Near Saigon, the VC made attacks on Long Binh and Bien Hoa. independent documentary Letters from Long Binh. My Account | 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. License Agreement | 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. Apparently, it was impossible for an Iowa corn farmer to get his mind around the idea of hundreds of men actually trying to kill each other. These Vietnam War photos taken by U.S. Army photographers reveal a side of the conflict that few people have ever seen. License Agreement | It was presented in ceremonies in February 2002 by his son to CMSgt. A change of command at 2nd Field Force Artillery Headquarters at Long Binh, Vietnam. Grabbing my helmet and flak jacket (and finding that, after sitting on the shelf for several months, neither would fit properly), I departed with my Jeep driver for the Logistics Commands large yellow headquarters building. For the next six hours, Spooky 71 would fly a combat air patrol circuit over the Saigon/Tan Son Nhut area, ready to respond wherever its fire support was needed. A U.S. 2nd Field Force soldier poses. 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. Clip Type: Unedited. Furthermore, the flare would be burning at a temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. I dont think I was alone in this. If you like this movie trailer, go to https://militaryvideo.com/ to purchase the entire 60 minute video. The medics cut away the dead and contaminated flesh to prevent infection, and Levitow was flown to the big Air Force hospital at Tachikawa, Japan, where 40 pieces of shrapnel were removed between his knee and his hip. 99-08 286 ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. Louis, In my case it was my unusual ability to count. Long Binh Post was situated East of Bien Hoa and approximately 20 miles northeast of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City.) As Ole-Luk-Oie, the pen name for British officer Ernest Swinton, wrote in the 1915 book. Johanalvheey 1 ting trc. 25/26 January 1969. I was not in this Regiment, but I believe I may have observed some of the Regiment's activities the day of the attack. In 1998, Air Mobility Command named a C-17 Globemaster, The Spirit of Sgt. (Jim Van Eldik), It was another hot February day in 1969 at the sprawling, Behind the driver, strewn about the passenger seat and floor, was his personal combat gear, including his, The enemy would occasionally probe us, rocket us, mortar us and more than likely sometimes even shop at our PXs, but a ground attack? I then looked back to see a flare that had slid up against the cans of 19,000 rounds of ammunition, Platt said. An injured North Vietnamese soldier fighting with the Viet Cong, Pvt. Each one of the guns could fire two speeds, Levitow said. As darkness approached some comfort was provided by the constant sweeps outside the perimeter made at treetop level by the guys in their little OH-6 Loach light observation helicopters. He was 55. The base was host to US Army Headquarters. I think it was a very discriminatory flight.. On 8 February patrols from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines found 7 122mm rockets 14km southwest of Da Nang and another 13 140mm rockets 2km further south. 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.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.The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted . A soldier with a typewriter creates a receipt. 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. My hope was that no more than one or two VC would reach my position. remembrance of shared experience. Once the sun came up, a troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment found 139 dead enemy soldiers, Stars & Stripes reported. Sound: No. The Space Development Agency has added another batch of missile-tracking satellites to its expansive constellation, awarding Raytheon a $250 million contract March 2 to build seven spacecraft. Following the employment of the supporting fires, the 36th Ranger Battalion moved back into the village. Website Terms & Conditions | Ike originally intended these dominos to represent Chinas neighbors such as North and South Vietnam. He will look for photos. It includes footage shot between 17 Feb and 24 Feb 1969. Surely neither the. Viet Cong sappers infiltrated the base and lay in long grass between the runways for several hours before placing their satchel charges. 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. But a battle was waiting instead. We had a perfect view of the VC hill, and it slowly began to dawn on me that for the past seven months, as each evenings shift began with my casually scanning the quiet hills to the south and southeast of Long Binh, there was a fair probability I was being scanned right backlikely by some VC ammo counter busily inventorying his AK-47 bullets, 122 mm rockets, 82 mm mortars and B-40 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, while I counted M16 bullets, Claymore mines and howitzer shells. Most of us were "Regular Army," almost a year into a 3-year hitch. (I was a big-shot first lieutenant and chauffeured to work.) It was his 180th combat mission, but he had never flown with this crew before. The gunship had flown into the path of an 82 mm mortar round, which struck the top of the right wing. It was originally called the FC-47D (for fighter cargo) but subsequently changed to AC-47 (attack cargo) in response to objections from fighter pilots. "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 . 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. After the battle came another shock. In another scene, a large crane is used to stack shells in the ammunition dump. Vietnam Da Nang 2 Vietnam Dong Tranh River 2 Vietnam French Indo China 7 Vietnam Khe Sanh 13 Vietnam Long Binh 3 Vietnam Phan Rang Air Base 18. The attack continued into 27 February when the Marines overran the PAVN resulting in a total of more than 200 killed. And yet there was nobody, absolutely nobody, visible out there. This was a bit disconcerting. The brigade was activated on 1 June 1966 at Fort Benning, Georgia, as the 199th Infantry Brigade (Light), with emphasis on counterinsurgency operations and mobility. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted . Most estimates put the Viet Cong deaths at over 100. DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press. Thomas Baer, the other gunner, and SSgt. 128 KB. Despite his wounds, Levitow helped secure the airplane on the way back. Spooky 71 flew with a crew of eight. Inside the aircraft is a mannequin of Levitow, struggling to get the flare to the door. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. I must add, though, that from a different perspective the battle I witnessed in Vietnam was exactly the same as those I had seen in movies: One was just as unreal as the other. Hide. The series of assaults met heavy resistance by the battalion of PAVN who had turned the villagers sandbagged shelters into a series of well-fortified defensive positions. Pan Am had a ticket office on base. Carpenter set it down in a full shuddering stall. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. Ahead of the release of Pentagons 2024 budget release in the coming weeks, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin touted major investments by the DOD across a broad array of portfolios, including the nuclear triad, space, and next-generation fighter aircraftwhile promising once-in-a-generation expenditures for shipyards and munitions manufacturing in particular. . [4]:99, The PAVN/VC attacks on Da Nang were a failure resulting in more than 500 dead. Hamby advises McIntosh to . The post and the 720th MP Battalion were informed of the planned attack late in the afternoon of the 22nd. The prisoners revealed that their mission had been to attack Bien Hoa city and the Bien Hoa Air Base. I had the lanyard on the flare hooked up and my finger through the safety pin ring. Supported videos include: Back home in Connecticut, he learned that his Medal of Honor had been approved. The villagers told the ARVN forces how they were driven out of their homes and confined to an area near a creek running alongside the village. He was told his unit would capture many C-rations. Food was always a dominant concern for the habitually starved Viet Cong. It concentrated on US military installations, especially in the III Corps area around Saigon. Spookys operators had successfully resisted pressure to change the call sign. [4]:98, At dawn PAVN sappers attacked the 1st Marine Division headquarters on Hill 327 and the 2/7 Marines command post to the northwest. We had no bunkers. Very seldom did we ever fire fast rounds at 18,000 rounds a minute because it had a tendency to turn the airplane. 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. The last major battle occurred along the berm of the rifle range on Highway 317 in the early morning just after daylight. He went back on active duty in 1983 and retired in 1995. Things quieted down for a while. Visitors can also watch a videotape of Carpenter and John Levitow Jr. talking about the Medal of Honor mission. The resultant damage was a hole two feet in diameter through the wing and over 3,500 shrapnel holes riddling the fuselage, said Lt. Col. Robert A. Davidson, commander of the AC-47 forward operating location at Bien Hoa. Part 2 nya min . Photos (51) by Lou Mengoli, 1967. Three B Company ambush squads were positioned along the eastern end of the TAOR on the "Finger Of Land," and a reinforced squad of twelve MP's, including two Scout Dog handlers from the 212th MP Company, were positioned on Hill-15 along the Buong River. hightForP2 = 330 I heard that five American soldiers were killed and some 30 wounded. Another typist gives MPC currency notes to the soldiers. On 19 February, a defector surrendered to Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces and revealed a large VC force would attack key installations in the Saigon area to include Long Binh Post. The idea was quite unsettling. 1971 serving with the 95th Military Police Battalion. The Long Binh Army post, adjacent to Spookys home base at Bien Hoa, was under mortar attack. 23 February, Attack on Long Binh Post The rumors of an impending attack became fact when at 0200 hours [2:00 AM] the first enemy rockets soared across the eastern end of the TAOR and landed on Long Binh Post. At the end of his tour in Vietnam, Levitow was assigned to Norton AFB, Calif., as a loadmaster on C-141s. As of 1969 Lieutenant General Do Cao Tri's III CTZ . Since my finger was through the safety pin ring the safety pin was pulled.. They could'nt tell how big the post was, for the post's perimeter lighting had not yet been installed. Soldiers counting the notes. The view is from the compound of the 20. To Love Ru Tp 22 - Vit Sub. The attack was expected to come on the ground, as opposed to those occasional, more impersonal rocket and mortar shells from the air. At 02:00 on 23 February, the 274th VC Regiment initiated their attack with an estimated 78 rounds of rocket and mortar fire from their positions. The attack lifted momentarily, and the gunship began dropping flares to provide illumination requested by a nearby ground unit. 11 November SP/4s Jared Kelley and John R. Klemm, tend to their gear during a recon mission in the Tactical Area Of Responsibility. 1st Signal Brigade 1966-1972, Saigon, Long Binh VISIT HOME PAGE 101st Airborne Division 1965-1971, Bien Hoa, Phan Rang, Phu Bai VISIT HOME PAGE 9th Infantry Division 1966-1969, Bear Cat, Dong Tam While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. The pilot fired the guns, using a sight at the left side of the cockpit. It led the way for the more powerful AC-119 and AC-130 gunships that came later. On searching the site at dawn it was found that 2 PAVN 81mm mortar teams had been destroyed in the barrage. 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. 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. We heard that the commander of the tanks was Col. George S. Patton Jr. The Mk 24 flare was a metal tube, just over three feet long and about five inches in diameter. He was discharged from active duty after his Vietnam tour and shortly afterward was assigned to an Army Reserve unit. The ARVN units swiftly moved into blocking positions, and by daybreak, the PAVN/VC were surrounded. FAQs - How to Order | 24:11. I was a ticket office supervisor with several Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese women reservations/ticket agents. Tet 1969 refers to the attacks mounted by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and Viet Cong (VC) in February 1969 in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, one year after the original Tet Offensive. Partway through the mission he had come forward and was talking to the flight crew when the action unfolded that night. Banned from the Long Binh O'Club: The Club was a . He had a serious leg wound and was evacuated to the field hospital across the street from my barracks. Published in the October 2017 issue ofVietnammagazine. Ni bt nht; Gn y; Gi. 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 Jail was a prison for American soldiers on the outskirts of Saigon with notoriously harsh conditions. Levitows Medal of Honor is prominently displayed at Enlisted Heritage Hall. He had been nominated for the Medal of Honorat Carpenters urging, Gen. George S. Brown, the 7th Air Force commander, had marked the recommendation up from an Air Force Crossand he was no longer allowed to fly in combat. Members of the 1st Squadron 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, surround their M551, Air Droppable Assault Vehicle as they wait for the word to move out, 23 February 1969 Overview; The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launch artillery attacks on over 100 population centers and military . The panorama took on an aspect of high noon, the entire battlefield bathed with an eerie golden glow. History is not a fixed set of facts. There was another motivation for Tran as he attacked the American base. Featured Collections | Shot up and near stalling, Spooky approached Bien Hoa in the dark. He showed up for his typical night shift at the office. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. "6 To Face Murder Charges for G.I.'s Riot in Prison." New York Times, October 1, 1968, p. 3. (true?/false? The decision to make the fix to. Bruce Stern at his desk in Long Binh, circa 1968-69. . Back in the States, the aircraft had been fitted with a tank inside the fuselage to hold isopropyl alcohol. Even in the navigation compartment the flash lit up the inside of the aircraft like daylight. Media in category "Long Binh Post" The following 36 files are in this category, out of 36 total. 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. Photo courtesy of Tom Lefavour and taken around October 1969. The research for this After Action Report included OPERATIONAL REPORTS, DAILY STAFF JOURNALS and DUTY OFFICER S LOGS at the Battalion, Brigade and Division levels located in the National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. More than 500 airmen attended the funeral, and most of them followed the caisson to the grave site. These units made occasional contact, often with PAVN or VC who fought stubbornly from trenches and spider holes. Landing short would have been a disaster. The loadmaster on Spooky 71 was A1C John L. Levitow, 23, from Glastonbury, Conn. Many of the tracers bounced off the ground like rubber balls. 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. Note the attacking Skyhawk in the lower right and one directly left of the explosions on the bridge. At that rate, a three-second burst placed a shot every square foot in an area the size of a football field. But now the tough Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army itself were coming. I try to control what I say, although for the most part, Im very quiet. In the interest of security - and to ease communications - the army centralized Saigon's American forces in 1967 by stationing them all at an enormous compound built just outside of the city. Levitow and one of the gunners, Sgt. A soldier counts his notes at the typist's desk. This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. Binh chng c cng l binh chng chin u c bit tinh nhu ca Qun i nhn dn Vit Nam, do B Tng tham mu Qun i nhn dn Vit Nam trc tip qun l v ch o. Advanced Search | About Us | United States Army soldiers exchanging MPC currency at their headquarters in Long Binh Vietnam. Small-arms fire opened up in his path. Im very careful what I do, he said in an oral history interview in 1986. . The gunners kept the guns loaded and working during the flight. He delivered the keynote address. Southeast Asia is a very strange part of the world, where for centuries its leaders have had little or noregard for the lives of their own people. Seventh Air Force, among others, expressed concern that transmissions might be intercepted and give warning of the gunships approach to the enemy. ARVN casualties were 10 killed and 100 wounded and one US Army photographer was killed. 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. He was a man that was proud to stand tall. With usual soldier directness the driver divulged the ominous news: Sir, were gonna get hit tonight, so youre gonna need your helmet, flak jacket and rifle., A Viet Cong deserter had warned South Vietnamese officials on Feb.19 that an attack would occur on Feb. 22, but Long Binh didnt get the word until the day of the planned assault. The airplane made it over the minefield and onto the overrun, just barely. He flew as a crewman on C-130s for a short tour, then went to Vietnam to fly on AC-47s. Mini-Tet 1969 Begins February 23, 1969. F-100C Super Sabre 54-1956 120 TFS, 35 TFW, USAF . Many of the tracers bounced off the ground like rubber balls. Day scenes show soldiers defending positions and firing at the enemy. at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, South Vietnam, both patient and unit members, to find each other and join in the. Numerous bases were attacked, these attacks were all beaten back but did inflict casualties and reinforced the fact that PAVN/VC forces were able to mount attacks at will. Soldiers lined inside the building waiting for their number. Some speculate that the attacks were mounted to test the will of the new U.S. President Richard Nixon who retaliated by secretly bombing PAVN/VC sanctuaries in Cambodia the following month. Danil_1969 4 ting trc. Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. After sundown on the 22nd, elements of the VC 274th Regiment, 5th Division made their final preparations while occupying three hills along Highway 15 approximately three kilometers south of the base. (Vietnam War period). On top of that came the domino theory of 1954, invented by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. NEW on HistoryNet: Attack on Long Binh, a 1969 Viet Cong attack on a US logistics base in Vietnam #VietnamWar http://trib.al/poYUWdo 83 Lt thch,23 Bnh lun.Video TikTok t Nguyn Huy Cng 1969 (@userz65oz3pvgr1969). The rifle was accompanied by a single magazine of tracer roundsbullets treated with a chemical that creates a trail of light when fired. And that they would already have been shot three or four times before they got there. 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. On 22 February, elements of the VC 274th Regiment, 5th Division assembled at three hills along Highway 15, approximately three kilometers south of Long Binh.