According to a Marine report, "it was evident that the enemy was prepared to masquerade as Vietnamese civilians in the process of infiltrating the TAOR and that he was attempting to infiltrate his forces in small units. Later that afternoon, the 1st Marine Division helilifted a "Bald Eagle" reaction force from Company E, 2/3 Marines east of the river in an attempt to encircle the PAVN. Within the city itself, VC cadre were to force the "inhabitants into the street for demonstrations and prepare the people for continuing political struggle against the government as well as kill GVN and ARVN cadre. According to Washington Post correspondent Don Oberdorfer, Lm pointed with his swagger stick to the enemy's firing positions on the large map in the room and said: "Milantoni, bomb here. Under pressure from the South Vietnamese relief forces and the Marine MP platoon, the VC retreated with the allies in pursuit. 180 Da Nang Air Base Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 180 Da Nang Air Base Premium High Res Photos Browse 180 da nang air base stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. To the south, in the Korean sector, the ROKMC with the assistance of the ARVN again drove PAVN/VC forces out of the Hi An environs. At first, the general and his steward confused the rockets with the traditional fireworks shot off in honor of Tt. The two PAVN prisoners identified themselves as members of the H-2 Engineering Company, part of the 2nd Sapper Battalion. Air Force rocket attacks in Vietnam Share 9 posts gleyhjr 44 Aug 30, 2010 #1 The following link is a list of all rocket attacks on Air Bases by date: Hope this helps someone needing a stressor of a rocket attack on a Air Base http://www.afhra.af.mil/timelines/index.asp George Binh Thuy AB RVN Sept 1968-Sept 1969 JimM44 683 The III MAF Command Center later that evening radioed MACV in Saigon: "Although the enemy has suffered heavy losses within his local and main force VC units during the past two days, he still possesses a formidable threat utilizing [PAVN] troops poised on the periphery of the Da Nang TAOR. Apparently the forces were a mixed group from several different units interspersed together. Americal Division artillery operating in the Qu Sn sector took the PAVN/VC forces under fire, but did not shell Duy Xuyn town because of the civilian population there. Still photo images extracted from the vintage footage are also available for immediate download. On Jan. 30, a 15-man commando squad penetrated Da Nang Air Base and another squad blew up the "Sector Bravo Combat Operations Center," just 1,000 meters from I Corps headquarters. Two days later, Marine intelligence officers learned that the PAVN 21st Regiment was in the Go Noi area. Scheduled to last eight weeks, Rolling Thunder will instead go on for three years. "[1]:1434, Before the PAVN/VC forces launched their attack, the commanders prepared to read to their troops a directive supposedly prepared two weeks earlier by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the National Liberation Front. It was a helicopter facility that was constructed in August 1965 and served as home to Marine Aircraft Group 16 (MAG-16), the 5th Special Forces Group and an assortment of other squadrons until May 1971. AP Photo U.S. Marines landing in Da Nang, March 8, 1965. Citation Nr: 1224394 Decision Date: 07/13/12 Archive Date: 07/18/12 DOCKET NO. According to Marine intelligence reports, on 9 February, the 2nd Division moved its headquarters back to the Go Noi from its more forward positions. Rockey then ordered a platoon from his Company K to reinforce Company G. By the end of the day, the elements of the four Marine companies had established their night positions. [1]:160, By this time, Robertson was worried about the ability to contain the PAVN/VC offensive south of Da Nang. Additional intelligence tended to confirm the enemy was about to initiate something big. "[1]:163, During the Tet Offensive in Da Nang, both sides experienced heavy casualties. Da Nang Air Base had intelligence predicting a rocket attack any day. Below the Marine battalions, the ROKMC 2nd Marine Brigade secured the Hi An sector and the southeastern approaches above the Ky Lam River to Da Nang Air Base. The PAVN obviously were bringing the local VC main force units up to strength, even if to do so they had to bring in replacements from the north. Of the 13-man Recon team, codename Dublin City, one was dead, nine were injured and three escaped unscathed. The VC attacked the compound from two directions, from the south and the east. Bldg. "The soldiers and cadre of the "South Vietnam Liberation Army" were to move forward in the attack: [1]:159, On the night of 5/6 February, the PAVN/VC forces began the second phase of their Da Nang offensive. Shortly after 04:45, General Lm ordered the ARVN 4th Cavalry Regiment, a Ranger battalion and a detachment of National Police to augment the units in Ha Vang and the headquarters personnel forces in the compound. One of the nicest persons died there on the day he was turning his outside plant tool kit. "[1]:159, The heaviest action occurred in the 3/5 Marines and 4th Battalion, 51st ARVN sectors along Highway 1. The struggle for Hi An would continue into the following day. The PAVN soldiers wore flak jackets and helmets and carried a machine gun, and a small rocket detachment with six 122mm rockets. One battalion was to deploy immediately, with the other to deploy the next day. According to the prisoner accounts, they were from the PAVN 3rd Battalion, 31st Regiment and confirmed that "Da Nang itself was the ultimate objective. [1]:163, From almost every account, the PAVN/VC attack in the Da Nang TAOR was very inept. with rocket and mortar attacks at the Da Nang and Marhle Mountain Airfields on 30 January, and hit the Marble Mountain facility once again on 31 January, They hit the new Quang Tri airstrip with Doth rockets and mortars on 24, 27, and 29 January. Twenty rockets fell on Hill 10, manned by Battery G , 3/11 Marines which resulted in 23 casualties, including two dead. At 09:20, PAVN/VC forces attacked the district towns of in Bn, just above the Ky Lam River and Duy Xuyn below the river. Entering the town from the southwest, the VC fired about 70 RPGs at the local forces, but never penetrated the defender's perimeter. The armored force pushed through the hamlet and encountered only occasional small-arms fire. A third C-123 squadron was stationed at Da Nang Air Base in 1963 and a fourth at Tan Son Nhut in October 1964 following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August. Able to establish clear fields of fire in the rice paddy where the heaviest firefight occurred, the PAVN prevented the 7th Marines elements from closing with them. [1]:1489, In the Da Nang area of operations, outside of attacks by fire on the Marine base and outlying positions and the two ground assaults on Marine command and communications positions, the PAVN/VC infantry units largely concentrated on the South Vietnamese units. In the assault, the PAVN/VC killed four Marines and wounded another seven before withdrawing. U.S. air policemen take cover and leave their jeep as they come under sniper fire near Da Nang Airbase in Vietnam on January 30, 1968, after it was hit by a rocket barrage. Although agent reports and other intelligence indicated continued assaults north of the Cau Do River against Ha Vang and Da Nang City, most of these came to naught. Liked the Oriental rock bands came to the Club: In the morning, the Marines discovered blood trails and three PAVN bodies in the vicinity of the explosions. Later intelligence and interrogation reports of prisoners of war would indicate that the unit that Rummage had intercepted was probably a battalion of the PAVN 2nd Division. An alert ARVN sentry took the VC under fire near the flagpole. The Air Force watch officer on duty protested, "that's too close, you'll never get a clearance for it." In the Da Nang sector, during the early morning hours of 30 January, PAVN/VC gunners took under mortar and rocket fire 15 different Allied units and installations. With both fixed-wing and helicopter gunships and more than 120 artillery pieces ranging from 4.2-inch mortars to 175mm guns, Robertson was confident that he could counter any threat that the enemy posed to Da Nang despite the thinness of his manned defenses. Milantoni. NASM.2018.0025 [1]:143, PAVN/VC forces throughout South Vietnam were about to strike. Darkness prevented Sailfish from observing the number of casualties that the artillery and air inflicted upon the enemy. The 391 rockets that hit the base itself the figure was 69 in 1971killed four United States. [ Bob Kaatman photo ] Second cache of bombs ignites. Other units included the 402nd Sapper Battalion, the VC V-25th Battalion and other VC local forces. [1]:1589, For the next few days, there was a relative lull in the Da Nang sector, at least as compared to the last two days of January. 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. Westmoreland was convinced that this big push would come either just before or right after Tt, but not during the holidays and probably at Khe Sanh and in the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone sector. The provisional company linked up with two ARVN Ranger companies that were operating in the area to contain the battalion from the PAVN 4th Regiment which had slipped through the Hi Vn Pass the night before. It was the worst attack on Danang since July 5,. Communist attack of the war on an American stockade or brig. Later that night, the 1/7 Marines reported 15 secondary explosions from Marine counter-mortar artillery fire. III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) had its headquarters at Hill 327 west of the Air Base, while ARVN I Corps had its headquarters north of the Air Base. A second platoon from Company G arrived at the site and attempted to maneuver to the PAVN flank. . [1]:1456, At 03:00 the PAVN/VC hit even closer to the Marine command nerve center at Da Nang. The ARVN 51st Regiment operating in the southern sector of the Da Nang area of operations came across evidence including documents pointing to a buildup of PAVN/VC strength together with probes of Allied defenses. Simultaneously, the division ordered the helilift of a company from the 3/5 Marines to reinforce the ARVN and the CAP Marines. 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. Immediately after the artillery shelling, an AC47 Spooky arrived on station and worked over the same area with its Gatling guns. In this fighting, which had lasted about three hours, the South Vietnamese defenders sustained casualties of three dead, seven wounded, and two damaged armored vehicles. The attacks on Da Nang (29 January 11 February 1968), were a series of attacks in the Tet Offensive launched by the North Vietnamese Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) during the Vietnam War. On 2 February, the Marines received a report that the PAVN 2nd Division had moved its headquarters 4 miles (6.4km) north, to a position above Route 4, from its previous location on Go Noi Island. The VC continued to hold the hospital, however, and part of the engineer compound. With covering fire provided by 81mm and 82mm mortars, about a reinforced company reached the I Corps headquarters compound actually located within the city of Da Nang just outside the northern perimeter of the Air Base. Two members of a VC engineering company, also in the Da Nang area, later recounted that nearly 80 percent of their unit was from North Vietnam. [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. The remaining rocket attacks were ineffective. [1]:1612, In the ensuing battle of Lo Giang the Marine and Army forces successfully repulsed the PAVN 2nd Division attack. According to an NCO from the PAVN 31st Regiment captured in the fighting, the mission of his unit was to "attack Hi An, five times if necessary, and set up a liberation government. WASHINGTON The White House warned that the U.S. may consider a military response to the rocket attack that hit an air base in western Iraq where American and coalition troops are . 1st MAW ComdC. Da Nang air base in the mid- to late-60s was the busiest (and possibly the largest) airport in the world. From May 1968 to July 1970, the Army sergeant came of age in the U.S. Army mortuary at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. The USAF 620th Tactical Control Squadron established a control and reporting post (CRP) code-named Panama on the mountain in 1964 to support operations from Danang Air Base. Cam Ranh Bay AB: US Army 6th Convalescent Hospital damaged by Rocket Attack! Two attached U .S. Still PAVN/VC gunners just before 01:00 launched 12 122mm rockets aimed at the Da Nang base and blew up two ammunition dumps, one for napalm and the other for flares. Again, the Marines killed the VC and once more foiled an apparent enemy demolition effort. According to a South Vietnamese account, the ARVN Rangers killed 150 of the enemy and captured another 18 in the battle for Nam O and in other fighting below the pass through 31 January. 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