I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. we were a bit more trigger happy than usual. and no one was injured. 2. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. was a point where the Ho Chi Min Trail came close to the countrys West HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. By Vietnam terms Tet Offensive I had returned to Long Binh Post. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. Advanced Search | 5 Explosion at Long Binh ammunition storage facility. 102 comments 105 shares. The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly guessed that a major attack was going to come during Tet, and his anticipation of the attacks no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. 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. SP4 Lawrence Korteum 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. 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. As dawn broke on February 1, it was deathly quiet. About Us | - The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. Bravo Company was sent to protect the Long Binh ammunition dump, and Charlie Company was ordered into downtown Bien Hoa, where the ARVN III Corps headquarters was in danger of being overrun. The platoons attacked by successive bounds through the village as the companys tracks, forming the base of the T on the highway, provided fire support from the .50s and resupplied the troops with ammunition. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens remember that my right shoulder and chest were black and blue from the 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. was out of the bldgs. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. biggest ordnance storage areas in the country. 26 VC/PAVN were killed in the attack and several captured. The scout platoon had fought . We could haul more personal gear, live more comfortably and walk less than straight-leg troops. No infantry school tactic fit the situation; improvisation became the order of the day. 10. Several soldiers gathered in front of the track to help the wounded, and Love climbed up to man the .50-caliber. As my airborne mentality faded, I learned to love the M-113or track, as we called it. Construction on the 24 th. We fired everything we had into the buildings lining the roadway and took several wounded while getting to the church. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion. 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, I came upon an unbelievable sight. The battle was significant, since Alphas leadership was seriously depleted during the days immediately prior to Tet. It The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire, based on the mistaken assumption that the VC would attack from the jungle. 0.59 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. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History. I https://www.historynet.com/tet-offensive-the-battles-of-bien-hoa-and-long-binh/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot, When 21 Sikh Soldiers Fought the Odds Against 10,000 Pashtun Warriors, Few Red Tails Remain: Tuskegee Airman Dies at 96. During the morning of January 30, the 2-47 Mech was notified that the Tet cease-fire was canceled, and the unit was deployed into a defensive line along the road that ran around the east side of the Long Binh base. find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The The S3 also told Charlie Companys noncombatants to report to battalion headquarters. 14. 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. introduction into country when he first came to the 118th. Come back up on the battalion freq. I had never been so happy in my life. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. About a month earlier I had been loaned out to weld the razor trooper was injured by a piece of shrapnel that had come down LV EXPLOSIONS [5], USAF losses were 4 killed in action with another dying of a heart attack, while 26 were wounded. Company B, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, which was placed under the operational control of the 2-47, made a combat air assault under fire into the middle of the Widows Village battle and fought bravely beside the Panthers all day long. Riflemen moving cautiously. OK. 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. 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) 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. Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. In addition, we were tremendously flexible. I was well seasoned having been through all the scenarios that presented We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. This is the story of one rifle companycomprised of some of the finest soldiers to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Armyand what they all faced on that decisive day. 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. more The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. secondary explosions. 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. About two days later one the huge fuel bags next Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. At 0300 hours I received a call from Major Bill Jones, who had recently taken Ionoffs place as S3, stating that Bien Hoa airbase, the Long Binh facility, the II Field Force headquarters and the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) base camp were under heavy mortar and rocket attack. [6]:66. M-113 Armored Personnel Carrier on guard. I called battalion headquarters and asked what to do about the bunkers. USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II bomber aircraft drop two Mk.84 HD bombs. Then I got a call from battalion commander Tower, asking how things were going. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. Ly's father is a bricklayer. Big Boom! When it went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of the light dome that rose from the explosion. Unfortunately for them, the hapless VC had no weapons other than the RPG launcher, and Dames dispatched them with a burst from his M-16. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. At 0400 Jones ordered us to pull in our ambushes and be prepared to move. My Account | Waking Dead. The bombs descend and explode near structures in grove of tress in agricultural area 30 miles southwest of Saigon on 19 August, 1968. Click Here. 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. By 1968 the Bien Hoa-Long Binh complex was the largest US/South Vietnamese military base in South Vietnam. Attacking Long went off and all hell broke lose. Having been struck by mortars or rockets, the fuel tanks at the air base, as well as several buildings throughout Bien Hoa, were burning brightly. Well, the piece of shrapnel He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, started off down Highway 1. Get under! Love was so startled, he didnt fire. But no one would be leaving the country that day. Rocket Attack on Dong Tam - July 10, 1969. The Long Binh ammunition dump had exploded. 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. to check-in and see what was going on, and found myself the only 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. Not only would I not finish my command tour, but I was also being assigned to a leg division. During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. 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. 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. After we finished clearing the area around the compound and as our wounded were being dusted off, I received an absolutely incredible order from III Corps. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. We could ride, walk or be airlifted to war, and we arrived with many times the ammo and equipment that could be lifted in by helicopter. Ammo Dump Explosion 18 Feb 1968 where 8 pads detonated with a total ammo value of $2,774,348: f. On 18 February 1968 at approximately 0300 an attempted penetration of the depot was. The 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. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. I was having a few beers with several other sailors in the outside screened patio area of the Navy EM Club when we heard a noise to our left. We all knew these moves were more than precautionary. hightForP2 = 330 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. . Sappers had placed satchel charges on pallets of artillery ammunition, and the resulting mushroom cloud caused all its witnesses to think the VC had employed a tactical nuclear weapon. We had run through the rear of the 274th VC Regiment, which was attacking the airfield. 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. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. As our medics treated the wounded, I reported to the American lieutenant colonel who was the III Corps G3 adviser. 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. 1 comment. [2]:3512 US losses in the fighting in the Widow's Village were three dead. bore in my M14 barrel had begun to flake off and the wooden stock was Zabecki remembers taking his place on the wall with his M-79 grenade launcher. Benny Toney, the 2nd Platoon sergeant, hooked a tow cable to Stormy. The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. However the VC/PAVN never made another ground attack on an air base and moved to attacks by fire with rockets, mortar and artillery. Realizing we were driving past our objective, I halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. In addition, gunships killed many more as they tried to escape from the villages. ordnance pad in the huge ammo dump. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. while we were gone. [3]:20, At 00:30 on 31 January, a patrol from Company E, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment detected a company-size PAVN/VC force approximately 10km north of Bien Hoa, moving in the direction of Bien Hoa AB. In the early morning hours on 31 January, insurgent forces launched in bunker) at first light to the sound of a M-60 chattering away. On the morning of 31 January 1968, the Bien Hoa Air Base, III Corps HQ, the Prisoner of War Compound, and other key installations around Bien Hoa--Long Binh area received enemy mortar and rocket fire. Shoe of soldier on ground. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. 0.22 [2]:347, The VC 275th Regiment had taken up positions in a residential area known at the Widows' Village (105731N 1065237E / 10.9587N 106.877E / 10.9587; 106.877), which housed the wives and families of dead ARVN soldiers and was located across Route 316 from the Plantation Compound. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. There, Charlie Company soldiers joined ARVN and U.S. MACV soldiers manning the walls. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. The recon platoon was ordered to establish a blocking position south of Long Binh on Highway 15. 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. Come back up on the battalion freq.. I had been in command for five months and had been assured that I would be in command for one year, which suited me fine. who was tossed into a sewage ditch by the explosion, remembers 'killing the jeep' with his M-16. bunker. 0.54 The 2nd Platoon, under Lieutenant Fred Casper, led the way, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Binh was a logistical mistake because the perimeter was so heavily armed [6]:12, Several dozen of the PAVN rockets exploded near the II Field Force and 199th LIB headquarters in the Plantation Compound (105728N 1065241E / 10.9577N 106.878E / 10.9577; 106.878) causing minimal damage. CRITICALPAST.COM: January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . I walked back to my track, thinking this was going to be a real nightmare. Which date was it? 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. This fire was observed by the helicopter gunships that had been circling the area north of Long Binh and they quickly moved to attack the launch sites and were soon joined by an AC-47 Spooky gunship and their combined fire soon stopped the rocket/mortar fire. The 2nd Platoon took the one north of the road, the 1st Platoon attacked the other. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Jan. 31. The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white 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. bodies across the road began to bloat into a grotesque scene. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. It had been over two days and many of us had no sleep. 12. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. Soon we could hear leaders moving up and down the bunker line yelling for the guards to stop firing. From our positions we could see and hear the celebratory fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. unless they could see someone, I went to our Operations shack By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policyand cookie policyand for us to access our cookies on your device. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Bringing that volatile convoy through the city, which had not been totally cleared and was still burning in many places, was a tremendously heroic act. Casper rose from the prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. (Vietnam War period). A great deal has been written about the battles of Tet 1968 and the political firestorm that resulted from them. Rambo claims that the bunker guards were MPs with the call sign of Filmy Milker. According to him, I told their commander 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. The view is from the compound of the 20th. We were in a cloud of disarray F-100 Super Sabre and F-4 Phantom II drop Mark 82 bombs in Vietnam during U.S. air strikes. The Vietnamese general and the III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not very happy when we pulled out. GV EXPLOSIONS, AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. I remember telling him that if the shooting persisted, or if they hit one of my troops, I wouldnt be responsible if my troops shot back. (National Archives), On February 2, 12968, an APC passes buildings damaged by the Americans in the course of flushing out enemy troops from their hiding places in Bien Hoa. known as Widows Village. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. front making it dangerous to return fire. Forget that, he said. After the fight for the churches, there occurred one of the most bizarre and inexplicable incidents of the day. 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. My plan was to make captain and go to Vietnam as an experienced company commander. 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. Meanwhile, Huey gunships reported VC running from the village. Activity in the area had picked up in November and the airbase made it too us in the daylight and foamed the ditch for In a few moments, the huge dump became a fireball, the shock of the explosion echoing over an area of 50 miles. I told the platoon leaders to prepare to dismount and to take all the ammunition and grenades they could carry. The ARVN general and III Corps G3 adviser, however, were not happy when we pulled out. 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. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. 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.). VC informants inside the base had provided detailed information as to the base layout and defenses. agreement was that the stockade prisoners would pitch our sandbags, help I was not sure what to do about the bunkers we had dug. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. Then and I assigned areas of operation to my two rifle platoons, and positioned the weapons platoon inside the compound as a reserve and security force. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. When Lieutenant Casper jumped up, our legs became entangled and I tripped him, Ax remembers. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. I dismounted the platoons and placed them on line on each side of the road: the second on the left, or north, and the first on the right, or south. and the gunner replied "VC All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 3 Merge Long Binh Jail into Long Binh. carried on into that night with tracers flying everywhere. All rights reserved. The armed helicopter teams had a field day shooting guerrillas trying to flee into the jungle. 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. Story Text: STOCKPILES OF BOMBS AND ARTILLERY SHELLS AT THE U.S. ARMY AMMUNITION DUMP AT LONG BINH, IN SOUTH VIETNAM, ERUPTED YESTERDAY (SATURDAY) WHEN TIME CHARGES, PLACED BY VIET CONG RAIDERS, DETONATED AMID TONS OF HIGH EXPLOSIVES. Suddenly he came upon a VC RPG team drawing a bead on my command track, which was marked as a prime target by the number of radio antennas jutting from it. [3]:218, The town of Ho Nai (105812N 1065335E / 10.970N 106.893E / 10.970; 106.893) was located on Highway 1 north of the Widow's Village and Long Binh Post. Shopping Cart | 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 extremely careful with it. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scouts into Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. At least 3,000 tons of ammu nition were reportedly de stroyed in the blasts, which be gan before dawn and continued until midmorning. 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. [6]:36 In addition airborne "rocket watch" patrols were established in the Saigon-Bien Hoa area to reduce attacks by fire. went off my first thought was that it was a nuclear explosion because of (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. 0.13 around Bien Hoa Airbase and headed toward our post of Long Binh, then At the meeting, I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. ". This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE opened his mouth but, SGT Cuffee, the supply SGT. Having been struck by mortars or rockets, the fuel tanks at the air base, as well as several buildings throughout Bien Hoa, were burning brightly. the country where resupply was easier for the enemy. 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. 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). into the bunkers. He waved me off. Ive just been told you work for me again. Later, captured VC said many guerrillas only had two magazines for their weapons in expectation that the population would rise up against the Americans and have plenty of captured weapons to fight with. We began to pop hand-held flares so they could see we were there, but the shooting persisted, one round hitting my track. [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. Terms & Conditions | Sergeant was already tucked under a 5 ton truck parked about 50 feet Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. As 1st Lt. Brice Barnes led his scout platoon into the edge of Ho Nai, he ran full speed into a hornets nest. After all had left for the 6 External links modified. Our area from the No answer. LONG BINH, South Viet Nam (UPII A thunderous explosion that shook the heart of Saigon 11 miles away ripped through a U.S. ammunition depot tonight and wounded a handful of Americans. Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. ", "We mustered everyone we could The helmet had stopped Initials PW/VS/JH/BB/ES PW/VS/JH/ES 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. (Long Binh) ammunition dump. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. Meanwhile, Charlie Company was ordered back to III Corps. The Long Binh ammo dump had exploded. 0.35 The scout platoon had fought valiantly all day long in Widows Village and in Ho Nai. 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. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Charlie Companys 3rd Platoon was also detached for a security mission inside the base. a noise! 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. Get under! After what seemed like officer around. 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. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. 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.. Under fire, Staff Sgt. [7], The Tet offensive attacks and previous losses due to mortar and rocket attacks on air bases across South Vietnam led the Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Nitze on 6 March 1968 to approve the construction of 165 "Wonderarch" roofed aircraft shelters at the major air bases. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. Destroyed and burned out ammunition pad shows burned out 105mm howitzer shells. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. August 1966 November 1966 December 1966. 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. At the meeting I was joined by the S3 of a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the operations officers radio operator. 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.