As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. Artillery The churches were cleared in short order. agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help resulting in the explosion of the ammo dump at Bin Ha Air Base. 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. 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.. Chu Lai and LZ Baldy Photos. had defended the Long Binh ammo dump and had helped in the Widow's Village fight. 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) We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round actually hitting my track. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. Get under! After what seemed like The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. According to Jones, that assault went so perfectly that it could have served as a demonstration at the infantry school. Website Terms & Conditions | All night they scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. They tried to make us keep our heads down so we couldn't get them with our counter-mortar fire . The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. 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. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. 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. We were west of Highway QL1 along a road named 535. I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. 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. ", "I then went to the CP and tried On that fateful night, explosions began at the bomb dump, I immediately responded to CSC as the SP's . As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. ". Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. As we turned to head back, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. and no one was injured. They all blew up! while we were gone. remember being giddy and my brain was asking What is wrong with me?. 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. That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. 13. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. This site requires JavaScript. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. His battalion was in heavy contact and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, started off down Highway 1. yelling Kortuem! ", "Then we were all in the bunker 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. From our positions we could see and hear the celebratory fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. Most of these photos were taken in an area a few miles north of Chu Lai and south of Hoi An. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. [2]:347[3]:225, At 03:00, the PAVN 84A Artillery Regiment began a barrage of approximately 100 82-mm. A force from Company C, 2/3rd Infantry mounted on ACAVs was sent north from Ho Nai and pinned the VC/PAVN in a crossfire. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. I sat behind the .50-caliber, munching and giving thanks for the fact that, incredibly, nobody in Charlie Company had been killed. Meanwhile, Hueys reported VC running from the village. to contact the Commanding Officer(MAJ Guidroz). 0.35 Well, the piece of shrapnel 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. After a eventful 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. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Simultaneously, platoon leaders reported finding discarded AK-47s. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scout platoon into the edge of Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. 0.24 Service Battery 6/27th 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. After commanding 180 paratroopers, taking on four APCs and 40 troops seemed like a dreamexcept that now I was responsible for troops in combat, not training. The Commo track, C-007, nicknamed Abdula and the Rug Merchants, with Pfc (current Vietnam editor) David Zabecki behind the .50-caliber, brought up the rear. 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 dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. GV AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. 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. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. 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. M-113 APCs of the 9th Infantry Division storm VC positions 200 meters outside II Field Force headquarters at Long Binh on February 1, 1968. (Vietnam War period). for days and days. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. 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 careful with it. Script is copyright Reuters Limited. 15. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. [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. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. [3]:210 Instead at approximately 03:30 the VC began firing across the road at the Plantation Compound being met by return fire from the perimeter bunkers. My Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. Long Binh ammo dump was one of the biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. But their 81mm mortars were useless, since we were told we could not put any indirect fire into the town. The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. First was sand then bigger stuff. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion.He said: Forget that. I called III Corps and reported that we had detained all of these people, and was told to wait until the Vietnamese National Police arrived to take charge. He started CU SIGN "NO SMOKING" History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Charlie Company would get the mission. The 2-47s enemy body count came in at more than 200, while the battalion suffered only four KIA. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. At 0700, as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. 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. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. 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. Some VC crossed Route 316 and took up firing positions in bush at the southern perimeter of the Plantation. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track. We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, walking among the refugees. 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. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. Shopping Cart | 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. Wrecked ambulance with flat tires. As we turned right onto Highway 15, an unbelievable spectacle stretched before us. border. remembered the 1SGT told him the first thing he was to get into 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. Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump explosion from NVA artillery fire. At about 6 a.m., Lt. Col. John Tower, the new battalion commander, called with orders. An MP full colonel, accompanied by a Los Angeles deputy sheriff (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of National Police, drove up to my track. 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.). 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. 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. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. We closed within a few hundred meters of the scout platoon and watched as helicopter gunships destroyed a large yellow house from which the VC were pinning down Barnes troops. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. 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. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. 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. F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. When offered the chance to go to II Field Force to help establish a new long-range reconnaissance patrol outfit, I turned it down to stay with the company. Dismounted troops of the 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, stay close to their M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) as they clear Widows Village, near Long Binh Army Post, of Viet Cong who had overrun it during the Communist 1968 Tet Offensive (National Archives). The battalion made only sporadic contact and suffered few casualties. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only Lookout tower in the background. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. 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. Over the two month recovery and clearing operation, tens of thousands of these hazardous munitions were recoverd by hand, one at a time. Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. 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. remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the Fighting our way to the scout platoon, we were stopped when we came upon two large churches, straddling Highway 1, each occupied by VC. 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. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. Now someone pointed out that there were a lot of young men, all dressed in black pants and white shirts, among the refugees. As we made the turn eastward on Highway 1, the lead platoon was ambushed. We never saw them again. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. Our area from the His two daughters, Ly's mother and her sister, are disabled. 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. and the perimeter was still intact. During this fighting, the two platoon leaders were wounded, Lieutenant Casper in the leg and Lieutenant Jones in the foot. . 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. We fired everything we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. I yelled at Lieutenant Casper, and everybody looked around as the VC tore out running the last few yards to safety. Hide. (Vietnam War period). The 2nd Platoon took on the one on the north side of the road, and the 1st Platoon attacked the other. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an As the sun sank low, we closed within a few hundred meters of the scout platoon and watched as helicopter gunships destroyed a large yellow house from which the VC were pinning down Barnes troops. 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. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. 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. [2]:348, As the rockets hit Bien Hoa AB, 2 battalions of the VC 274th Regiment emerged from a rubber plantation 500m east of the eastern perimeter of Bien Hoa AB. and the gunner replied "VC 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. VC/PAVN losses were 527 dead. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. 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. The North Vietnamese Army had circled As the scouts escaped, the volume of enemy fire began to slacken, then died altogether. By the evening the 2/47th Infantry withdrew into the Long Binh perimeter. into the bunkers. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered on foot. [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. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. 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. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The [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. 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. [3]:242, The VC/PAVN attacks were a failure. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. wire on the top of LBJ (Long Binh Jail). I went through the quarters making sure everyone Updated 7/26/2015. Waking Dead. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. They ordered us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. After much frequency changing, I finally got the commander of the bunker guards on the radio. [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. ruary 1968 in support of Saigon and Long Binh Post during the TET Offen- Sive. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly. Which date was it? 6 comments. A VC commander captured later in the battle revealed that his orders were only to start the attack after several hundred rockets had hit the Plantation, but as the rocket sites had been neutralized before the rocket threshold was reached, the ground assault on the Plantation never began. 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. Smoke rises from surrounding area. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. The only contact I had had with M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) was during a training exercise at the officers basic course just after I entered the Army. Long Binh, again (Feb. 1967). 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. We use cookies on this website. Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were . Painting outside. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. I said again, "Who is there"? was his helmet and flack jacket! U.S. air strikes in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. With a push-to-talk button stuck in the transmit position, no one could use the radio. As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. When we arrived, we filed off the busses . At that time, I received a call on my company frequency from the battalion commander, Colonel Tower, asking how things were going. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. ton wrecker weighing in at 22 thousand pounds. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. 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. He said I would have to wait. Featured Collections | 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. . [3]:2015, At 04:00 a 60-man VC sapper team penetrated the northeastern perimeter of the base killing three MPs and entered the massive ammunition dump (105646N 1065436E / 10.946N 106.91E / 10.946; 106.91) where they planted eighteen Satchel charges before being forced to withdraw by the 720th Military Police Battalion. 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. AMMUNITION DUMP. 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. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. 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. He said his battalion was in heavy contact, and he had several wounded rangers he needed to evacuate. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. Big Boom! 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. [4], The 179th Military Intelligence Detachment of the 199th LIB had been gathering intelligence on a pending attack on Long Binh for several weeks before the attacks based on human intelligence and ground radar. In fact, the Communists had already infiltrated the city of Bien Hoa, suburban Ho Nai village and Widows Village, where pensioned families of deceased ARVN soldiers lived. 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. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Vietnam Magazine today! This is the airstrike on snipers at the 195th AHC perimeter and the Long Binh ammo dump explosion set off by sappers the morning of the 1968 Tet offensive with sound effects added. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. We fired all we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Charlie Company slammed into the VC before they could get their attack organized. Officers and soldiers examine barbed wire fence where Vietcong broke through to enter Longbinh ammunition dump. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. At 03:45 the unit engaged the VC/PAVN with 2 ACAVs being quickly knocked out by RPG fire. 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. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was a prime target given the number of radio antennas jutting from it. [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. 10. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Kortuem! Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. U.S. military officials vVould not give the exact number of casualties for security reasons. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Here was another sign that the situation was serious: The battalion commander personally gave out map coordinates of company objectives in the clear.Alpha Company was ordered to the 199th LIB compound, which was under attack. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. I sounded off, "who is there"? We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. The village of Ho Nai, now a ghost town, was still smoldering. 14. 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. Set. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. I told him that I wanted to command a company. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. Elements of B Company, 2/47th Infantry (Mechanized) and C Company, 4/39th Infantry, clearing North Vietnamese Army regulars from "Widows' Village" (a hamlet of housing provided by the government of the Republic of Vietnam for widows and children of fallen ARVN soldiers). Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. Its predominantly Catholic population was made up of many Vietnamese who fled North Vietnam in 1954 after the Viet Minh victory. 102 comments 105 shares. The action occurs January 31st, 1968 (on "Tet", the Vietnamese Lunar New Year holiday). from Bien Hoa City. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. 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. I called battalion headquarters and was told to forget about them, which reinforced our sense that combat was imminent. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a suburb of Bien Hoa. The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. 1. I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force.