We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. Tower sent the battalion S3, Major Jones, to take command, and once Alpha got moving, it did a magnificent job. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. Then things started falling out of the sky. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. secondary explosions. because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. [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. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. Widows Village made a perfect attack position, since it lay directly across Highway 316 from II Field Force headquarters. Attacking Long As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. 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. We were in a cloud of disarray unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack happened to hit him just over the forehead. 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. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. 1 comment. the bunker. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. License Agreement | mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. Which date was it? With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. Jeep parked along road. 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. 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. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. Now In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire, based on the mistaken assumption that the VC would attack from the jungle. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. Page contents not supported in other languages. Contact Us | Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. They bowed and looked confused. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low, preparing for Tet. 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. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. 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. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" Ly's father is a bricklayer. To ensure you can use all the features please enable it. The 2-47 was one of several units he pulled in from the jungles to guard the Long Binh headquarters and logistical complex 15 miles northeast of Saigon. Kortuem! As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. 0.48 1.04 [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. 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. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. The VC attacks on Bien Hoa and the Long Binh complex were abject failures, due in part to the fact that on January 31, 1968, they had run into the Panthers of the 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry. around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then [3]:20, At 00:30 on 31 January, a patrol from Company E, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment detected a company-size PAVN/VC force approximately 10km north of Bien Hoa, moving in the direction of Bien Hoa AB. OK. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. 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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Painting outside. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. 8. 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. and no one was injured. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West Satchel charges blew pallets of artillery ammunition, creating a mushroom cloud that made us think the VC had set off a tactical nuclear weapon. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. (Vietnam War period). I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. The chrome As the C-23 track Stormy, which was in the lead, turned into a side street, an RPG slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. Now the fight was on. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. [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. (National Archives), https://www.historynet.com/lt-col-john-e-gross-recalls-the-tet-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. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. 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. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. officer around. After the battles for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre incidents of the day. 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. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. 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. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). According to the VC 5th Division official history, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment was supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company; its mission was to overrun the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. Somehow the foam trucks from We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. I remember one He said I would have to wait. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. Our area from the CRITICALPAST.COM: HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. sixteen guns stationed next to the western border of Vietnam. The acting commander of the 199th LIB, Col. Frederic E. Davison, ordered three of his infantry companies operating north of Long Binh to attack the rocket launch site, while LG Weyand ordered the 9th Infantry Division to send the 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base. There was much I had assumed I would be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. Company E engaged the PAVN/VC supported by artillery fire killing 47 PAVN/VC. Then things started falling out of the sky. 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. 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. Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. Anyone can read what you share. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. Four men were killed and more than 20 wounded, including most of the officers. (Vietnam War period). During this fighting, both platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. When I pointed out that the 101st Battalion had more than 500 troops and I had only two line platoons and less than 90 troops, he said, Youre mechanized, youre very strong.. 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. 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. 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. [2]:347 Within Bien Hoa AB, the USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron was responsible for security manning bunkers and operating mobile patrols within the base perimeter. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. The battle proved significant, as Alphas leadership was seriously depleted immediately prior to Tet. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. was his helmet and flack jacket! Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/02/archives/big-ammunition-dump-near-saigon-hit-by-blasts-laotian-reports.html. Hide. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. Under fire, Staff Sgt. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. HANOI, North Vietnam, June 1 (Agence FrancePresse)An American major was captured last month in a Communistcon trolled area of northern Laos by Pathet Lao forces, a Laotian representative said here today.