ACCOUNT OF A1C Handy :
By the time I was ready to fire, Terry had already been hit the first time and “parts of Terry” were all over the front of my uniform.  I saw him drop out of the corner of my eye and that’s when I spent my first magazine of 20 rounds -- it took about 1 ½ seconds – and I saw a few of them go down, but the rest were still coming.  I put the second clip in and switched to semi-auto to conserve.  I didn’t know if I had killed any of them or if they just dropped for cover. I got down in a knelling position and slowly edged my way back to the fox hole firing as I went, one shot at a time. I could hear the rounds passing by my head and bouncing on the ground going between my legs.  When I got to the fox hole I had to change mags again.

ACCOUNT OF USMC, Enrique B. del Rosario :
The whole area was lit up from the fire. Then we heard small arms fire and saw some flares all around the base. Meanwhile our compound, and probably the whole base, was up and men came running to the flight line to get some M60 machine guns and ammo.

PFC Sica is the armourer so he gave it to them. We also took an M60, ammo, flares, and hand grenades to our bunker. [winkel]

Mike Bush, (MSgt, USAF Security Police - Retired) :
The mortar fire then shifted (they reportedly had three mortar tubes working us over) and started "walking" fire up the flight line...

Air-to-air rockets on-board the burning F-102's burned, exploded, or "cooked off," and launched north towards the cantonment area and other aircraft parked on the rest of the flight line.

ACCOUNT OF A2C Tom Winn:
The sentry SSgt Jensen had stopped to give coffee to had left the immediate area where SSgt Jensen was killed. I really don't know what happened to him or how he responded or reacted during the attack….

ACCOUNT OF A1C Handy :
I put the second clip in and I kept firing at them and by the time I reached the fox hole, which was full of trash from day shift, I spent my second magazine. There was nothing but trash in the fox hole -- it wasn't even a bunker. I changed clips and took careful aim with each shot, knowing I would run out of ammo any second.

ACCOUNT OF 1st LT. Fred Reiling (LTC, Ret. USAF):
The guard in the area [Handy] had taken cover in his foxhole and was not injured.

Mike Bush, (MSgt, USAF Security Police - Retired) :
Handy reportedly looked up from inside the bunker, which was nothing more than a ring of single sandbags approximately three and one-half feet high, and with no overhead cover, and saw the NVA that had just killed SSgt Jensen.

ACCOUNT OF A1C Handy :
I saw Terry [SSgt Jensen] at the back of the truck with an NVA standing over him. When I first saw the NVA, he was looking down and when I had changed mags he had turned and I shot him in the front left side (he was still turning).  Terry was still face down. When I shot the NVA I aimed at his chest area, which was about three feet above Sgt Jensen. I shot the NVA and I think I killed him. I didn’t know he had already shot Terry in the back, killing him. I knew I was on my last mag.

Later, I learned that SSgt Jensen had been shot in the back. I know my rounds did not hit him because if my round hit SSgt Jensen it would have hit him in the right side.  SSgt Jensen was killed with rounds through his back by the NVA -- I hit the NVA.

Mike Bush, (MSgt, USAF Security Police - Retired) :
Handy brought his M16 rifle to bear, and killed the NVA soldier. Airman Handy then remained at his post, and delivered flanking fire on the advancing NVA line, and broke their assault. Airman Handy continued to engage the enemy until his ammunition was exhausted.

A captured NVA officer later revealed that the initial objective of the attack was to eliminate the Marine Aviation Battalion Helicopters , which were hurting NVA operational efforts in the local Đà Nàng area.

The NVA officer further related that when Airman Handy had opened fire on their advance, they were convinced they had run into a "dug-in heavy machine gun" -- broke off their attack and began to withdraw by the same route by which they had entered the flight line area.

TIME MAGAZINE Friday, Jul. 09, 1965

ARTICLE: Time Magazine, Bigger & Uglier, July 9, 1995
(Excerpt) "The Viet Cong left behind them trails of blood indicating that several had been wounded. One [NVA POW] was captured, turned out to be a North Vietnamese soldier named Do Xuan Hien, 29, who under questioning said that he had infiltrated into South Vietnam three months ago with his entire battalion and had trained for the Đà Nàng raid for a month."

ACCOUNT OF USMC, Enrique B. del Rosario :
Glen Newton and I were on guard between the flight line and the squadron tent area when the first explosion racked a C-130 at the Air Force flight line. Running to place ourselves between what we thought was the point of attack and the tent area, we got to the trenches forming our interior defensive perimeter. I was right behind Newton when he dove into one of the trenches. He let out a loud groan when he landed so I decided to just plop down on the ground above the trench works.

ACCOUNT OF A1C Handy :
I don't think anybody was out there besides me at that post. I didn't mention the fact that while getting to my fox hole bullets were bouncing between my legs, dirt kicking up, and loud popping noises were going off.  I later found out that the popping was from rounds within an inch passing by my head.  A Marine I work with told me that.

While in that foxhole, rockets from the burning aircraft and racks were cooking off and bouncing along the ground. One went right over the top of the fox hole I was in and hit an old runway construction crew outhouse behind me. With the flashes and shadows and firing everywhere, I at first thought the outhouse was an NVA running towards me -- I almost stood up to shoot him when the rocket hit it.  Thank goodness the rocket was faster than I was. Maybe that sounds funny. It wasn’t. It isn’t meant to be.

I walked out in the open and I shot another NVA trying to run pass on my blind side at the end of a large bunker -- I saw the leaves on his helmet and shot through a tent in front of him -- I don’t know if I killed him or not, all I know is he didn’t get by and didn’t get up. I knew that large white colored tent was where some tools and equipment were stored in it. About six inches from the top edge near the wall of the tent -- maybe four feet high -- I had seen the NVA's head and the leaves in his helmet. I wasn’t counting my rounds but I knew I was nearly empty.

I didn't think anyone [USAF] was out there at that time. Not ever seeing a bunker before, I didn't know what it was used for.  I thought it was probably for storage.  I thought everyone had sleeping areas, and didn't know air crews slept nearby and in the work area.  I wanted to do what I could to defend us, and didn't want anyone getting behind me. That was my motive, and I did that as long as I had ammo.