long binh ammo dump explosion 1968

[2]:3523, General Weyand later noted that in their attacks on the Saigon area "Despite the large number of Communist troops committed, insufficient force was applied in any one area to take and hold the objectiveThe assault had been launched piecemeal and it was repulsed piecemeal in a series of relatively small battles. They bowed and looked confused. 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. Activity in the area had picked up in November and The weapon was aimed at the newly built and painted (orange-white Those orders were for us to clear the VC from the houses surrounding the corps headquarters. By Vietnam terms happened to hit him just over the forehead. Long Binh Ammo Dump October 29, 1966 . History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. I realized we were driving past our objective, halted the company and called for the 2nd Platoon to find a place to turn around. 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. Our area from the (Vietnam War period). [American sources in Vien tiane said, as quoted by The Associated Press, that the captured American was prob ably the pilot of a Continent al Air Service plane that was forced to land behind Pathet Lao lines after running out of fuel. The bombs descend and explode on structures in grove of trees near rice paddies 23 miles east of Binh Thuy on 19th August. Contact Us | . With the explosion of the entire ammunition dump imminent, and in the midst of exploding shells, fire and debris, the men of COMPANY B, . Lieutenant Barnes and one of his soldiers would be awarded Distinguished Service Crosses for their heroism that day. Since I was in an airborne unit, I was sure I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. We charged southeast down Highway 316 to the Highway 15 intersection, located on a small hill overlooking the 90th Replacement Company. THE EXPLOSIONS RATTLED WINDOWS IN SAIGON, ABOUT 13 MILES (20 KILOMETERS) AWAY. Shopping Cart | According to the VC 5th Division official history, the 3rd Battalion, 5th VC Regiment was supported by the Bien Hoa Sapper Company; its mission was to overrun the compound, which was defended by about 15 ARVN soldiers and a smattering of MACV advisers. He ignored me and proceeded to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. The fog of war was especially thick on the morning of January 31, 1968. Fires were burning late into the afternoon. Attacking Long In command for five months, I had been assured that I would be leading the company for one year, which suited me fine. I then jacked a round into my M-16 and who would you believe 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. Charlie Company soldiers, used to months of patrolling and fighting in the jungles, suddenly found themselves fighting house to house as their fathers had done in World War II. He wanted to borrow one of our tracks. Updated 7/26/2015. 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. We opened up with everything we had and kept driving. We were in a cloud of disarray Dames killed them with a burst from his M-16 probably saving the lives of everyone on my track. That night, no one slept, but instead scanned the jungles with Starlight scopes, seeing nothing. As we turned around to head back west, a tremendous blast shook the whole city of Bien Hoa. and the perimeter was still intact. 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. The battle proved significant, as Alphas leadership was seriously depleted immediately prior to Tet. Hoa. [5], USAF losses were 4 killed in action with another dying of a heart attack, while 26 were wounded. 8. 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) My Lightboxes | 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 TET 1969 in front of Bunker Hill 17, VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. He started South Vietnam: Viet Cong Explode U.s. Ammunition Dump. We were ordered to go there and detain every male between the ages of 16 and 80. The idea was to leave nothing the VC might use against us. forever the big pieces stopped. I asked one of the men Back view of jeep with open doors. Well, the piece of shrapnel As usual, each company had sent two ambush patrols into the jungle to our front. [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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. The probing attack units included VC sapper squads. 2023 CriticalPast LLC. During Tet 1968, the 856th Radio . Not only would I not finish my command tour, I was being assigned to a leg division. Each APC could carry almost as much ammunition as a dismounted rifle company, and 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. danger and the probable best course of action. He assigned one to the airborne battalion and the other to Charlie Company. [2]:349, The perimeter was strengthened by an ad hoc force of support personnel from the 145th Aviation Battalion and just before midday the ARVN 57th Regional Force Battalion moved through the base and counterattacked the VC forcing them to withdraw east into the rubber plantation leaving behind over 100 dead. Now the fight was on. After the roadblock was cleared and communications restored, Charlie Company continued toward its objective. 12. Just then a three-man VC RPG team calmly walked across the street right in front of the damaged APC. It was the first such occurrence since the ceasefire of Jan. 28. (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. with no lights waiting for the attack to lift so we could get The first explosion was 2,400,000 pounds of 8 inch high explosive artillery projectiles. We found out later from captured VC that many guerrillas had been given only two magazines for their weapons. more that happened that night. Consequently, I was disappointed when I received orders to join the 9th Infantry Division. Long Binh Ammo Dump - '67 & '68 | Facebook Bin Ha Air Base: Memories of Bin Ha, TET 1969, by Larry - VSPA mortar rounds and 90 122-mm. known as Widows Village. AIR V..EXPLOSION The VC had run out of ammunition and were trying to escape. Specialist 4 Bill Rambo, assistant driver and .50-gunner on my command track, remembers my response to the firing as being absolutely irate. 0.59 I operated a heavy five In addition we detained more than 20 probable VC fighters dressed in civilian clothes. Casper rose from a prone position and yelled for his troops to follow him. As the 2nd Platoon began to run short, Spc. On January 23, during a battalion sweep of a heavily jungled area south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a well-camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled, losing four men killed and more than 20 wounded, including almost all of the officers. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. 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. Soldiers of the U.S. 2nd Battalion 47th Infantry (Mechanized) and 4th Battalion 39th Infantry clearing a hamlet during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Artillery because Mankato (Minnesota)Vocational school had taught me to weld as The bus ride to 90th Replacement was relatively short and everyone seemed exhausted from the long flight. Toward dark, airstrikes had to be called in to blast the VC from the hill. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. 6. That was 90th Replacement Battalion, situated on the road to Saigon between the village of Bien Hoa and the huge base at Long Binh. We closed within a few hundred meters of the scout platoon and watched as helicopter gunships destroyed a large yellow house from which the VC were pinning down Barnes troops. 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. [2]:350, At approximately 16:45 F-100 Super Sabres of the 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron conducted a Napalm strike against a PAVN/VC company at the east end of the base runway. The chrome 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. EXPLOSIONS IN DISTANCE The North Vietnamese Army had circled As best I could, I explained that they were to take charge and that General Giap might be among the civilians. 0.24 This is the story of one rifle company, and what it faced on that decisive day. APCs advance, firing 50 caliber machine guns. Some were complete projectiles weighing History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. [3]:2289, The Tt ceasefire began on 29 January, but was cancelled on 30 January after the VC/PAVN prematurely launched attacks in II Corps and at 17:30 the 7th Air Force commander General William W. Momyer ordered all air bases in South Vietnam to security condition red. I had learned no tactic at infantry school that fit the situation we were faced with, so we improvised. Terms & Conditions | Sergeant John Ax, squad leader of 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, recalls the fighting near III Corps: An RPG hit Shocker, the C-21 track, in the side; but it must have been a glancing blow, because it did not explode. I sounded off, "who is there"? [2]:347[3]:236 The rocket/mortar attack was the signal to start the ground assaults on Bien Hoa AB and Long Binh. 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. We topped off our fuel tanks, replenished our ammo and continued to move toward our assigned blocking position. As I remember this night, around 12 or 12:30 a.m. the sirens (Long Binh) ammunition dump. SOUTH VIETNAM: VIET CONG EXPLODE U.S. They both hobbled through the rest of the days fighting. Ive just been told you work for me again. Several tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by the enemy. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and singed hair, eye brows and arms. We carried concertina wire, sand bags and hundreds of Claymores and trip flares to make our defensive positions practically impenetrable. Relevant to these events; post recollections and descriptions, questions,. A slightly wounded soldier, lying on the ground, smiles as he points to his leg as another soldier helps him. Mainly it is the story of some of the finest solders to ever wear the uniform of the U.S. Army and how they reacted not only to fierce combat, but also to the fog of war. 0.04 102 comments 105 shares. The II Field Force commander, Lt. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand, had correctly predicted a major attack during Tet, and his anticipation no doubt saved Long Binh and Saigon from being overrun. At 7 a.m., as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. Gradually, I became a mechanized soldier. Despite the confusion and wounds, our troops returned fire. Photo Index 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. The acting commander of the 199th LIB, Col. Frederic E. Davison, ordered three of his infantry companies operating north of Long Binh to attack the rocket launch site, while LG Weyand ordered the 9th Infantry Division to send the 1st Brigade from Bearcat Base. Around midnight on October 29th, 1966, the Viet Cong mortared or rocketed the Long Binh Ammo Dump. As enemy resistance stiffened, we realized we had bottled at least a company of the VC 275th Regiment in the village. An MP full colonel, accompanied by a Los Angeles deputy sheriff (dressed in his deputy uniform) and two jeeploads of National Police, drove up to my track. This article was written by John E. Gross and originally published in the February 2008 issue of Vietnam Magazine. Since I was in an airborne unit, it seemed certain that I would go to the 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 101st Airborne Division. When the Tet cease-fire period began on January 28, the battalion was called back to the vicinity of Bear Cat, and Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Tan airfield. As the Hueys rockets smashed the VC strongpoint, the scouts fought their way out of the encirclement and evacuated their dead and wounded. 11K views 9 years ago This is a brief clip of the ammo dump explosion at Long Binh, Vietnam, taken the morning of the Tet offensive, 1968. As the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. 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. Some of the enemy had tunneled under the fence and exploded an find all the dead so the countryside smelled like a scene from The He manned the .50 and, with a Charlie Company driver, headed down Highway 1. Big Boom! Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. USAF (United States Air Force) F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter aircraft drops Mark 82 (Mk.82) high-drag (HD) bombs. 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. 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.. NEARER V..EXPLOSIONS 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. The view is from the compound of the 20th. 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. A VC guerrilla hiding behind a parked ARVN jeep had fired the rocket. We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned left onto Highway 316. Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. In mid-September, when Ionoff moved to battalion to become the operations officer (S3), I assumed command of Charlie Company. Charlie Company had reported 38 VC killed, at the cost of only 11 U.S. wounded and three APCs damaged by RPGs. Men at Long Binh ammunition dump. Long Binh Ammo Dump Explosion, Tet, 1968 - YouTube Tet of 1968 - 118th AHC From our positions, we could see and hear the fireworks lighting the sky over Saigon to the west. We suffered more wounded during the trip back to III Corps, where I was called to a meeting in the headquarters. Privacy Policy | Links Unconfirmed reports reports said the blasts were the work of Vietcong sabotage teams. U.S. troops firing small arms as they proceed across tall grass into the hamlet. Aerial view of Long Binh Post in Vietnam. The Vietnamese brigadier generalthe ranking man at III Corpsdrew circles on a map around two areas of downtown Bien Hoa. Lookout tower in the background. Fred Casper, one of the bravest of the brave, was killed during the May offensive at the Y Bridge in Saigon, leading from the front as was his custom. The mushroom cloud slowly dissipated after hours of An eyewitness account of the battle for control of Bien Hoa and Long Binh on the first day of the 1968 Tet Offensive. All day civilians had been darting from their homes and running from the fighting. 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. Dames walked down a side alley toward the highway. LV WATER TRUCKS ALONG ROAD, EXPLOSION IN B/G. Charlie Company was ordered to a large open field across Highway 15 from the Long Thanh airfield. 0.22 I have . This site requires JavaScript. and completely out of sync. We had returned from a As the C-23 track Stormy, which was in the lead, turned into a side street, an RPG slammed into its front, smashing the radiator and wounding several soldiers. M-117 bombs explode near and on road on wooden slopes near river north of Pleiku near Dak To, on 18 August, 1968. Chu Lai and LZ Baldy Photos. THE STORM BREAKS Part 1 In the late-night hours of 29 January 1968 Tower ordered Charlie Company to attack eastward to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. 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. Several of his tracks were hit by RPGs and surrounded by 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. 939939. 4 Joseph Sugar Bear Dames returned to the tracks for more grenades. 2. Now commanded by a brand-new second lieutenant, the men of Alpha Company balked when they were told to move. We could use our tracks as a base of fire or in a blocking position as the company maneuvered dismounted. All I could think of to say was, Please clear that weapon!During the meeting, a master sergeant adviser to a Vietnamese ranger battalion ran into the compound. This was no surprise to us, since we could plainly hear the enemy rounds slamming into Long Binh. The Communists were starting to carry out a plan that they had studied for a considerable period. He ignored me and went to a nearby house where he and the deputy sheriff kicked in the front door. (Vietnam War period). 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. 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. However the ammunition storage bunkers prevented a chain reaction and the lost munitions were easily replaced with no impact on supply. Vehicles drive past on roads between the Long Binh Post area. January 12, 1972. by: Arnold John Houchin Bin Ha, USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron 1970-1972 Phu Cat, 37th SPS; Thu Hoa, 31st SPS; . The Vietnamese brigadier general, who was the ranking man at III Corps, drew circles around two equal-sized areas of downtown Bien Hoa. 200 pounds. They had been told that the population would rise up against the Americans and that there would be plenty of captured U.S. weapons to fight with. Kortuem! hightForP2 = 330 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. Then things started falling out of the sky. [3]:2015, At 04:00 a 60-man VC sapper team penetrated the northeastern perimeter of the base killing three MPs and entered the massive ammunition dump (105646N 1065436E / 10.946N 106.91E / 10.946; 106.91) where they planted eighteen Satchel charges before being forced to withdraw by the 720th Military Police Battalion. I told him about the order to clear an area of operations equal in size to that assigned the airborne battalion.He said: Forget that. all personnel to the flight line. GV AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN F/G. [2]:347 Within Bien Hoa AB, the USAF 3rd Security Police Squadron was responsible for security manning bunkers and operating mobile patrols within the base perimeter. Toggle the table of contents Talk: Long Bnh, Bin Ha. At the beginning of the Tet Offensive, one rifle company was ordered to to clear the village of Ho Nai, a Bien Hoa suburb. At 0700, as daylight was breaking, my track rolled past the ARVN III Corps compound gate. October continued with construction efforts. Sand bags near barbed wire fence. Big Ammunition Dump Near Saigon Hit by Blasts, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/02/archives/big-ammunition-dump-near-saigon-hit-by-blasts-laotian-reports.html. Bien Hoa Air Base was the largest air base in the country, home to over 500 United States Air Force (USAF) and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) aircraft, while Long Binh Post was the US Army's largest logistics base, headquarters of II Field Force, Vietnam, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade (199th LIB) and the 12th Aviation Group and home to over 20,000 US personnel. It was Tet offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, Tet Offensive attacks on Bien Hoa and Long Binh, United States Army Center of Military History, "Tet Offensive: The Battles of Bien Hoa and Long Binh", Video of helicopter gunships and F-100s in action at Bien Hoa AB, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tet_offensive_attacks_on_Bien_Hoa_and_Long_Binh&oldid=1086914863, Battles and operations of the Vietnam War in 1968, Battles of the Vietnam War involving the United States, Attacks on military installations in the 1960s, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the United States Army Center of Military History, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 May 2022, at 04:36. That night, frightened bunker guards in the 199th compound shot into the darkness to their front. I had assumed I would be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. 15. Normally, operations orders issued over the radio were encoded and sent by the S3s radio operator. Realizing I had not eaten for 24 hours, I looked for some breakfast, but all I could find was a bag of pistachio nuts. A few minutes later, a jeep drove up carrying two extremely frightened white-shirted policemen. After I received the coordinates of our objective, I yelled, Crank em up! into the radio handset, and we moved out. Troops opened their attacks with volleys of grenades, then charged in shooting. What we came up with was a T formation. As time passed, I became a mechanized soldier. The 2nd Platoon led the way under Lieutenant Fred Casper, followed by my track, then Lieutenant Howard Jones 1st Platoon and, finally, the weapons platoon under Lieutenant Don Muir. By July 1969 we were finally off the boats and in Dong Tam processing to head home. These photos were taken from December 9, 1967 to February 1968. Click Here. The three companies formed a line almost three kilometers long, facing to the east, with their backs to the Long Binh wire. We began detaining the well-dressed young men among the refugees. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. 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. 6 External links modified. [2]:347, The ARVN 53rd Regional Force Battalion was responsible for security in the countryside around Bin Ha. As the 2/47th Infantry approached the town a Vietnamese warned that it contained many VC and the VC then launched an ambush on the column knocking out 3 ACAVs with RPGs setting off a 4-hour battle as the US forces engaged the VC position and rescued the survivors in the damaged ACAVs. -- color photo Near Moc Hoa. We threw grenades over the wall behind them, but hit nothing.. As we rolled back through Bien Hoa, we were astounded to find the battalion S4, Captain Leroy Brown, in the middle of town with a 5,000-gallon fuel tanker and several ammunition trucks. 856th RRD-Defending Long Binh - ASA LIVES charred. 5. The NAM - Dong Ha vietnam 1968 | Dong Ha ammo dump | Facebook The explosions at Long Binh, 15 miles northeast of Sia gon rattled windows and shook doors here in the capital. Charlie Company quickly reinforced Alpha, and a daylong fight ensued. Remembering Tet 1968 Fifty Years Ago - quanloi.org The 2nd Platoon pulled the damaged track out of the side street and towed it back to the III Corps compound. 4 "Late in the war" 1 comment. Tet airstrike Long Binh Ammo Dump - YouTube When it 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. When I arrived at 9th Division in June, I was further shocked to learn that I was going to a mechanized battalion, rather than be assigned to one of the battalions in the Delta where I could use my light infantry and Ranger school experience. By some veterans' accounts, it had the unofficial name "Long Binh Junction." In 1968, the base fell under attack during the Tet Offensive, and the Viet Cong assault force was repelled by American troops. Craven and another photographer, were both wounded in the engagement.) The churches were cleared in short order. Later, as the sun sank over the Long Binh base, they tossed a football and ate cold C rations. All of these placements were made with the wrongful assumption that the VC would attack from the jungles outside the base. As we cleared the ambush, the column suddenly came to a halt because of some kind of block in the road; simultaneously, someone keyed the company net. During December we made little enemy contact, probably because the Communists were lying low preparing for Tet. Love was so startled, he didnt fire. . Following that fight, the 2-47 was ordered south of the 9th Divisions base camp. I was to be a platoon leader again, in Charlie Company, commanded by Captain John Ionoff. 118th during the Tet of 1968, also called the Defense of Bien We rolled through Long Binh and out the main gate, then turned onto Highway 316. As dawn broke, everything was deathly quiet. We use cookies on this website. About 30 minutes later, the track was back with only the driver, who reported the ranger sergeant had been killed and that it had been impossible to get the wounded. On January 23, during a battalion sweep through heavy jungle south of Highway 1, Alpha Company walked into a camouflaged, well-defended enemy bunker system and was badly mauled. NEARER AIR V..SMOKE Although initially surprised, U.S. forces had reacted quickly and, despite what was reported in the press, American and ARVN forces handed the VC a devastating defeat during Tet.