Photos (51) by Lou Mengoli, 1967. DaNang Ammo Dump April 27 1969. The Viet Cong had constructed some sort of headquarters compound, or staging area, or supply depot or maybe even an officers club. 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. With no friendly troops visible between me and the battle, into my M16 went the magazine of tracers in preparation for a confrontation with anyone who might break through that wall of gunfire, something at which the Viet Cong were quite adept. The typist soldier types on the form with a type-writer. The gunship, situated on the lawn of the museum, was dedicated in October 2004. Ike originally intended these dominos to represent Chinas neighbors such as North and South Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, but it was not long before some believed that places like Cuba, Angola, Chile, Peru, Michigan and South Carolina would also be on the list. 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 At most, there would be 20 seconds before it exploded. Metacafe, When we were hit, all of us [Owen, Levitow, Sgt. More than 100 individual and crew-served weapons were captured. The panorama took on an aspect of high noon, the entire battlefield bathed with an eerie golden glow. independent documentary Letters from Long Binh. 1965 January 1 - February 7, 1965: Vietcong forces mount a series of attacks across South Vietnam. It was an unlucky hit. 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. DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press. Among the family members present were his son and grandson, John L. Levitow III. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. 44th Medical Brigade Headquarters Long Binh 1969.jpeg 2,079 1,716; 209 KB. The first explosion, seemingly an earth-shattering blast, occurred perhaps 30 or 40 yards outside our office, spraying the building with gravel and steel fragments, perforating our walls and windows. 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. Other members of the squad have yet to be identified. (Vietnam War period). The flare was armed and rolling loose in the aircraft. Back home in Connecticut, he learned that his Medal of Honor had been approved. It weighed 27 pounds. Many features may not work properly without it. .Anyway, the U.S. effort in Vietnam was (believe it or not) ultimately successful, for at the end, it was politically untenable for the Soviet Union to establish at Cam Ranh Bay its coveted "warm water" nuclear submarine base --- which, to my thinking, was what Vietnam was all about. Opportunity knocks. 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. After the battle came another shock. Furthermore, the flare would be burning at a temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Spooky 71 flew with a crew of eight. 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?. As Ole-Luk-Oie, the pen name for British officer Ernest Swinton, wrote in the 1915 book. If your URL is correct, you'll see an image preview here. About 11:30 p.m., the gunship was diverted from patrol over the village of Lai Kai, north of Long Binh. In 1968, a group of black inmates were fed up with their treatment and the war. I was a 2nd Lieutenant, on my second night in Vietnam when the attack on Long Bing Post began at 2 AM. 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 . 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. Website Terms & Conditions | Spooky 71 had gone as far as it was going. 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. It includes footage shot between 17 Feb and 24 Feb 1. COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT, VIETNAM 1969. United States 2nd Field Force change of command ceremony at Long Binh, Vietnam. I visited my friends down the hall in the almost deserted headquarters building, but mostly kept up my vigil of the activity outside the perimeter, which, as darkness descended, now included an occasional flare. We had no bunkers. . 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. Photo courtesy of Corpman Bill Luppeti HM3 [Rach Soi 1967-1970] 6924th Security Squadron Base Name. NEW on HistoryNet: Attack on Long Binh, a 1969 Viet Cong attack on a US logistics base in Vietnam #VietnamWar http://trib.al/poYUWdo At that time, the air base security forces reported that they had lost contact with the enemy reconnaissance element which withdrew east toward Thai Hiep. Even in the navigation compartment the flash lit up the inside of the aircraft like daylight. Long Binh Post was situated East of Bien Hoa and approximately 20 miles northeast of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City.) Intelligence had indicators of the pending attacks. The gunship carried about 150,000 rounds of ammunition on each flight, Levitow said. 128 KB. Seriously wounded were, SSG Slaven the squad leader, SP/4 Robert Cressman, PFC Larry W. Holton, and CPL Lee Van Muon, their Popular Forces Interpreter. So they were given guns and were told to attack Long Binh Post (population 30,000 armed U.S. soldiers). [4]:99100, PAVN/VC retreating to the south from Da Nang were intercepted by elements of the 1st Marine Regiment and ARVN 1st Battalion, 51st Regiment 11km south of Da Nang losing 139 dead in 3 days of fighting. Air & Space Forces Magazine is the official publication of the Air & Space Forces Association, 1501 Langston Boulevard, Arlington, Va., 22209-1198. Week of December 12-18, 2021: Heroism Amidst an Ambush, December 17, 1968. I felt as if someone had taken a two-by-four and squarely hit me against the whole right-hand side of my body, Levitow said later. c bit n nh mt phi n ngh s nhiu ti ni ting . The two huge U.S. bases dripped firepowerdozens of batteries of field artillery, large calibers and small, rows and rows of helicopter gunships and jet fighters loaded to the gills with the most lethal ordnance the world has ever seen, dozens of M113 armored personnel carriers with powerful .50-caliber machine guns manned by surly military police, and, of course, hundreds of trigger-happy clerks and truck drivers, not necessarily eager, but most definitely ready, for action. In another scene, a large crane is used to stack shells in the ammunition dump. 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. Carpenter rolled the gunship wings level and began his run on the mortar positions. At the end of his tour in Vietnam, Levitow was assigned to Norton AFB, Calif., as a loadmaster on C-141s. 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. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. [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. 11 November SP/4s Jared Kelley and John R. Klemm, tend to their gear during a recon mission in the Tactical Area Of Responsibility. War and peace. Ni bt nht; Gn y; Gi. (true?/false? 105837N 1064955E / . In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. 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. Carpenter waved off taxi instructions from the tower and the crew got out fast. The base was host to US Army Headquarters. It was nothing like what I saw in my imagination or what is shown in movie theaters or on television. Spookys operators had successfully resisted pressure to change the call sign. 1971 serving with the 95th Military Police Battalion. Im very careful what I do, he said in an oral history interview in 1986. Later I learned that we were attacked by the 274th Regiment, 5th Viet Cong Division, which was repulsed by the firepower of the 720th Military Police Battalion, the 18th Military Police Brigade and helicopter gunships from the 145th Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. During the Vietnam War, Long Binh Post was the U.S. Army's largest base located in the former South Vietnam. 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. An injured North Vietnamese soldier fighting with the Viet Cong, Pvt. There was another motivation for Tran as he attacked the American base. This attack was going to be a big one.. A soldier counts his notes at the typist's desk. Most estimates put the Viet Cong deaths at over 100. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted . Long Binh Jail was a prison for American soldiers on the outskirts of Saigon with notoriously harsh conditions. Im not going to bring shame on either the medal or myself, so I do watch it very carefully.. The idea seemed absurd! M113 armored personnel carriers and M551 Sheridan armored reconnaissance vehicles supported the forces on the ground while AH-1 Cobra gunships and OH-6 helicopters provided air support. They could'nt tell how big the post was, for the post's perimeter lighting had not yet been installed. But a battle was waiting instead. Advanced Search | The threat of communism was pounded into our heads all through elementary and high school at Rock Valley, Iowa. By 15:00 the 36th Ranger Battalion moved into the village attacking the PAVN/VC force. As far as political considerations go, he hardly seemed interested in building a communist utopia at all. Ellis C. Owen, had been working as a team in dropping the flares. Levitow declined to board the helicopter until he was finally ordered to do so by Carpenter. The Air Force sent a C-54 to Hartford to pick up him, his wife, and his parents and take them to Washington. Ambush at Ap Nhi. The Spooky 71 crew could see mortar tube flashes about one mile south of the area of the earlier attack. Viet Cong sappers infiltrated the base and lay in long grass between the runways for several hours before placing their satchel charges. The 199th later became known as the "Redcatchers" for its mission objectiveto seek out and destroy Communist cadres in Vietnam. Many of the tracers bounced off the ground like rubber balls. Shrapnel and jagged shards of metal ricocheted through the cargo bay, and a shock wave from the explosion swept the interior of the airplane. Troops lined up on a field. The pilot was Maj. Kenneth B. Carpenter, flying his first combat mission as aircraft commander. The right tire was flat, having been cut by shrapnel, and it was all Carpenter could do, standing on the left brake, to keep control until he brought the airplane to a stop. Among those present was Carpenter, the commander of Spooky 71, now retired and living in Marshall, Tex. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. He was discharged from active duty after his Vietnam tour and shortly afterward was assigned to an Army Reserve unit. 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. The attack was expected to come on the ground, as opposed to those occasional, more impersonal rocket and mortar shells from the air. Once the sun came up, a troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment found 139 dead enemy soldiers, Tran, who was from the Haiphong area of North Vietnam, had high expectations for a victory in the attack, according to an interview in, On the other hand, one is left to ponder what affect seeding the battlefield or, even better, seeding the, https://www.historynet.com/long-binh-battle/, 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. License Agreement | In my case it was my unusual ability to count. My hope was that no more than one or two VC would reach my position. 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. Result: United States and South Vietnam victory: Belligerents The loadmaster on Spooky 71 was A1C John L. Levitow, 23, from Glastonbury, Conn. On top of that came the domino theory of 1954, invented by then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower. For months I observed various combat actions outside the perimeter and every now and then even sought cover beneath a nearby steel desk as a stray mortar or artillery round came flying in our direction, which, whenever it occurred, was astonishing enough. . 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. It would light up, oh, about half a mile, a good area, quite brightly, Levitow said. . Featured Collections | Dailymotion, Passing of colors to the new commander. The idea was quite unsettling. They briefly seize control of Binh Gia, a village only 40 miles from Saigon. At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 23, the battle gradually died out. . Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. David L. Hamel, director of the institute. August 25, 1968, was a typical monsoon season day. The pilot fired the guns, using a sight at the left side of the cockpit. 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 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. I spent nine years working for Congressional Liaison between the Veterans Administration and members of the Congress, he said. maxhightForP2 = 14168; Just after 16:00 US Air Force F-100s and F-4s along with Republic of Vietnam Air Force A-1 Skyraiders were directed against the PAVN/VC positions in the village. The three guns were mounted in window ports, just forward of the open cargo door. Two stints one for 6 months and another for 7. 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. Supported videos include: 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. Brigadier General Leo D. Kinnard speaks to the troops. Pan Am had a ticket office on base. SSG Richard E, Slaven died from his wounds the next day. Between the town of Bien Hoa and the base was an old French minefield, never cleared and fenced by barbed wire. As usual, I initially took refuge under my desk, then ordered everyone to rush downstairs on the assumption that any direct hits would likely riddle the upper floor.