He flew as a crewman on C-130s for a short tour, then went to Vietnam to fly on AC-47s. c bit n nh mt phi n ngh s nhiu ti ni ting . Includes captions and a music soundtrack. I dont think I was alone in this. It was an unlucky hit. . Militarily, it was a failure for the North Vietnamese, but it undercut the confidence of the American public and it was a turning point in the war. If you like this movie trailer, go to https://militaryvideo.com/ to purchase the entire 60 minute video. During the Vietnam War, Long Binh Post was the U.S. Army's largest base located in the former South Vietnam. . He was discharged from active duty after his Vietnam tour and shortly afterward was assigned to an Army Reserve unit. 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. 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. It would light up, oh, about half a mile, a good area, quite brightly, Levitow said. 105837N 1064955E / . 99-08 286 ) DATE ) ) On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. Louis, The prisoners revealed that their mission had been to attack Bien Hoa city and the Bien Hoa Air Base. Hamby advises McIntosh to . Most estimates put the Viet Cong deaths at over 100. 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. . The pilot fired the guns, using a sight at the left side of the cockpit. 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. Thus, Spooky 71 was leaking two highly inflammable substances. There was also a Vietnamese liaison officer. 21 July 1969 - Rheault, Marasco, and others transferred to Long Binh Jail (LBJ). Jim Van Eldik, who kept count of ammunition from an office at the Long Binh logistics complex, spent the battle in a defensive position along the edge of the building, far from the fighting. Combat training for ordnance officers at best is rudimentary. A blistering, 148-page document by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that Afghan, SDA Taps Raytheon for Seven More Missile-Tracking Satellites, Photos: F-22s Deploy to Tinian for First Time as Part of ACE Exercise, In Message to Force, Austin Touts Once-in-a-Generation Investments, Heres What USAFs Science Board Is Studying Now, Were Weird: New Commander Details Life Inside Task Force 99, Top Pentagon Official: Chinas Air Actions Are Dangerous and Destabilizing, Entire F-35 Fleet to Get Fix for Engine Vibration Issue, Service Will Remain at Heart of King Aerospace No Matter How Aviation and Technology Change, US Set Up Afghans for Failure, With a Force Too Complex to Maintain, IG Says. So proficient had I become at this task that I had acquired the nickname Lieutenant Bullets. Officially, however, I was an ammunition stock control officer in the Army Ordnance Corps. That year, traumatic as it was . Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell shakes hands with both of the brigadier generals. This was a bit disconcerting. 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. He reported to the 3rd Special Operations Squadron at Nha Trang in July 1968 and was assigned to the squadrons forward operating location at Bien Hoa. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. We were officially MOS (Military Operational Specialty) 32F20, which was depot-level repair and maintenance on AUTOSEVOCOM (AUTOmatic SEcure VOice COMmunications) crypto . Dedicated to those who were there. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. 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 base was host to US Army Headquarters. Jim Van Eldik is a retired Army lieutenant colonel. 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. I crawled to the location of the flare. The Tet 1969 offensive was carried out mostly by Viet Cong irregulars. To the Air Forces embarrassment, a hero was not eligible to re-enlist. So they were given guns and were told to attack Long Binh Post (population 30,000 armed U.S. soldiers). 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. My hope was that no more than one or two VC would reach my position. Viet Cong attack on Tan Son Nhut Air Base (1966) Part of the Vietnam War: Date: 4-5 December 1966: Location: Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam. It was another hot February day in 1969 at the sprawling Long Binh logistics base about 20 miles northeast of 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.Unfortunately, the reporting was delayed and did not reach Long Binh until the morning of 22 February 1969, the day the defector . The Hot War (1968-October 1969) The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army in late 1967 launched several costly attacks. DaNang Ammo Dump April 27 1969. 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. A change of command at 2nd Field Force Artillery Headquarters at Long Binh, Vietnam. Members of the reaction team were, SSG Larry J. Mentink, SGT Dennis E. Wiehle, SP/4 Clinton Brown (WIA), SP/4 Fred H. Pazmino (WIA), SP/4 Clay F. Creamer (WIA), SP/4 Michael A. Coto, PFC Robert S. Johnson, PFC Clinton M. Lloyd (WIA), PFC Simpson and others yet identified. The view is from the compound of the 20. I heard that five American soldiers were killed and some 30 wounded. Vimeo, It was presented in ceremonies in February 2002 by his son to CMSgt. It would be relieved by another gunship for the midnight-to-dawn shift. Some of our troops had recaptured it from the VC a few months before. Among those present was Carpenter, the commander of Spooky 71, now retired and living in Marshall, Tex. Two stints one for 6 months and another for 7. As Levitow dragged one of the other airmen toward the center of the cabin, he saw the flare between No. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. (Vietnam War period). The other skid remains upright, as it is unfastened from the crane. Levitows Medal of Honor is prominently displayed at Enlisted Heritage Hall. On 23 February 1969, Task Force Privette (A and B Troops, 1st Squadron, 11th Cav and a company of 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry) reacted to an attack on the Long Binh perimeter, killing 88 NVA. South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding . Soldiers lined inside the building waiting for their number. It was nothing like what I saw in my imagination or what is shown in movie theaters or on television. We're weird, he said. With the progression of the battle came a feeling of incredulity. 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. Long Binh Jail was a prison for American soldiers on the outskirts of Saigon with notoriously harsh conditions. They tell me that I had 40 pieces of shrapnel in me at the time, Levitow said. 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? In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. --- and so it went for lots of the fighting in Vietnam. 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 that rate, a three-second burst placed a shot every square foot in an area the size of a football field. Spookys operators had successfully resisted pressure to change the call sign. It concentrated on US military installations, especially in the III Corps area around Saigon. But a battle was waiting instead. Jerry Breast/U.S. At first, he was a power line specialist with the civil engineering squadron at McGuire AFB, N.J. 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. Records relating to the Christmas mail program, 1969-72. When it finally ended with the assistance of several Cobra gunbships, 23 enemy dead were discovered. Advanced Search | 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. It was modified from the C-47 transport aircraft, plenty of which were available. Other members of the squad have yet to be identified. 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. 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. 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 . remembrance of shared experience. It had been flying in Vietnam since 1964, first with the air commandos and after that with the special operations squadrons. Clip Type: Unedited. 23 July 1969 - SFC Eddie Hamby escorts Sgt McIntosh to Moc Hoa by boat on first leg of stops heading stateside. If it ignited, it would quickly fill the aircraft with toxic smoke, incapacitating the entire crew. There was another motivation for Tran as he attacked the American base. When attacking, Spooky rolled into a level 30-degree bank turn, flying at an airspeed of almost 140 mph. NEW on HistoryNet: Attack on Long Binh, a 1969 Viet Cong attack on a US logistics base in Vietnam #VietnamWar http://trib.al/poYUWdo

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