Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. Forget that, he said. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. Summary - October 1966. We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. The churches were cleared in short order. Jeep parked along road. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. Then, for the last week in January, the 2-47 was sent south of the 9th Divisions base camp to patrol the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber plantation. 5. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. Bien Hoa Air Base was the largest air base in the country, home to over 500 United States Air Force (USAF) and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) aircraft, while Long Binh Post was the US Army's largest logistics base, headquarters of II Field Force, Vietnam, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (199th LIB) and the 12th Aviation Group and home to over 20,000 US personnel. ", "Then we were all in the bunker In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. I asked one of the men known as Widows Village. I had been in command for five months and had been assured that I would be in command for one year, which suited me fine. 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. 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. Now 0.17 Several M 113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) are seen accompanying the troops. happened to hit him just over the forehead. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. checkered) water tower by the main gate. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. Activity in the area had picked up in November and [3]:2501, On the evening of 1 February 3 platoons from Company C, 4/12th Infantry and 2 platoons from Company D, 17th Cavalry Regiment were ordered 2km north of Ho Nai to establish an outer defense against any renewed VC/PAVN attack. more This site requires JavaScript. Binh Hoa Airbase was lucky they were not the The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly and, despite what was reported in the press, American and ARVN forces handed the VC a devastating defeat during Tet. Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. 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. John Gross received the Silver Star for his actions in command of Charlie Company on the first day of the Tet Offensive. LONG BINH, South Viet Nam (UPII A thunderous explosion that shook the heart of Saigon 11 miles away ripped through a U.S. ammunition depot tonight and wounded a handful of Americans. (Vietnam War period). 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. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. ], The Laotian representative said six members of the Meo special forces were also cap tured with the American on May 7 in Xieng Khouang Province near the North Vietnamese bor der. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. went off and all hell broke lose. GV EXPLOSIONS AND FIRES I had inherited the job 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. I the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. Under fire, Staff Sgt. The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. 0.24 A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track, as we called it. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. Refusing evacuation, neither reported his wound. I told him that I wanted to command a company. 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. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians seeking refuge. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. 1.19 USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. Many of the enlisted personnel with medical MOSs work two to three days per week at the 93 rd Evacuation Hospital, then came back to the 24 th to work on the various construction projects. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. We had returned from a Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. the barracks hall just as he stepped out of his room going to build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. After telling them to stop shooting resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. Hoa. No tactic I had learned at infantry school fit that situation, so we improvised. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, and Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Tan airfield. On January 23, during a battalion sweep through heavy jungle south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled. 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. We never saw them again. I called III Corps to report that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait for the Vietnamese National Police to take charge. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. Click Here. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. 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. forever the big pieces stopped. License Agreement | History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. During this time, the battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien The VC/PAVN attacked the position that night in a 6 hour long assault which was met initially by US mortar and artillery fire, then helicopter gunships and then napalm strikes. a noise! That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 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. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. 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. 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. 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. Contact Us | 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. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. 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. 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. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. Updated 7/26/2015. from Bien Hoa City. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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.. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. He started Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. 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. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented 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. CRITICALPAST.COM: 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. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. The North Vietnamese Army had circled I was the DistrictSenior Advisor (Army) in Vinh Kim, Long Dinh District, right across the canal from Dong Tam in 1968-1969. I went through the quarters making sure everyone It dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. door at the petroleum dump ruptured and fuel flowed down the ditch in Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. (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]). and no one was injured. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. 200 pounds. 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. 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. bunker. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!. LV EXPLOSION, SIGN ON BOARD "DISNEY LAND FAR EAST" [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. danger and the probable best course of action. 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. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. 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. 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. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis milling about with boarding passes in hand. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. Then things started falling Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 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) About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor 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. 0.13 I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 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. more that happened that night. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. 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. 7. The churches were cleared in short order. I remember telling him that if the shooting persisted, or if they hit one of my troops, I wouldnt be responsible if my troops shot back. I remember one As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of 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. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. Most of we RAD 152 crew members arrived in-country on July 22, 1968. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. 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. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. Seems like the fighting went on This was no surprise to us, since we could hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. We all knew that these moves were more than just precautionary. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. Come back up on the battalion freq.. Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. We use cookies on this website. About Us | Service Battery 6/27th After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the companys tracks, forming the base of the T on the highway, provided fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammunition. Our arrival had canceled fears that III Corps headquarters might be overrun. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. 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. 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. [2]:347 Weyand also requested the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF) to defend the eastern approaches to Long Binh/Bien Hoa and 1 ATF had commenced Operation Coburg on 24 January. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. Hide. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning.