Received your message and thought I'd send you some details
of the Đà Nàng memory of the night of Sgt Jensen's death.
At the time, we had three areas on the base that we were
guarding. First, was north end of the ramp where the
aircraft that were scheduled for sorties either in country
or up north were parked. As I recall they were mostly
F-104's, A-1's and B-57's. Secondly, was the bomb dump
which was across the runway about mid field. Finally,
was the south end where F-102's and C-130's were parked.
The 102's were TDY
from Clark and were for air defense of the base. The
crews were on "Alert" and lived in tents between the
taxiway and runway.
The C-130's were Ranch Hand aircraft and were used in the Agent Orange program. They were
parked on the east side of the taxi way in the newly
completed revetments. [replaced sandbag revetments]
On the night in question
we had a guard adjacent to the tents the F-102 aircraft
people were in. We also had a SAT team that was responsible
for all the other transit a/c that were parked all over the ramp.
The actual perimeter of the base was the responsibility
of the 3rd Marines, and we had the pockets of our resources
that we guarded. We also had people spread out in the
base proper to protect the people, especially in the
"compound" where most of us lived.
That night, Sgt Jensen
was performing duty as coffee patrol and hence he had
the truck (I thought it was a ton and a half but not
sure) and was on the south end at the time of the attack.
He was delivering coffee to the guard on the F-102 tents
when we started receiving incoming mortar round. I don't
recall the exact time but it was late enough that most
of us were in bed.
The mortars woke me up
and I was to the desk down by the gate of the compound
in minutes. As I recall, we took about a dozen incoming rounds of
mortar, all hitting in the area of the south overrun
and doing virtually no damage. At the same time the sappers
came under the concertina fence behind the C-130 revetments.
Best estimates were that there were between four and
six of them.
They opened small arms fire and Sgt Jensen returned fire
with his side arm, a .38 revolver. He had left his M16
at the desk when he got the coffee jug. He fired and
then moved to the rear of the truck where he took up
a defensive position and continued firing. He was killed
in the gunfight and the sappers continued on with their
bandoler grenades, placing them under the aircraft and
attempting to get to the tents where the people were
sleeping.
Sgt Jensen, by standing
his ground, kept the sappers out of the tents and consequently
saved many lives, but gave his own by his action. When
the sappers had expended their grenades they left the
base the same way they had entered.
Due to the heavy smoke, fires and exploding ammunition
we set up a perimeter around the area and waited for
daylight. Sometime during the night, Sgt Jensen's body
was brought out of the area. Best I can remember a SSgt
Oates (SAT team leader) and a Army officer had found
him and brought him out. He apparently had been killed
where he was found, at the back of the truck.
The guard in the area had taken
cover in his foxhole and was not injured. The attached
pictures are of the area the morning after the raid.
The one of the tents with the water tower visible in
the background and the two lockers is the approximate
area where Sgt Jensen was killed. The aircraft were all
in the immediate area.
[Aircraft boneyard began to pile up across the road from our tent-city. Don Poss]
The picture of the young Lt and
the full Colonel is yours truly
and the base commander,
Colonel Eisenbrown. I believe he
is the one in the
picture with LTC Arthur G. Phillips Jr..
The
two photos of the flag flying at Base Headquarters were taken on the
Fourth of July 1965 -- the only day of the year that we were allowed to fly
the American Flag, hence it got a
lot attention.
Nuff for now, this
brings back memories that I haven't thought of in many
years. I did remain in the Air Force and retired after
23+ years as a L/C, but that is another story.
Can't remember many of the names, but Warren Milburg
and I were the first two PCS cop officers in Đà Nàng,
replaced by LTC Arthur G. Phillips Jr., Major Marion Hopkins (Ops
officer) and numerous Capt's and Lt's. Also had a CASAF
package from Cannon TDY which had Lt Howie King as leader.
Howie ended up an O-5 or 6. Col Jim Black and Al Feldman
were our bosses in Saigon.
