long binh ammo dump explosion 1968 long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. [American sources in Vien tiane said, as quoted by The Associated Press, that the captured American was prob ably the pilot of a Continent al Air Service plane that was forced to land behind Pathet Lao lines after running out of fuel. The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. This article was originally published in the February 2006 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Bill Langan, aka "Sparky" was on duty in the 573rd hanger at the Bird Cage and took the slide photo. [3]:2204, On 1 February Company B, 2/3rd Infantry, Company C, 4/12th Infantry and elements of 2/47th Infantry swept Ho Nai finding only dead VC/PAVN and civilians who had been murdered by the VC or killed in the fighting in the town. while we were gone. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. The combat around III Corps headquarters was intense. Forget that, he said. I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a nightmare. One A-37 and 1 F-100 were destroyed while a further 17 aircraft were damaged. Helicopter gunships took off from Bien Hoa AB to investigate, but were unable to locate the force in the darkness. 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. 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. 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. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. The 2-47s scout platoon had just finished a brutal fight in Widows Village, and at 1600 hours, 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. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next 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. There was an ammo dump explosion in 1968 also and both 1967 and 1968 are correct and were of course separate incidents. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. 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. [7], The Tet offensive attacks and previous losses due to mortar and rocket attacks on air bases across South Vietnam led the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze on 6 March 1968 to approve the construction of 165 "Wonderarch" roofed aircraft shelters at the major air bases. He retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel. At 0300 hours I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as S3, stating that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. The gun-jeeps were progressively replaced by M113s and XM-706 Commando armored cars. 13. Service Battery that supplied ordnance to the big guns in our battalion. 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. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. Riflemen staying close behind. 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. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. In April 1967 I was a first lieutenant commanding a rifle company in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. Service Battery 6/27th We had returned from a This site was called Hill 63 because there was a hill nearby that had an elevation of 63 meters on the map. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue 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. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. As darkness settled in, Charlie Company was ordered to move back the way it had come, to the junction of Highways 1 and 316, where we would form a screen in front of the 199th LIB base camp. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. flight line and I was checking the bunker for anyone, I heard [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. Shoe of soldier on ground. As the afternoon of January 30 drifted toward dusk, Charlie Company soldiers stripped to the waist and dug bunkers next to their M-113s. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, situated on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. Their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. 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 VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. By Vietnam terms However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. AIR V..FIRES 1 comment. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. During the last week of January, the battalion patrolled the jungles east of Highway 15, near the Binh Son rubber 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. Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet Then things started falling out of the sky. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. 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. and completely out of sync. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. He said the first thing he could remember was the We were in a cloud of disarray 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. Battalion policy was that we had to fill in all holes and empty our sandbags each time we left a position. That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. out of the sky. Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. He started a noise! My Account | Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. He stated that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. [2]:350, At approximately 16:45 F-100 Super Sabres of the 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron conducted a Napalm strike against a PAVN/VC company at the east end of the base runway. 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. Tower had called and told me Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, still smoldered. 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. on the Bailey Compound, only in the 145th CAB HQ which could [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. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. 0.54 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. 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. and the perimeter was still intact. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. Ammo Dump Exlosion Sapper Attack! 10. 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. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. Alpha Company, still licking its wounds from the January 23 fight, was left intact. It I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. 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. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. 0.59 bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. LV EXPLOSIONS Kortuem! only be entered from off the Bien Hoa Air base and thru the gate rockets at Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh Post. One reference claims that 4 February 1967 was the date, and another claims that 28 March was the date. Terms & Conditions | 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. 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. 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. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army used the base as a logistics and command center. [3]:2305 By dawn the VC/PAVN were retreating northwards pursued by helicopter gunships and at 06:15 Company C, 4/12th Infantry began moving north in pursuit, intending to pin the VC/PAVN against a force from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment which was moving south. 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. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company. We could shoot about 21 miles into Cambodia. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. The 2nd Platoon led the way under Lieutenant Fred Casper, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. Having been struck by mortars or rockets, the fuel tanks at the air base, as well as several buildings throughout Bien Hoa, were burning brightly. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE 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. We packed up all of our gear, rolled up our concertina wire and waited. . 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. Then a report came in that a body had been found wearing a white shirt under a black pajama tunic. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. 3. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policyand cookie policyand for us to access our cookies on your device. and the gunner replied "VC The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. [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. United States officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Long Binh. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. It then dawned on us that the VC were throwing down their weapons, changing clothes and slipping away. 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.). My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. The only trouble was that Charlie Company tracks were sitting in the road right in front of their bunkers. 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. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers. 0.17 SAIGON, South Vietnam, June 1 (Reuters)Explosions ripped through a huge ammu nition dump near here today, killing one soldier and wound ing 13. Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. Back view of jeep with open doors. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. 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. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). 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. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. on the water tower". October continued with construction efforts. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. 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. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79. more that happened that night. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. 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.. In the week preceding the attack these LRRP patrols engaged 2 PAVN/VC reconnaissance teams north of Long Binh. As I remember the Tet Offensive began in the early morning of trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. My Lightboxes | LV EXPLOSION, SIGN ON BOARD "DISNEY LAND FAR EAST" main target because they were outnumbered 5 to 1. 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. From our positions we could see and hear the celebratory fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. With small-arms fire cracking overhead, young girls carrying bottles of Coca-Cola were trying to sell them to the troops. 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. Then things started falling When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. 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. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. 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. Tower had called and told me that Charlie Company was under the operational control of III Corps and I was to take my orders from them. At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls the fighting near III Corps: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scout platoon into the edge of Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. Come back up on the battalion freq.. OK. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. the light dome that rose from the explosion. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . 0.22 We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. Even though it was about 6-8 miles away to the NE of Bien Hoa, it was plainly visible . Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. 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. Under fire, Staff Sgt. 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. 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. In mid-September, when Ionoff moved to battalion headquarters to become the operations officer (S3), I assumed command of Company C. In October, the 2-47 was tasked to secure engineers as they cleared Highway 1 from Xuan Loc to the II Corps boundary near Phan Thiet. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. Artillery 4 Joseph Dames was tasked to return to the tracks for more grenades. [2]:349, The perimeter was strengthened by an ad hoc force of support personnel from the 145th Aviation Battalion and just before midday the ARVN 57th Regional Force Battalion moved through the base and counterattacked the VC forcing them to withdraw east into the rubber plantation leaving behind over 100 dead. I have . The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. After the battles for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre incidents of the day. [6]:66. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. Refine Your Search Long Binh Vietnam 1968 stock footage and images - Showing 1 to 6 of 5537 results Sort by: All All Search Results Decade 1890 - 1899 (3) 1900 - 1909 (18) 1910 - 1919 (136) 1920 - 1929 (83) more Location Aalen Germany (1) Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland USA (1) Afghanistan (2) Africa (3) more Akron Ohio USA (3) No answer. hightForP2 = 330 After I got the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. [2]:347, The VC 275th Regiment had taken up positions in a residential area known at the Widows' Village (105731N 1065237E / 10.9587N 106.877E / 10.9587; 106.877), which housed the wives and families of dead ARVN soldiers and was located across Route 316 from the Plantation Compound. Painting outside. 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. border. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. The first explosion was Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. 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. The attacks by Vietcong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces were one of several major attacks around Saigon in the first days of the Tet offensive. 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. Flames consuming huts. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. (Vietnam War period). Long Binh ammo dump was one of the Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. 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. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . 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. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. I was told to forget about them, which reinforced our feeling that this situation was different and that combat was certainly imminent. 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. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. The churches were cleared in short order. We were ordered to go to that church and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. front making it dangerous to return fire. I dismounted the platoons and placed them on line on each side of the road: the second on the left, or north, and the first on the right, or south. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . Unfortunately for them, the hapless VC had no weapons other than the RPG launcher, and Dames dispatched them with a burst from his M-16. Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Anyone can read what you share. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. In addition, gunships killed many more as they tried to escape from the villages. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. 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. build bunkers, and help pick up the dead enemy across the fence. 4 and future U.S. senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel) had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widows Village fight. the wrecker operator had to know how to weld. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. This is the story of one rifle companycomprised of some of the finest soldiers to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Armyand what they all faced on that decisive day. SV AMERICAN SOLDIERS AND EXPLOSION