started Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES I was never so happy in my life. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. [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. I dismounted the platoons and placed them on line on each side of the road: the second on the left, or north, and the first on the right, or south. His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. I This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Activity in the area had picked up in November and The 2-47s enemy body count came in at over 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. 1. into the bunkers. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. 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. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. from the petroleum dump immediately next to our position. Something was definitely about to happen. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. 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. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp. 0.59 For more great articles, subscribe to Vietnam magazine today! This article incorporates public domain material from the .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:#d33}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#3a3;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}Air Force Historical Research Agency. 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 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. [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. 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. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. 0.08 What we came up with was a T formation. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. After telling them to stop shooting 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. It knocked a dimple in the side of the track as I fired up the gunner., Later in the fighting, Casper and several 2nd Platoon troops were pinned down next to a building. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 6 comments. a noise! 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 . 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. Updated 7/26/2015. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. opened his mouth but, SGT Cuffee, the supply SGT. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Come back up on the battalion freq.. 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. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. 8. We usually got mortared at night whenever Dong Tam was getting it from our district. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. 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. My only previous contact with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course. I asked one of the men After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. 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. Waking Dead. SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. 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. (Vietnam War period). bunker. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. 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.). I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. [6]:66. View of surrounding areas. (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. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. [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. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. I operated a heavy five Attacking Long 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) It knocked a dimple in the side of the track as I fired up the gunner., Later in the fighting, Casper and several 2nd Platoon troops were pinned down next to a building. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. 1.19 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. Artillery 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. [5], USAF losses were 4 killed in action with another dying of a heart attack, while 26 were wounded. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. the bunker. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. officer around. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. As we cleared the ambush, the column suddenly came to a halt because of some kind of block in the road; simultaneously, someone keyed the company net. He said I would have to wait. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 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. We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. Painting outside. October continued with construction efforts. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. First was sand then bigger stuff. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians seeking refuge. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. 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. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. 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. AIR V..EXPLOSION [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. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. LV EXPLOSIONS He waved me off. checkered) water tower by the main gate. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. ". Tower had called and told me Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. 200 pounds. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. 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. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. 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. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. Toward dusk on January 30, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist to dig bunkers next to their APCs. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. No answer. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! M-113 APCs of the 9th Infantry Division storm VC positions 200 meters outside II Field Force headquarters at Long Binh on February 1, 1968. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. [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. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. [2]:348, As the rockets hit Bien Hoa AB, 2 battalions of the VC 274th Regiment emerged from a rubber plantation 500m east of the eastern perimeter of Bien Hoa AB. This is the story of one rifle companycomprised of some of the finest soldiers to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Armyand what they all faced on that decisive day. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. They all blew up! 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. We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. . Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. 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.