long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

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. Under fire, Staff Sgt. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. [3]:2515, A VC/PAVN attack on the prisoner of war camp in Bin Ha which held over 2000 prisoners was repulsed by a platoon from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and a platoon from Company D, 17th Cavalry and their ACAVs. Page contents not supported in other languages. 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. 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. 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. 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 in the pre-dawn gloom, with small-arms fire cracking overhead, I was amazed to see young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola, trying to sell them to the troops. Rambo claims that the bunker guards were MPs with the call sign of Filmy Milker. According to him, I told their commander 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. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. Tom Allaback. bunker. There was much As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. Story Text: 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. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. 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. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. All night he stared at the body, which had one arm grotesquely sticking in the air, and wondered why nobody had taken the gold wristwatch off the arm. Hoa. Ive just been told you work for me again. Jan. 31. VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the tracks, forming the base of the T, gave fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammo. 7. 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. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. 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. Hide. What we came up with was a T formation. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. 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. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into In addition to the US bases, the city of Bin Ha was the headquarters of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) III Corps and home to a large prisoner of war camp. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. 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. 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. 2. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. 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. was his helmet and flack jacket! Featured Collections | The explosion echoed over an area of 50 miles. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white Set. A VC commander captured later in the battle revealed that his orders were only to start the attack after several hundred rockets had hit the Plantation, but as the rocket sites had been neutralized before the rocket threshold was reached, the ground assault on the Plantation never began. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. Well, the piece of shrapnel When we arrived, we filed off the busses . Charlie Company would get the mission. 1.19 As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. Activity in the area had picked up in November and 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. 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. 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. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. . We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. 0.28 During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. Flames illuminated the clouds, forming an eerie glow; flares hung in the sky and helicopter gunships crossed back and forth firing red streams of tracers into the city. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, started off down Highway 1. My 0.24 "[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. This group is primarily for those Vietnam veterans who experienced the ammo dump attacks in Long Binh in 1966, '67, & '68. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! and no one was injured. border. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. 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. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. As we rolled back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to find the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. . 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. Fred Casper, one of the bravest of the brave, was killed during the May offensive at the Y Bridge in Saigon, leading from the front as was his custom. I went through the quarters making sure everyone went off and all hell broke lose. In January 1968, our battalion relocated to the area between Xuan Loc and Bien Hoa, where intelligence had located a VC battalion. But no one would be leaving the country that day. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help (Note: According to Colonel Sonny Craven, then leader of a combat photo team on the scene, these combat sequences was filmed by soldiers of the 221st Signal Company [Pictorial]). When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. 13. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. In Bin Ha itself the 3rd Ranger Task Force, consisting of the 35th and 36th Ranger Battalions, provided a rapid reaction force supported by 2 155-mm howitzer battalions located on the southeast of the city. 0.54 Jeep parked along road. 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. [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. Then things started falling 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. 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. 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. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. [6]:36 In addition airborne "rocket watch" patrols were established in the Saigon-Bien Hoa area to reduce attacks by fire. It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 939939. 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. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. As we fought our way toward the scout platoon, we were blocked by two large churches that were directly across Highway 1 from each other, both occupied by the VC. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. From our positions we could see and hear the celebratory fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. 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. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). Our area from the 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. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed At 07:30 the VC/PAVN force stopped and made a stand in a cemetery where they continued to be hit by the gunships and the ACAVs of Company C. At 08:00 Company C was joined by a force from 2/47th Infantry and they proceeded to methodically kill all the VC/PAVN in the cemetery. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. As a result long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) from Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment were positioned north of Long Binh to detect PAVN/VC approaching the base. [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 offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. 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.). 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. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. 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. However, Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could organize their attack. In fact, the Communists had already infiltrated the city of Bien Hoa, suburban Ho Nai village and Widows Village, where pensioned families of deceased ARVN soldiers lived. 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. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. "What are you firing at? " Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. probably one of the best deals I had been Used for because the 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. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. 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 told him that I wanted to command a company. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. As he fell, a burst of automatic weapons fire stitched the wall right where he would have been had he not fallen..