The attack continued into 27 February when the Marines overran the PAVN resulting in a total of more than 200 killed. . Other members of the squad have yet to be identified. 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. When we were hit, all of us [Owen, Levitow, Sgt. It isnt every day one peaceably sets off for work knowing someone is intent on ones personal demise. 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. The attacks were repulsed with the VC/PAVN suffering heavy losses, having inflicted . South Vietnam tour 1968-69 by David Parsley - PBase Fort Benning | Maneuver Center of Excellence Libraries | MCoE HQ 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. 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. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. 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. Wikizero - Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh Navy) 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. Advanced Search | But now the tough Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army itself were coming. 28 March Ambush and Recon Team #75, and #76 were on a joint night operation on Hill-15 in the southeastern sector of the TAOR. He went back on active duty in 1983 and retired in 1995. 25/26 January 1969. When attacking, Spooky rolled into a level 30-degree bank turn, flying at an airspeed of almost 140 mph. Although at first overwhelmed by the intensity of the enemy fire the MPs stood their ground, suppressed the enemy fire, eliminated an enemy machine gun emplacement and were able to evacuate their seriously wounded point man, SP/4 Brown. 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. It includes footage shot between 17 Feb and 24 Feb 1. The soldiers with old (MPC) currency notes takes the receipt and proceeds towards the next officer. DaNang Ammo Dump April 27 1969. 1 minigun and a jumble of spilled ammunition. 20 July 1969 circa - Mortar attack on base camp A-414 Thanh Tri. Nguyn Huy Cng 1969 trn TikTok He decided to try a different specialty after an experience in which the power was not turned off when I thought it was turned off, so he cross trained as a loadmaster. We had no bunkers. wikipedia.en/Battle_of_Hat_Dich.md at main chinapedia/wikipedia.en In the attack on Bien Hoa Air Base the PAVN lost 264 killed and 87 captured while ARVN losses were 10 killed and US. This was a bit disconcerting. 1969 Time Line ~ Ambush & Recon - 720mpreunion.org The idea was quite unsettling. I was a ticket office supervisor with several Vietnamese and Chinese-Vietnamese women reservations/ticket agents. South Vietnamese woman 1969 Sep 15, 2017. . Chin tranh Ukraine: Tm (8) l do khin Ukraine c th lc quan cho On 9 May 1969, Pentagon correspondent William Beecher stated that US air raids against ammo dumps and base camps in Cambodia . Johanalvheey 1 ting trc. New York Times, January 8, 1969, p. 12. 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. Letters from Long Binh | Michigan Today Shot up and near stalling, Spooky approached Bien Hoa in the dark. 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. 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. 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. It would be relieved by another gunship for the midnight-to-dawn shift. 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. III Corps - Army of the Rapublic of Vietnam (ARVN) - GlobalSecurity.org The Medal of Honor was presented to John L. Levitow at the White House by President Nixon on May 14, 1970. He showed up for his typical night shift at the office. Stephen Hugh Lane SP5 Lead Clerk Jan 1969 to Sep 1970, MOS 67N20 has checked in and joined the 3/4 Cav Chapter. The villagers met elements of the South Vietnamese 5th Marine Battalion, the 3rd Battalion, 48th Infantry Regiment, 18th Division and the 3rd Squadron, 5th Armored Cavalry moving on the road less than a half mile from Thai Hiep in response to the contact at the air base. My Lightboxes | Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. 3 Lt xem. How Saigon Hosted American War Troops - Culture Trip Bruce Stern at his desk in Long Binh, circa 1968-69. . 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. It was modified from the C-47 transport aircraft, plenty of which were available. DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press. Poor guys; they didn't stand a chance. Furthermore, the flare would be burning at a temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, one is left to ponder what affect seeding the battlefield or, even better, seeding the Ho Chi Minh Trail itself with C-ration packets of the despicable Ham and Lima Beans might have had. Smoke rises from surrounding area. How I Accidentally Witnessed A Big Battle At Long Binh - HistoryNet It was presented in ceremonies in February 2002 by his son to CMSgt. The three guns were mounted in window ports, just forward of the open cargo door. nhc nn - Mo One Piece - Thnh Long Jr. . Note the attacking Skyhawk in the lower right and one directly left of the explosions on the bridge. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. Is it possible Tran and his friends would have simply elected to return to North Vietnam and forgotten the idea of an attack on Long Binh altogether? The view is from the compound of the 20. The soldiers with old (MPC) currency notes takes the receipt and proceeds towards the next officer. independent documentary Letters from Long Binh. Very seldom did we ever fire fast rounds at 18,000 rounds a minute because it had a tendency to turn the airplane. 83 Lt thch,23 Bnh lun.Video TikTok t Nguyn Huy Cng 1969 (@userz65oz3pvgr1969). 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. 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. Spooky was flying at about 3,500 feet. The training group headquarters building at Lackland AFB, Tex., is named for him. at the 24th Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, South Vietnam, both patient and unit members, to find each other and join in the. Im not going to bring shame on either the medal or myself, so I do watch it very carefully.. more Aerial view of (USARV) United States Army Republic of Vietnam Headquarters Complex at Long Binh, Vietnam. They tell me I ended up jumping on it, finally getting control and dragging myself and the flare back to the rear cargo door which was open and just managed to push it outside the door as it ejected and ignited simultaneously., Later, the citation to accompany the Medal of Honor put it this way: Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. 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. The decision to make the fix to. Spookys operators had successfully resisted pressure to change the call sign. This place is situated in Bien Hoa Town, Dong Nai, Vietnam, its geographical coordinates are 10 54' 0" North, 106 51' 0" East and its original name (with diacritics) is Long Bnh. If I got stopped drinking and driving, its going to say, Medal of Honor Drunk. I realize that. Color: Color. Everybody has their job to do and they do it., Chinas growing capabilities and recent boldness in the air domain represent dangerous and destabilizing behavior patterns, the Pentagons top official on the Indo-Pacific said March 2. 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. Binh chng c cng, Qun i nhn dn Vit Nam The last major battle occurred along the berm of the rifle range on Highway 317 in the early morning just after daylight. Since my finger was through the safety pin ring the safety pin was pulled.. 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. "Cruise Missile Socialists": When Justifying Imperialist Intervention 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. That year, traumatic as it was . Featured Collections | [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. 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. Troops lined up on a field. I am compiling a history of our Regiment's service in the war. 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. Landing short would have been a disaster. CIVO Monthly Newsletter, Vietnam War, Air Cavalry, Centaurs, 25th SSG Richard E, Slaven died from his wounds the next day. Citation Nr: 0307323 Decision Date: 04/16/03 Archive Date: 04/24/03 Levitows Medal of Honor is prominently displayed at Enlisted Heritage Hall. "Text of Camp Lejeune Committee's Report to Commanding General." 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. I stay away from publicity and things like that. For reasons unknown, it had not been emptied when the AC-47 went to Vietnam. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. United States 2nd Field Force change of command ceremony at Long Binh, Vietnam. 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. I try to control what I say, although for the most part, Im very quiet. Din vin Ninh Dng Lan Ngc Ninh Dng Lan Ngc Vit Trinh. If your URL is correct, you'll see an image preview here. 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 . As a soldier unfastens a skid of 8 shells, from the crane, it falls over sideways. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. Filmmaker Mel Brooks once said he looked upon his Army experience in World War II as a newsreel.. John L. Levitow. 44th Medical Brigade Headquarters Long Binh 1969.jpeg 2,079 1,716; 209 KB. [4]:101. 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. The occupants were helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage like so many rag dolls., At that moment, a loud explosion was heard and a bright flash filled the aircraft, said Maj. William P. Platt, the navigator. The gunship, situated on the lawn of the museum, was dedicated in October 2004. Dense blue smoke was pouring out of the burning flare fuze.. 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. LONG BINH POST | Flickr Some of my first recollections as a youngster from the cornfields of Iowa were the television and radio presentations of an ominous phenomena known as the yellow peril, although on our black-and-white TV sets this threat appeared more as black swaths oozing first from Russia across China, then over North Korea and finally covering the countries of Southeast Asia on their way across the ocean to the United States.