0.22 Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. The offensive continued until the end of the month in the North part of
I realize now that the track was high enough that the rounds would have passed over the troops in front of the vehicle, Love recalls. Through sporadic fire, we continued northwest on Highway 15 to where it intersected Highway 1 on the western edge of Bien Hoa. 1 comment. That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. The view is from the compound of the 20th. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then went in shooting. This fire was observed by the helicopter gunships that had been circling the area north of Long Binh and they quickly moved to attack the launch sites and were soon joined by an AC-47 Spooky gunship and their combined fire soon stopped the rocket/mortar fire. Charlie Company reacted quickly to reinforce Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. His action probably saved the lives of everyone on my track. I
We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. According to him, I told him 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. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered back to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. 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. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Anyone can read what you share. trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down
I almost did
remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the
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. 1.04 him in. 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. Unfortunately for the VC, they had no weapons other than the RPG launcher. 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. View of surrounding areas. Riflemen staying close behind. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. Well, the piece of shrapnel
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. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the
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. We never saw them again. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. I explained to the colonel that this was not a police action, and that we werent searching houses, we were in combat. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. About 30 minutes later, the track came back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to evacuate the wounded. Which date was it? 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. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. Get under! After what seemed like
As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack
", "We mustered everyone we could
"What are you firing at? " The first explosion was
We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymore mines and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. An accurate body count could never be compiled since so many VC bodies were dragged away or were burned in the many fires in the towns and villages. 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. GV DUMP checkered) water tower by the main gate. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. 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. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. When we arrived, we found the churchyard packed with thousands of civilians seeking refuge. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. We fired everything we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. [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. The attacks on Bin Ha, Bien Hoa Air Base and Long Binh Post, occurred during the early hours of 31 January 1968 and continued until 2 February 1968. Charlie Company would get the mission. Come back up on the battalion freq.. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. As we rolled by, we looked down into the compound and saw soldiers in khakis, boarding passes in hand, milling about. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. Our area from the
[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. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. 2 comments. During the morning of January 30, the 2-47 Mech was notified that the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and the unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . Get under! [6]:66. I remember one
United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. Fires were burning late into the afternoon. Jim Love recalls lying in a ditch near a dead civilian as the friendly fire cracked over our heads. 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. I operated a heavy five
We packed up all of our gear, rolled up our concertina wire and waited. Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. Ly's grandfather was a soldier stationed in Quang Binh during the war. 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. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . At dawn on 2 February the US counted approximately 50 VC/PAVN dead in the area and captured 3 VC. while we were gone. We had returned from a
As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, a base camp near Long Thanh. Bravo Company (one member of which was Spc. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. He said the first thing he could remember was the
The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white
I told him we couldnt take the tracks off Highway 1 into town because the streets were too narrow. 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. a noise! VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. [3]:220, When the Company F, 51st Infantry LRRP team reported VC/PAVN moving past their position a reaction force from Company C, 4/12th Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent to investigate. SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. As you know there were no officers
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II Field Force commander LG Frederick C. Weyand had also ordered the 9th Infantry Division to be prepared to send its 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base 16km south of Long Binh to Bien Hoa-Long Binh in the event of an attack. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, started off down Highway 1. [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. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. One A-37 and 1 F-100 were destroyed while a further 17 aircraft were damaged. I told him that I wanted to command a company. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. 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. He said I would have to wait. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 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. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day.