During Tet 1968, I was assigned to the Bình Thủy Air Base Main Gate,
which was also manned by SVN QCs. At Bình Thủy, the SVN Marines had
a 105 howitzer position on base.
One day, some of the SVN howitzer crew decided to go into Can Tho and
party, where they met some non Bình Thủy SVN Marines, striking up a
camaraderie friendship. The Bình Thủy howitzer crew decided to bring
their new buddies back with them onto the base to continue the party.
The rowdy marines were all stopped by the Main Gate QCs, for lack of
identification, or not being part of the base gun crews.
An loud argument began between the SVN marines and the QCs, and we
barely got in a radio call to CSC, and the QCs called for reinforcements.
Tempers were flaring between the armed troops and the argument was getting
out of hand. Additional Bình Thủy QCs were responding to the front of
the Main Gate to assist their own. Suddenly, the non gun crew marines
opened fire, killing outright one QC, taking over the Main Gate, and
instantly taking us all hostage.
SP Sam Pyle later related that
he was posted at a bunker off the flight line at that time and remembered
hearing shots and radio transmissions.
Both Tuy Hoa, USAF SPs were held hostage, along with the QCs, by SVN marines
who held weapons on us as we lay face down in the bunker. Armed SVN
marines stood guard over us, sitting around the hatch with weapons locked
and cocked, and pointed at our heads. I remember Weldon Witt was with
me at the time, and we more-or-less said our good-byes and waited
for the standoff to end.
The tension in the air was electric, and we could tell that things
were escalating between the SVN marines, and QC troops (still growing
in numbers). It seemed like the whole 632nd SPS was waiting nearby to
retake the gate, and God knows what else, if the Vietnamese failed to
regain control.
Everything seemed frozen time, and I was certain that a single shot would result in a massacre and large number of allied deaths. Time slowed
to an eternity for us.
Hours passed in the bunker. We still did not know if we would live
or die, and the SVN troops were both unwilling to budge from their entrenched
positions. Suddenly, a SVN Marine General and his staff roared up to
the gate, arriving from downtown. In a flurry of shots, screams and
vicious beatings -- it was over just as fast as it had started. The
incident came to a close when the SVN marine commander took control
of his troops.
We wrote our report after we got our wits back. Rumors were that the
shooters were taken away and hanged, and that others went to jail. I
was never sure of the actual results.
Although this incident happened in 1968, during the Tet Offensive,
I do not believe it was part of a NVA/VC attack, but just something
that got out of hand between troops that had been partying and were
told "No" by QC Military Police.
Gary Steele. 632nd SPS.
