From July ‘68 to July ‘69,
I was an A2C, assigned to the 3rd SPS Bien Hoa AB. Before
I got there, I heard plenty of stories about the place. I knew it
had frequent rocket and mortar attacks and because of that fact many
referred Bien Hoa as 'Rocket Alley'. I also heard of the bravery displayed
by many 3rd SPS 'Skycops' during the infamous '68 Tet offensive. News
of the SP's defending the base, particularly at "Bunker Hill
Ten," spread through the Air Force Security Police channels like
a wildfire.
By the time my aircraft touched
down on Bien Hoa’s runway, I knew of Bien Hoa's reputation. I had
missed the '68 Tet offensive but when the 1969 Tet offensive (Feb.
'69) arrived, the base was under siege by VC and NVA and proved to
be challenge enough for all of US.
During my one-year tour there,
our base suffered 30 rocket attacks, several sapper penetrations,
and fire fights along the perimeter, along with a ground attack during
Tet. Concentration of the enemy was so strong in and around the base
that our own F4C, jet fighter aircraft, dropped napalm right off of
the fence line.
"Listening Post" (LP)
was interesting duty. An "LP" tour of duty was usually for
a couple of weeks to a month. Prior to performing this duty, troops
needed about a week to train with claymore mines (assembling and disassembling
them blindfolded), "Totem-pole" familiarization and general
stealth. "Totem-poles," were two empty oil drums cut in
half and welded on top of each other. A "Spooky" flare canister
was placed inside the concave portion of the stacked Totem-pole. The
'Poles' were placed 4 or 5 meters behind the LP. If it was necessary
to fall back, retrograde or retreat due to your post being overrun
by the enemy, the retreating SP's could activate the Totem Poles -
creating a blinding flash, facing the oncoming enemy. This technique
helped slow the enemy down, while Security Police could take to a
safer position. According to the book, Air Base Defense in the Republic
of Vietnam, 1961 - 19'73, the 3rd SPS was the first to develop and
use the Totem-Pole concept.
Claymore mines would have to
be checked often throughout the night by low crawling to the mine
and making sure the 'face' of the mine was pointed in the right direction--toward
the enemy. Sometimes, if Charlie knew you were there, he would purposely
turn it toward the LP.
Off of Bravo Area, across from
Bunker Hill #17, there was a high hill top called "Buddha
Hill' over looking the base. 'Rumors' said it was a VC Command
Post but we could never prove it. During Tet we, saw rounds coming
from it, at us. Permission was finally granted from 'CSC' to hit it.
Finally, an air strike took it out. My first action was when 'Charlie'
hit the VNAF ammo dump, two miles away, across the flight line, from
our bunker, which was on top of a huge sand hill. Sand bag crews would
back their trucks up to the base of the sand hill and fill sandbags
during day time. The huge sand hill made an excellent observation
post, from this vantage point we could see nearly half of the base.
When the ammo dump blew, it looked like a huge fireball emerging from
the ground and then a mushroom cloud. We could even see the 'ripple
effect', of the shock wave, that rolled over the ground and flight
line, shaking everything in its path like a rag doll.
We felt the wind blast from the
explosion up against our bunker. A2C Jessie was working tower duty
in the ammo dump at the time, and I thought for sure he perished in
the explosion, but minutes later I was relieved to hear his voice
over the radio. He was alive but he suffered a busted ear drum and
singed hair, eye brows and arms. During Tet '69 in front of Bunker
Hill #17 VC sappers tried to penetrate our fence line. General Patton's
son, then Lt. Col. George Patton III, commander of the U.S. Army's
11th Armored Cavalry (Black Horse), positioned his tanks in between
our big bunker hills to give us more muscle for the punch. Each tank
had one Security Police NCO inside with the tank crew, as a liaison
for fields of fire etceteras.
Smaller bunkers were equipped
with an outside tall chain link structure, covering the front portion
of the bunker, facing the enemy, to keep enemy B-40 rockets from directly
hitting the bunker. We had four fence lines on the base perimeter.
The base was ten miles in radius. The American fence line was the
'inside' fence, closest to us. The other fence lines were constructed,
when the French and Japanese operated the base, years ago. In between
these other fence lines were still active land mines. Trip flares
were only installed on the American fence line, VC were not the only
varmints attempting to crawl under or over the wire, we also had gorillas,
black panthers, snakes and ocelots. When the varmints were 'in the
wire', trip flares would be going off all the time. It always took
a keen eye, of a Security Police troop, working tower duty, to distinguish
the only varmints worth worrying about—“Victor Charlie."
We had a SAT (Security Alert
Teams) which was our only really armed backup response. Anything more
than that, for additional troop strength, our backups were usually
several Air Force Augmentees, from various job skills, supervised
by Security Police. Augmentees proved very useful because, at least
they were trained with the basic M-16 rifle, and they could "Point
and shoot." SAT's drove the standard 4-wheel drive jeeps, with
an M-60 machine gun resting over the top of the hood. Also used, was
what was known as the "Rubber Duck," (V-100) armored vehicle.
'This highly mobile vehicle had ports for rifles, mounted M-60's and
the 90mm Recoilless rifle (cannon). The 90mm fired a “bee hive round",
a round with thousands of little darts, like finishing nails. At one
time, I think the idea of mounting a "mini-gun" on top was
seriously considered.
During the '69
(Tet) Offensive, I carried a cassette tape recorder in my field pack.
I placed my field pack on top of the bunker, next to our field radio.
If anything happened worth recording, I would turn it on. I never
told my bunker buddies because everyone would want to act like John
Wayne. I taped the actual battle sounds and communications with CSC.
Someone had a transistor radio tuned into 'Armed Forces Radio' who
was reporting the battle. I recorded that too. I sent a copy to the
SP, museum years ago. I still have the original. The only other fellow
Nam Vet SP that I keep contact with, from 3rd SPS, at Bien Hoa, is
SSgt. (Ret) Edward Crawford. He lives in Parrish, Florida and suffers
the effect of 'Agent Orange.' Like me, Ed Crawford is a proud member
of both "VSPA and AFSPA." We keep in touch often, either
by phone or by letter. I drew two sketches of Bunker Hill #17. Ed
has one framed and hinging in his house. The other one belongs to
Bob Nelson, the New England rep for AFSPA. According to Bob, it's
hanging over some bar, in a local tavern, in Mass. I figure there
will always be a part of me, still there, somewhere on that abandoned
American Air Force air field called 'Bien Hoa'.
