long binh attack 1969

More than 100 individual and crew-served weapons were captured. It concentrated on US military installations, especially in the III Corps area around Saigon. It could lay down an awesome field of fire, with each of its three 7.62 mm Gatling miniguns shooting up to 6,000 rounds per minute. South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding . A sign reads 'Headquarters II Field Force Vietnam Artillery'. An ammunition dump at Long Binh, Vietnam. Scenes of Viet Cong bodies around the perimeter of the base.Please Note! I worked for Pan American Airways and lived with the 99th Replacement Battallion across from USARV Headquarters in Long Binh from October 1969 through December 1969. Copyright 2023. Well, not everybody had departed. . Jim Van Eldik is a retired Army lieutenant colonel. Passing of colors to the new commander. They fought to the last because (1) they were told that they would be tortured mercilessly by US soldiers should they be captured, and (2) being Buddhists, they did not want to die on foreign soil, but hoped to escape so they could go home to North Vietnam to die. Seventh Air Force, among others, expressed concern that transmissions might be intercepted and give warning of the gunships approach to the enemy. With no friendly troops visible between me and the battle, into my M16 went the magazine of tracers in preparation for a confrontation with anyone who might break through that wall of gunfire, something at which the Viet Cong were quite adept. The idea seemed absurd! My Lightboxes | Once the sun came up, a troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment found 139 dead enemy soldiers, Stars & Stripes reported. 20 July 1969 circa - Mortar attack on base camp A-414 Thanh Tri. from 1969 to 1970. When daylight came, I reported to my new duty station in the Engineer Section of USARV HQ, where, from the second floor of the air-conditioned building, we could observe the Post's perimeter wire about 1/4 mile away. My class had graduated the month before from our 35-week "Fixed Ciphony Repair" course at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. United States 2nd Field Force change of command ceremony at Long Binh, Vietnam. Nearly 60 years after he was first recommended for the nation's highest military award for his bravery during the Vietnam War, retired Col. Paris Davis, one of the first Black officers to lead a Special Forces team in combat, received the Medal of Honor on Friday. Textual Records: Correspondence and daily journal, 1972-73. Others were there, others were wounded, but Levitow being the furthest removed from the flare, recognized the danger, took action when seconds counted, and saved the lives of the entire crew, Carpenter wrote. On the other hand, one is left to ponder what affect seeding the battlefield or, even better, seeding the Ho Chi Minh Trail itself with C-ration packets of the despicable Ham and Lima Beans might have had. The attack continued into 27 February when the Marines overran the PAVN resulting in a total of more than 200 killed. When it finally ended with the assistance of several Cobra gunbships, 23 enemy dead were discovered. Website Terms & Conditions | Night was approaching as Spooky 71, an AC-47 gunship, took off from Bien Hoa Air Base, a few miles northwest of Saigon. Soldiers lined inside the building waiting for their number. YouTube, It led the way for the more powerful AC-119 and AC-130 gunships that came later. Investigation reports of the Postal Inspector Division, 1971-73. Except for the eruptions from our perimeter bunkers, the entire battlefield seemed devoid of peopleat least people who could be seen. Inside the aircraft is a mannequin of Levitow, struggling to get the flare to the door. Shot up and near stalling, Spooky approached Bien Hoa in the dark. Mr. Cook served with the 1st Infantry Division, 2-16th Infantry, as a 1st Lieutenant in the Long Binh area of Vietnam. Din vin Ninh Dng Lan Ngc Ninh Dng Lan Ngc Vit Trinh. Soldiers counting the notes. 1 minigun and a jumble of spilled ammunition. Once my eight-man crew of ammo counters had assembled, we set aside our usual duties and made the best preparations we could to survive the night. 1971 serving with the 95th Military Police Battalion. He was told his unit would capture many C-rations. Food was always a dominant concern for the habitually starved Viet Cong. The gunship had flown into the path of an 82 mm mortar round, which struck the top of the right wing. The Hot War (1968-October 1969) The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army in late 1967 launched several costly attacks. Shortly before midnight the entire perimeter lit up with machine gun fire. I couldnt walk. . License Agreement | He showed up for his typical night shift at the office. independent documentary Letters from Long Binh. After years of Army training one cannot help but itch for a shot at the enemy, especially when all the advantages are on ones own side. Long Binh/Bien Hoa; Da Nang; References; External links; Most attacks centered on military targets near Saigon and Da Nang and were quickly beaten off. So here I was, wounds and all, finally managed to stand up and Im lifting 140-pound ammo cans and stuffing them between the guns [so they would not] go flying all around and really hurt somebody, Levitow said. My driver arrived at the usual time, a little before sundown, on Feb. 22, for my 12-hour graveyard shift at the 1st Logistics Command headquarters. Viet Cong attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base (1966) Part of the Vietnam War: Date: 4-5 December 1966: Location: Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam. Quan Loi August 12/13, 1969 by Bill Rubenstein. A regimental commissar had assured the men in Trans company that the attack would be easily successful and after it was over we would be able to go home to North Vietnam. The rationale given for the supposedly easy victory: The VC battalion would face only desk soldiers without field experience (ouch!). 28 March Ambush and Recon Team #75, and #76 were on a joint night operation on Hill-15 in the southeastern sector of the TAOR. Thus, my daily mission (with the aid of my eight-man crew) was to account for all the ammunition in South Vietnam, at least every round not yet in the hands of the fighting troops. John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now a contributing editor. The rounds landed on post with some igniting the POL fuel site east of the highway. c bit n nh mt phi n ngh s nhiu ti ni ting . 2023 CriticalPast LLC. Soldiers walk around outside the headquarters. That year, traumatic as it was . I heard that five American soldiers were killed and some 30 wounded. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Navy) The point man for Team #75, SP/4 Cressman, tripped a Viet Cong antipersonnel mine on the trail that runs down from the south side of the hill to the Buong River. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Landing short would have been a disaster. They tell me I ended up jumping on it, finally getting control and dragging myself and the flare back to the rear cargo door which was open and just managed to push it outside the door as it ejected and ignited simultaneously., Later, the citation to accompany the Medal of Honor put it this way: Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. The flare posed a deadly danger in several ways. Unfortunately, the reporting was delayed and did not reach Long Binh until the morning of 22 February 1969, the day the defector warned the attacks were set to begin. At most, there would be 20 seconds before it exploded. It weighed 27 pounds. It would be relieved by another gunship for the midnight-to-dawn shift. Note: Your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. About 11:30 p.m., the gunship was diverted from patrol over the village of Lai Kai, north of Long Binh. Many features may not work properly without it. Jim Van Eldik, who kept count of ammunition from an office at the Long Binh logistics complex, spent the battle in a defensive position along the edge of the building, far from the fighting. A battalion of the 274th Viet Cong Main Force (VCMF) Regiment of the 5 North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Division, attacked the southern perimeter of Long Binh Post. (Vietnam War period). Also in mid-February Company D, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines engaged an entrenched PAVN platoon 22km southwest of Da Nang killing 30 and the ARVN 2nd Battalion, 51st Regiment operating 4km west of the Marines killed 49 PAVN moving north of Go Noi Island. Many of the tracers bounced off the ground like rubber balls. It was nothing like what I saw in my imagination or what is shown in movie theaters or on television. Result: United States and South Vietnam victory: Belligerents The attack lifted momentarily, and the gunship began dropping flares to provide illumination requested by a nearby ground unit. "On the second firing pass, the mortars firing on Long Binh were silenced." The attack lifted momentarily, and the gunship began dropping flares to provide illumination . Brigadier General Leo D. Kinnard speaks to the troops. Dailymotion, Levitow declined to board the helicopter until he was finally ordered to do so by Carpenter. There was another motivation for Tran as he attacked the American base. Mini-Tet 1969 Begins February 23, 1969. Despite his wounds, Levitow helped secure the airplane on the way back. To Love Ru Tp 22 - Vit Sub. ARVN casualties were 10 killed and 100 wounded and one US Army photographer was killed. Most estimates put the Viet Cong deaths at over 100. Ike originally intended these dominos to represent Chinas neighbors such as North and South Vietnam. These ingredientswhen mixed with the C-ration Beef, Spiced with Sauce or the Beans w/ Frankfurter Chunks in Tomato Saucewould have provided the Viet Cong a feast for the ages. . The pilot, copilot, and navigator were in the forward cabin, and the flight engineer, two gunners, and the loadmaster were in the cargo bay in back. You can imagine how frightful that was to the mind of a 6-year-old. I then looked back to see a flare that had slid up against the cans of 19,000 rounds of ammunition, Platt said. Nhng Chin Binh Ph Thu Xinh p tp 29. st_Luna-kun. The rifle was accompanied by a single magazine of tracer roundsbullets treated with a chemical that creates a trail of light when fired. He worked in "The Iron Triangle" included Phu loi, Ton sahn Nut, and Long B. Although at first overwhelmed by the intensity of the enemy fire the MPs stood their ground, suppressed the enemy fire, eliminated an enemy machine gun emplacement and were able to evacuate their seriously wounded point man, SP/4 Brown. At about 03:00, as reconnaissance elements of the unit were observed and engaged by US Air Force security forces at the perimeter of Bien Hoa Air Base, the villagers began to flee their homes, running down streets and creek beds. Over the years, there were numerous other recognitions. My hope was that no more than one or two VC would reach my position. . . He had a serious leg wound and was evacuated to the field hospital across the street from my barracks. This was teh first time the M551 Sheridan was in action in the Blackhorse Regiment. His grieving son had no option but to file away those unanswered questions forever. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. An ambush platoon reaction team that was held in ready reserve was assigned to conduct a sweep of the tree line where the post perimeter had received heavy enemy fire from during the early morning attack. U.S. Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawks from Attack Squadrons VA-163 Saints and VA-164 Ghost Riders attack the Phuong Dinh railroad bypass bridge, 10 kilometers north of Thanh Hoe, North Vietnam, on September 10, 1967. Thoughts now turned to what we should do if we came face to face with the enemy. Unlike our headquarters, theirs was built under a hill rather than on top of one. It was presented in ceremonies in February 2002 by his son to CMSgt. Carpenter waved off taxi instructions from the tower and the crew got out fast. We heard that the commander of the tanks was Col. George S. Patton Jr. This was a bit disconcerting. For reasons unknown, it had not been emptied when the AC-47 went to Vietnam. The gunners kept the guns loaded and working during the flight. Small-arms fire opened up in his path. South Vietnamese woman 1969 Sep 15, 2017. . I had the aircraft in a 30-degree bank and how Levitow ever managed to get to the flare and throw it out, Ill never know, Carpenter said. aring, as AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships began strafing the battlefield with 7.62 mm minigun bullets fired at the rate of about 4,000 rounds per minute. 5 Lt xem. Other members of the squad have yet to be identified. Spooky was flying at about 3,500 feet. As Ole-Luk-Oie, the pen name for British officer Ernest Swinton, wrote in the 1915 book The Great Tab Dope: Who can blame a desire for the real thing, or professional zeal, whether it be that of a burglar, a Harley Street appendix hunter, or a trainer of blind monkeys?. It's not widely known that during the course of the Vietnam Conflict, about 2 million (2,000,000) VC and NVA were killed -- which was about 15 percent of North Vietnam's 13 million population. I hated it. More to his liking, he went home to Connecticut and became a medical administration officer in the VA hospital system and special assistant to the chief of Medical Administration Service in New England. It was Feb. 24, 1969, and the second day of the Tet counteroffensive. Interestingly, the only thing that came readily to mind was a small sign I discovered at one of the outdoor latrines set back in the woods: ALL TERDS [sic.] The pilot was Maj. Kenneth B. Carpenter, flying his first combat mission as aircraft commander. Im not going to bring shame on either the medal or myself, so I do watch it very carefully.. Answer (1 of 6): Now I can answer that from a very odd perspective. Things quieted down for a while. It was his 180th combat mission, but he had never flown with this crew before. By mid-1967, United States Army, Vietnam (USARV), 1st Logistical Command and many other Army units dispersed in Saigon were moved to Long Binh Post to resolve centralization, security, and troop billeting issues. ), and that the VC suffered heavy casualties that day, with about only 6 VC left after the shooting stopped, and these were taken prisoner. The 199th later became known as the "Redcatchers" for its mission objectiveto seek out and destroy Communist cadres in Vietnam. The gunship carried about 150,000 rounds of ammunition on each flight, Levitow said. Metacafe, When we were hit, all of us [Owen, Levitow, Sgt. The flare was armed just before it was thrown out the door, with timers set to give it some distance from the airplane before the parachute deployed and the flare was triggered. If it ignited, it would quickly fill the aircraft with toxic smoke, incapacitating the entire crew. . I think it was a very discriminatory flight.. This attack was going to be a big one.. More than 500 airmen attended the funeral, and most of them followed the caisson to the grave site. Shopping Cart | Among those present was Carpenter, the commander of Spooky 71, now retired and living in Marshall, Tex. Even in the navigation compartment the flash lit up the inside of the aircraft like daylight. Location: Long Binh Vietnam. Jerry Breast/U.S. Dedicated to those who were there. So proficient had I become at this task that I had acquired the nickname Lieutenant Bullets. Officially, however, I was an ammunition stock control officer in the Army Ordnance Corps. Surely neither the. I am the historian for the 11th Armored Cavalry Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia (11th ACVVC). On top of that came the domino theory of 1954, invented by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. More recently, Enlisted Heritage Hall obtained a surplus C-47 and converted it to a mock-up of an AC-47, with the colors and markings that Spooky 71 bore in February 1969. Supported videos include: Shrapnel and jagged shards of metal ricocheted through the cargo bay, and a shock wave from the explosion swept the interior of the airplane. One of the MP ambush squads held a position within a kilometer of the VC stronghold. I had a real tough time grabbing hold of it with two hands because of the pain in my leg and everything. Dense blue smoke was pouring out of the burning flare fuze.. All of the enlisted got wounded and the officers did not. Dennis E Haines, Recipient of the Images Of Bravery Award, Patient at the 24th Evacuation Hospital, December 1968. The Tet 1969 offensive was carried out mostly by Viet Cong irregulars. On July 1, an article titled "Libya and Syria: When Anti-Imperialism Goes Wrong" was published on the North Star website, signed by "Pham Binh of Occupy Wall Street, Class War Camp." The article argues that imperialist interventions in Libya and Syria are justified because they are demanded by forces the author calls revolutionary. Poor guys; they didn't stand a chance. The Tet lunar new year of 1968the one history remembershad seen large-scale coordinated attacks on cities, provincial capitals, and bases all over South Vietnam. Levitow also gave Enlisted Heritage Hall his fathers uniform and ribbons, the original Medal of Honor citation signed by President Nixon, photos, and other memorabilia. Additional South Vietnamese Regional Force elements moved in and the ARVN troops continued to contain the PAVN/VC forces until 11:00 when assault forces, in the form of the ARVN 36th Ranger Battalion, reinforced the contact. 99-08 286 ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. Louis, If you like this movie trailer, go to https://militaryvideo.com/ to purchase the entire 60 minute video. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam.

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