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. He showed up for his typical night shift at the office. 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. The Viet Cong were no longer in the tunnels around Long Binh, most probably having taken the subway back to the main tunnel complex at Cu Chi. This was a bit disconcerting. 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. 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. The ARVN units swiftly moved into blocking positions, and by daybreak, the PAVN/VC were surrounded. Long Binh Post was a sprawling, 3,500 building . Perhaps a word of explanation is in order on how I and all the others in our mix of volunteers and draftees ended up in this hot, smelly, unsafe corner of the world. The Rangers met only slight, disorganized resistance. 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. He worked in "The Iron Triangle" included Phu loi, Ton sahn Nut, and Long B. [Three] thousand rounds a minute was more than sufficient.. The AC-47 was the first of the Air Forces side-firing gunships. Media Battle of Long Binh 1969 Parts 1 & 2 11thACRCombat Operations After Action Report of Attacks in Northern Binh Long Province 10-13aug69 (All content and photos on this site are the property of their named owners and may not be copied or used for any other purposes without permission. Even in the navigation compartment the flash lit up the inside of the aircraft like daylight. 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. Some speculate that the attacks . Vimeo, I try to control what I say, although for the most part, Im very quiet. Filmmaker Mel Brooks once said he looked upon his Army experience in World War II as a newsreel.. After the massive casualties it suffered during the vicious battles in 1966 and 1967, and especially due to the division's disastrous . The three guns were mounted in window ports, just forward of the open cargo door. At that rate, a three-second burst placed a shot every square foot in an area the size of a football field. He is remembered at the Walk of Fame at Hurlburt Field, Fla. Levitow died Nov. 8, 2000, at his home in Connecticut after a lengthy battle with cancer. 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. Soldiers lined inside the building waiting for their number. 44th Medical Brigade Headquarters Long Binh 1969.jpeg 2,079 1,716; 209 KB. Supported videos include: But now the tough Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army itself were coming. On 7 February Company D, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines found a PAVN/VC base area near the Nam O bridge northwest of the Red Beach Base Area, leaving the base untouched, they returned at night setting up a series of ambushes that killed 18 PAVN and captured 2. hightForP2 = 330 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. 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. The Medal of Honor was presented to John L. Levitow at the White House by President Nixon on May 14, 1970. These units made occasional contact, often with PAVN or VC who fought stubbornly from trenches and spider holes. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. 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. On 29 October the Viet Cong attacked the South Vietnamese district capital of Loc Ninh, ran up the flag of the National Liberation Front, and tried to hold the city. The following is a collection of photographs and letters sent to college friends, dated from 27 November 1969 to 26 May 1970, from John Cook. As a soldier unfastens a skid of 8 shells, from the crane, it falls over sideways. The remaining elements of the company were held in ready reserve. Once the sun came up, a troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment found 139 dead enemy soldiers, Stars & Stripes reported. He will look for photos. I was not in this Regiment, but I believe I may have observed some of the Regiment's activities the day of the attack. The U.S. created an Afghan air force that was too technologically advanced for its native country to sustain, then pulled the rug out from under it, according to a U.S. government inspector general report. The rounds landed on post with some igniting the POL fuel site east of the highway. 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 . 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. N Vietnamese forces overrun and capture Phuoc Binh City, Phuoc Long Prov capital, after wklong siege, striking significant psychological blow to S Vietnamese Govt; loss of town, with population . While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Facebook. Well, not everybody had departed. We heard later that the VC who attacked were trained as something akin to Peace Corps workers in North Vietnam, but when they arrived in South Vietnam, they met with a VC commander who told them that there was only one more small pocket of corrupt "fat desk soldiers" to root out in order to rid South Vietnam completely of U.S. soldiers. 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. 105837N 1064955E / . The training group headquarters building at Lackland AFB, Tex., is named for him. c bit n nh mt phi n ngh s nhiu ti ni ting . ATTACK ON LONG BINH POST. Then there was a blinding flash and the aircraft was rocked from nose to tail by a violent explosion. 25/26 January 1969. 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. It was also called Dragonship and Puff the Magic Dragon (after a song, then popular, by Peter, Paul, and Mary) but went mostly by Spooky, the call sign with which it flew its missions. The Hot War (1968-October 1969) The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army in late 1967 launched several costly attacks. It was thrown out of the aircraft and floated to the ground on a parachute, burning for as long as three minutes with an intensity of two million candlepower and making daylight over a square mile or so. This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to help show content that is more relevant to your interests. 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. Textual Records: Correspondence and daily journal, 1972-73. Another typist gives MPC currency notes to the soldiers. And yet there was nobody, absolutely nobody, visible out there. 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. The squad came under an immediate rain of grenades, automatic weapons fire and rocket propelled grenades from an entrenched enemy platoon hidden in the top of the berm. Trans primary motivations seem quite similar to our own: eating and getting home. Location: Long Binh Vietnam. On searching the site at dawn it was found that 2 PAVN 81mm mortar teams had been destroyed in the barrage. Location of service: Long Binh Post THOSE WHO SERVED To mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first U.S. ground troops in Vietnam, the Quad-City Times is profiling two dozen war veterans. 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 . Surely neither the Viet Cong nor North Vietnamese Army would attempt such a suicidal mission. 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. License Agreement | Behind the driver, strewn about the passenger seat and floor, was his personal combat gear, including his M14 rifle and several magazines filled with ammunition. The Long Binh/Bien Hoa complex was huge, with thousands of soldiers and airmen assigned to the combined logistics complex and air base. It concentrated on US military installations, especially in the III Corps area around Saigon. 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. Most estimates put the Viet Cong deaths at over 100. (Lt. Cdr. Mr. Cook served with the 1st Infantry Division, 2-16th Infantry, as a 1st Lieutenant in the Long Binh area of Vietnam. . YouTube, The gunship had flown into the path of an 82 mm mortar round, which struck the top of the right wing. Privacy Policy2023 CriticalPast LLC. Smoke rises from surrounding area. 83 Lt thch,23 Bnh lun.Video TikTok t Nguyn Huy Cng 1969 (@userz65oz3pvgr1969). Soldiers in a line. 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. 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. 1971 serving with the 95th Military Police Battalion. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. From there, I had a good view of the perimeter and the rapidlyunfolding battle. Each one of the guns could fire two speeds, Levitow said. 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. More than 100 individual and crew-served weapons were captured. 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. 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. 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. [4]:99, Before dawn on 23 February, the first day of Tt, the PAVN/VC fired 25 122mm rockets at Da Nang's deep water port hitting an ARVN ammunition dump and a fuel tank farm at Da Nang Air Base and cause minor damage to an A-6A and 6 helicopters at the Air Base. There was also a Vietnamese liaison officer. A sign reads 'Headquarters II Field Force Vietnam Artillery'. FAQs - How to Order | To Love Ru Tp 22 - Vit Sub. As of 1969 Lieutenant General Do Cao Tri's III CTZ . Beyond that was an open area where tanks were patrolling back and forth, apparently looking for VC who had squirreled themselves down into rat holes trying to avoid the tanks. Military aviation and technology are ever-changing, from the prevalence of drones to a shift to jets for special mission surveillance, once the province of propeller aircraft. Among those present was Carpenter, the commander of Spooky 71, now retired and living in Marshall, Tex. It was another hot February day in 1969 at the sprawling Long Binh logistics base about 20 miles northeast of Saigon. Then came a sound akin to that of large paper sacks tearing, 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. I think it was a very discriminatory flight.. Long Binh Post was a sprawling logistics facility and the largest U.S. Army base in Vietnam, with a peak of 60,000 personnel in 1969. Viet Cong sappers infiltrated the base and lay in long grass between the runways for several hours before placing their satchel charges. That evening, several ambush squads from the 720th Military Police Battalion, 18th MP Brigade kept watch along potential avenues of approach to Long Binh Post. 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. Hc_Thn. Mini-Tet 1969 Begins February 23, 1969. 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. The idea was quite unsettling. Levitow set the timersallowing 10 seconds after the safety pin was pulled before a minor explosion deployed the parachute and another 10 seconds before the flare ignitedthen handed the flare to Owen, who attached a lanyard, which created a little extra distance before the pin was pulled after Owen tossed the flare from the aircraft. nhc nn - Nguyn Quc Hng - cng ty Hng Long Phc. About 85 per cent of the force was estimated to be PAVN soldiers. Unlike our headquarters, theirs was built under a hill rather than on top of one. The 199th later became known as the "Redcatchers" for its mission objectiveto seek out and destroy Communist cadres in Vietnam. The Long Binh Army post, adjacent to Spookys home base at Bien Hoa, was under mortar attack. Thomas Baer, the other gunner, and SSgt. For reasons unknown, it had not been emptied when the AC-47 went to Vietnam. Aviation gas was leaking from the fuel lines on the right side, and that wasnt all. Ambush at Ap Nhi. The Spooky 71 crew could see mortar tube flashes about one mile south of the area of the earlier attack. Two of the pockets were destroyed by the next morning resulting in the capture of the acting commander of the 141st Regiment. Quan Loi August 12/13, 1969 by Bill Rubenstein. Note the attacking Skyhawk in the lower right and one directly left of the explosions on the bridge. Inside the aircraft is a mannequin of Levitow, struggling to get the flare to the door. He was discharged from active duty after his Vietnam tour and shortly afterward was assigned to an Army Reserve unit. Ellis C. Owen, had been working as a team in dropping the flares. Visitors can also watch a videotape of Carpenter and John Levitow Jr. talking about the Medal of Honor mission. Viet Cong attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base (1966) From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. The gunners kept the guns loaded and working during the flight. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Dailymotion, View of surrounding areas. The airplane made it over the minefield and onto the overrun, just barely. Many features may not work properly without it. Most of us were "Regular Army," almost a year into a 3-year hitch. The aircraft veered sharply to the right and down.. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted . Furthermore, the flare would be burning at a temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It includes footage shot between 17 Feb and 24 Feb 1. ATTENTION If you participated in any of the incidents listed on this page or know of some that are not, please contact the History Project Manager via the Email Link at the top of this page. (Vietnam War period). Background. Slow fire was 3,000 rounds a minute each, or fast fire which was 6,000 rounds a minute each. Photo courtesy of Corpman Bill Luppeti HM3 [Rach Soi 1967-1970] Levitows hometown, Glastonbury, dedicated a memorial to him on the town green May 31, 2004. Danil_1969 4 ting trc. Dense blue smoke was pouring out of the burning flare fuze.. Duration: 2 min 9 sec. (I was a big-shot first lieutenant and chauffeured to work.) 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. (Vietnam War period). I crawled to the location of the flare. It led the way for the more powerful AC-119 and AC-130 gunships that came later. 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. A three-second burst would saturate an area the size of a football field. The spilled ammunition19,000 rounds of it by Platts estimatewould start cooking off in seconds. 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?. Contact Us | Poor guys; they didn't stand a chance. . They briefly seize control of Binh Gia, a village only 40 miles from Saigon. 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. . ), and that the VC suffered heavy casualties that day, with about only 6 VC left after the shooting stopped, and these were taken prisoner. If you like this movie trailer, go to https://militaryvideo.com/ to purchase the entire 60 minute video. We were being attacked by at least a full enemy battalion in a fight raging with remarkable intensity. By 15:00 the 36th Ranger Battalion moved into the village attacking the PAVN/VC force. 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. The rifle was accompanied by a single magazine of tracer roundsbullets treated with a chemical that creates a trail of light when fired. . In the attack on Bien Hoa Air Base the PAVN lost 264 killed and 87 captured while ARVN losses were 10 killed and US. I am the historian for the 11th Armored Cavalry Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia (11th ACVVC). My hope was that no more than one or two VC would reach my position. 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. A VC mortar attack on the airfield at Binh Thuy on the banks of the Mekong resulted in the destruction of a Bird Dog FAC aircraft. At the end of his tour in Vietnam, Levitow was assigned to Norton AFB, Calif., as a loadmaster on C-141s. OVER 30 POUNDS IN WEIGHT MUST BE LOWERED BY ROPE. With no clear idea of what to do in combat, I would have to improvise. On December 1, 1969 at 8:13 P.M. EST my birthday was randomly drawn as Number 36 for the draft in the first National Lottery . 1965 January 1 - February 7, 1965: Vietcong forces mount a series of attacks across South Vietnam. Hamby advises McIntosh to . Capt. Result: United States and South Vietnam victory: Belligerents 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. A U.S. 2nd Field Force soldier poses. ElyRatner, assistant secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, discussed how China continues to prod the U.S. and challenge stability in region, even as, The entire F-35 fleet is slated to get the retrofit engine maker Pratt & Whitney has identified to mitigate the problem that led to suspended deliveries and flight restrictions for some aircraft for nearly two monthsa move that will affect hundreds of fighters globally. 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. United States Army soldiers exchanging MPC currency at their headquarters in Long Binh Vietnam. Levitows Medal of Honor is prominently displayed at Enlisted Heritage Hall. 23 July 1969 - SFC Eddie Hamby escorts Sgt McIntosh to Moc Hoa by boat on first leg of stops heading stateside. The Army always tries to capitalize on a soldiers individual strengths. The Viet Cong had constructed some sort of headquarters compound, or staging area, or supply depot or maybe even an officers club. (Vietnam War period). So they were given guns and were told to attack Long Binh Post (population 30,000 armed U.S. soldiers). I am compiling a history of our Regiment's service in the war. I realize that what I say will be represented not only as a Vietnam veteran but as a Medal of Honor recipient, and the media will have a field day. Spookys operators had successfully resisted pressure to change the call sign. [4]:99, Meanwhile to the west 3/7 Marines continued to engage PAVN forces, forcing them into 3 pockets along the Song Tuy Loan river. 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. The battle area had been cleared for at least 500 to 1,000 yards from the perimeterall foliage and any source of cover had been bulldozed flat. The next day, I was promoted to E-4, retroactive nine months with pay, Levitow said, but by then, he had decided to take an early out. The idea seemed absurd! Back home in Connecticut, he learned that his Medal of Honor had been approved. The soldiers with old (MPC) currency notes takes the receipt and proceeds towards the next officer. 3 Lt xem. 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. This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. 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. Most estimates put the Viet Cong deaths at over 100. The attack was expected to come on the ground, as opposed to those . When we were hit, all of us [Owen, Levitow, Sgt. Back in the States, the aircraft had been fitted with a tank inside the fuselage to hold isopropyl alcohol. 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. Shrapnel and jagged shards of metal ricocheted through the cargo bay, and a shock wave from the explosion swept the interior of the airplane. You can imagine how frightful that was to the mind of a 6-year-old. 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. at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, South Vietnam, both patient and unit members, to find each other and join in the. Passing of colors to the new commander. The video has no narration. Intelligence had indicators of the pending attacks. My Lightboxes | 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 Levitow was struggling toward the flare despite the violent maneuvering of the aircraft.
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