2. The churches were cleared in short order. But no one would be leaving the country that day. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of In mid-September, when Ionoff moved to battalion to become the operations officer (S3), I assumed command of Charlie Company. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. Then things started falling out of the sky. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. [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. Shopping Cart | 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. The remains of a stack of over 15,000 high explosive 155mm artillery projectiles after the VC attack on February 4. We use cookies on this website. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. and still no answer. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. 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. 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. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. 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. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. 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. Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. A burst of VC machine gun fire erupted nearby, 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. On the morning of 31 January 1968, the Bien Hoa Air Base, III Corps HQ, the Prisoner of War Compound, and other key installations around Bien Hoa--Long Binh area received enemy mortar and rocket fire. Under fire, Staff Sgt. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. 0.13 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. He Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. 6 comments. They bowed and looked confused. rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. for days and days. Under fire, Staff Sgt. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. 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. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. Most of these photos were taken in an area a few miles north of Chu Lai and south of Hoi An. Copyright Screenocean 2022 | Powered byImagen. yelling Kortuem! 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. 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. During the last week of January, the battalion patrolled the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. wire on the top of LBJ (Long Binh Jail). I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. was out of the bldgs. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. GV DUMP I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe Charlie Company soldiers, used to months of patrolling and fighting in the jungles, suddenly found themselves fighting house to house as their fathers had done in World War II. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. The progress was slow and ammunition was becoming a scarce, particularly grenades, which city fighting consumes at an enormous rate. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. 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. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas who tried to escape to the nearby jungles. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. Lookout tower in the background. 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. They all blew up! 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. A soldier, who has been hit, lying prone between two other soldiers, tries to get up. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. This site requires JavaScript. Barbed wire torn apart by Vietcong who infiltrated through Longbinh ammunition camp. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. 939939. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. When the G3 adviser told me to lend the rangers a track, I told the sergeant that the M-113 was not a tank and to be careful with it. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. Attacking Long Less has been written about the danger, turmoil, chaos, confusion, contradictions and outright lunacy that confronted individual units as they responded to VC attacks on the morning of January 31. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 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. secondary explosions. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. 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. At 0700, as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. Ive just been told you work for me again. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. Views of a number of huts, in the hamlet, that have not been destroyed. 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. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. LV WATER TRUCKS ALONG ROAD, EXPLOSION IN B/G. Hide. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. The scout platoon had fought . checkered) water tower by the main gate. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. An MP full colonel, accompanied by a Los Angeles deputy sheriff (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of National Police, drove up to my track. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. When the G3 adviser told me to lend the rangers a track, I told the sergeant that the M-113 was not a tank and to be extremely careful with it. (Long Binh) ammunition dump. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. 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. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. Click Here. 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. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . We packed up our gear, rolled up our wire and waited. The North Vietnamese Army had circled He read a memorandum charging that 100 days after the signing of the Vientiane ceasefire accords, the seven men had been planning to take command of groups of saboteurs recently infiltrated into the area., See the article in its original context from. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then charged in shooting. It also contained tons of captured NVA ammo and guns from the A Shau Valley. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Ly's father is a bricklayer. into the bunkers. it and only slightly pierced the skin a little. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. convoy about two days before and were repairing anything that had failed 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. The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with then- Pfc (and current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. 2 comments.