*** The first time that rockets were used in RVN by the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army. I was assigned to the 1st Marine Division and sent to Marble Mountain Airfield to Join Marine Air Group 16 and VMO2. On January 29, 1968, the night sky above the sprawling Bien Hoa Air Base, where I was on sentry patrol, appeared to be on fire. Army personnel were wounded. CriticalPast offers immediate downloads of full-resolution HD and SD masters and full-resolution time-coded screeners, 24 hours a day, to serve the needs of broadcast news, TV, film, and publishing professionals worldwide. [1]:154, At about 19:00 another reconnaissance patrol, Recon Team Rummage, about 30 kilometers south of Da Nang in the Qu Sn Mountains below An Ha, spotted a column of about 40 PAVN at the head of even a larger column moving east along a trail. Galand Kramer at the Danang Officers Open Mess, the DOOM Club, so appropriately named for those of us flying into the teeth of North Vietnams AAA, missile and MiG air defenses. A reluctance to cause undue damage to the historic town and avoid civilian casualties was suggested as a reason for the slow ROKMC advance. 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines was in the north, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines was in the center and 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines was in the south. About an hour later, PAVN troops who had infiltrated Duong Lam rushed the CAP compound. PAVN/VC gunners, however, continued to be active and shot down a Marine CH-46 attempting to insert a reconnaissance team into a landing zone in the hill mass in the western sector of Da Nang below the Ty Loan River. Pictures of Danang 10. To the south of the Air Base, other PAVN/VC main force units attacked the District Town of in Bn and the provincial capital of Qung Nam, Hi An, on Route 4. Marble Mountain Air Facility supported USMC helicopter operations throughout southern I Corps. He seems to think there was only one rocket attack at Da Nang in 1972. Employing small arms fire, satchel charges, Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and Bangalore torpedoes, the sappers thrust through blown gaps in the Marine wire. While making for a loud and colorful pyrotechnic display, the explosions caused no casualties and no damage to any of the aircraft. Flares light up the Da Nang area to make it easier to spot infiltrating guerrillas. "[1]:163, During the Tet Offensive in Da Nang, both sides experienced heavy casualties. As various outposts reported their sightings to the Division FSCC, the artillerymen then shifted these fires to actual sites. During the day, the division had positioned 11 reconnaissance Stingray patrols along likely enemy avenues of approach. Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines alone shot off some 1,200 rounds. ARVN intelligence officers speculated that the battalion from the PAVN 4th Regiment was supposed to have spearheaded the attack on the city of Da Nang the previous day, but arrived too late to influence the battle. konstantin guericke net worth; xaverian brothers high school nfl players; how is the correct gene added to the cells; hong kong supermarket flyer calgary; ben fogle: new lives in the wild do they get paid; At 07:30, the ROKMC reported about 200 to 300 enemy troops still in Hi An. Its two runways accommodated a take-off or landing every 60 seconds. The Marines evacuated the survivor to the Naval Support Activity hospital where he died of his wounds. [1]:160, By this time, Robertson was worried about the ability to contain the PAVN/VC offensive south of Da Nang. The VC attacked the compound from two directions, from the south and the east. Newsreel reporting on a rocket attack on the Da Nang military base being used for US Marine Corps operations. In the northeast, near the Force Logistic Command sector, villagers from Nam (160654N 1080744E / 16.115N 108.129E / 16.115; 108.129) just south of the strategic Nam Bridge, told PF troops, members of the CAP Q-4 platoon, that the VC planned to attack the CAP compound. Later that night, the 1/7 Marines reported 15 secondary explosions from Marine counter-mortar artillery fire. With one of his companies on the Tiensha Peninsula and the other three protecting the Air Base perimeter, Hill argued that he could not spare three platoons. That same day, the 1st Marine Division notified III MAF that "usually reliable sources" told of staging areas south of Da Nang for an impending attack. In the resulting engagement, Company E killed about 13 VC from the Q-55th Local Force Company, which normally operated in the area. Finally, according to Marine intelligence officers, another "very reliable source" flatly stated "that the time of attack throughout MR (Military Region) 5 would be" at 01:30 and no later than 02:00 on 30 January. According to a VC after-action report early in the offensive, the writer complained that the "commander did not know [the) situation accurately and that orders were not strictly obeyed ." Another platoon from the Marine company also reinforced the engaged troops about an hour later. Mortars and recoilless rifle rounds continued to land inside the headquarters compound from enemy firing positions in Ha Vang. [1]:1523, The rest of the enemy efforts in the Da Nang area and TAOR were about as haphazard and relatively ineffective as the fight on the unnamed island. Attacks on DaNang Air Base "Rocket City" Information in this table is extracted from, Appendix I, "Air Base Defense in the Republic of Vietnam, 1960-1973" by Roger P. Fox. South Vietnamese and Korean casualties probably equalled or slightly exceeded the U.S. losses. 00:00 00:00 What the Captain Means Unless otherwise noted all videos on this site appear on, and are posted here via embedded links to, You Tube. The Marines and PF troops killed 22 VC and took another 23 prisoner. A contingent of South Vietnamese Nng mercenaries from the Special Forces Thng c Camp took over the defense of Hill 52 from Company M.[1]:158, Still the Marine command believed the new positions of Company M not only covered the approaches to i Lc, but provided the division with another reserve force. On 29 January, Marine intelligence officers received a reliable report that the PAVN 2nd Division also had established its command post in western G Ni. He remembered that because of the number of casualties his battalion sustained, "it was necessary to employ administrative personnel on patrols" with "clerks, cooks, and drivers" on line. Shortly after 01:00 on the 6th, PAVN gunners opened up on the hamlet with intermittent mortar rounds and small-arms fire. Twenty rockets fell on Hill 10, manned by Battery G , 3/11 Marines which resulted in 23 casualties, including two dead. The PAVN fought a delaying action as they began to withdraw. *** The first time that rockets were used in the Republic of Vietnam by the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army. Nha Trang Air Base is a military airfield in Vietnam, located 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northwest of Nha Trang in Khnh Ha Province. He arrived with 19 other soldiers, eight of whom were embalmers. 17. At least some members of his group also reportedly provided security for Richard Spencer's often violent campus appearances. At first, the general and his steward confused the rockets with the traditional fireworks shot off in honor of Tt. Since you were there, Colonel, you can verify that there were no fewer than 26 rocket attacks on the Da Nang. The Communists carried out 26 rocket attacks on the Da Nang air base during 1972. From 18:00 to 24:00 on the 30th, the 1st Marine Division reported to III MAF over 30 incidents ranging from sightings of large enemy forces, to mortar attacks and a few infantry assaults. [1]:153, The most serious ground attack against a Marine unit occurred in the western portion of the Da Nang TAOR just below the Ty Loan and Cu Rivers near the eastern bank of the Yn River. 1970, 1st Marines, AFVN, Armed Forces Vietnam Network, Assassination . After their breaching of the outer defenses, the VC squad fired B-40 rockets at the headquarters building, but then fought a delaying action, waiting for reinforcements which never came. Robertson later praised the Security and Communications platoons of the 1st Marine Division Headquarters Battalion for their efforts in the defense. NMCB-7 sends a Disaster. Da Nang Air Base was one of the major air bases used for offensive air operations within South Vietnam and for the support of USMC and ARVN forces. Tony Dostal arrived in Vietnam at the Air Force Base in Da Nang aboard a C-141 transport plane on Friday, Aug. 30, 1968. Aircraft destroyed included F-4 Phantom II's \u0026 C-130's. The Front announced that the 1968 Tt greeting of "Chairman Ho [Chi Minh] is actually a combat order for our entire Army and population. According to Marine sources, the heavy action on this small island resulted in 102 VC killed, 88 prisoners of war, 13 VC suspects and 70 laborers. Finally there were rumors that the other two regiments of the 2nd Division, the VC 1st and the PAVN 3rd, had infiltrated even further north. [1]:163, From almost every account, the PAVN/VC attack in the Da Nang TAOR was very inept. Survived many Rocket Attacks. Rocket attack on the Da Nang Air Base that took place, Da Nang, Vietnam, January 30, 1968. The mortar attacks resulted in only five wounded and none killed among the Marine defenders. The rockets destroyed five aircraft, nine items of ground equipment, two vehicles, and one warehouse outright. 1969. The Marines failed to determine whether this mixed force had a specific mission or consisted of remnants from units that had participated in the earlier attack on the I Corps headquarters. Milantoni replied, "General Lm just gave it. [1]:163 On 29 January, a local village chief told the security officer of the Naval Support Activity at Camp Tiensha that about 300 VC would attack the Marble Mountain transmitter that night. Moreover, once the PAVN units arrived south of Da Nang they "made no further attempts at maneuver even while being hunted by Marine and Army units, and when engaged, seldom maneuvered, except to withdraw." DaNang Air Base was known as "rocket city" for the number of attacks that occurred there between 1965 and 1973. Further, the National Police reported that VC local leaders from Qung Tn, Qung Nam and Qung Ngi Provinces met in a base area in the hills of northern Qung Ngi to plan attacks on Chu Lai and on Qung Ngi City. By dark the Korean had captured the hospital and were in position to relieve the engineer compound. While the Marine battalions successfully kept these initial assaults on the night of 5/6 February in check, Robertson was not sure how much longer they could. Nine USAF personnel were killed during the barrage and 128 others were wounded, 40 of them requiring hospitalization. Both the 2/3 Marines to the east of the Army task force and the 3/5 Marines to the south, also reported relatively little enemy activity in their sectors. The Flightline, Funny Money, Rocket shrapnel. As the defector from the 401st later revealed, his unit lacked "weapons, experienced soldiers, and transportation manpower." At the meeting Westmoreland ordered Americal Division commander General Samuel W. Koster to reinforce Danang. Some of the VC in the hamlet fled south, but encountered a platoon from Company E, 2/7 Marines coming up to reinforce the Allied forces in the Nam O area. During the Cuban missile crisis, the U.S. Marine Corps deployed a Hawk air defense missile battery from the 3d Light Antiaircraft Missile (LAAM) Battalion to Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, to protect the U.S. naval base from a surprise low-level air attack by Soviet and Cuban aircraft. Nng AB: 366th TFW: Rocket Attack! Apparently the forces were a mixed group from several different units interspersed together. From firing positions southwest of the base, 28 122mm missiles fell on the airfield, destroying one aircraft and damaging six others. Army advisor attached to the ARVN unit. in foreground gives perspective. 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