Gone in
a Flash
Bien Hoa AB, RVN 15 May 1965
It was a Sunday morning in the spring of 1965 – I think it was May but
I might be wrong. Jack Warden, John
Boyles, Ken Spaur, and I were pulling alert
duty. Jack and I were in the Officer’s
Club having breakfast before heading back to the flight line to relieve John
and Ken for breakfast. The first thing I
can remember was being knocked off my chair and sprawling across the
floor. When I looked up no one was
sitting or standing. We were all
scattered across the floor with food and coffee all over the place. About the time I got to my feet and was
trying to understand what had happened, I was knocked to the floor again. Someone yelled that we were being
mortared. I thought it strange that it
was happening in broad daylight.
Everyone piled out of the club to take cover and it was then we saw
black smoke billowing up from the flight line.
Just then there was a brilliant flash of light and I was knocked off my
feet again.
Jack and I ran to the van that we used on
alert and headed back to the flight line to get to our helicopters. We were just heading down the street when
there was another flash of light and we saw a wavy band of white moving rapidly
towards us. When it hit, our van rocked
violently. We somehow realized it was a
shock wave and Jack reversed direction and took the back way to the alert area
by coming in from the west along the taxi way.
Debris was all over the taxiways and we were being pelted by small
pieces of falling material. Somehow we
made it to the helicopters beneath the tower.
All the windows were gone in the tower and glass was all over the PSP
planking. Everyone else was in the
bunkers and we joined them. In
reflection now I don’t know what we were thinking by trying to get to the
helicopters, but it was something we had been conditioned to do. Anytime we were being shelled we were to try
to get the helicopters aloft. It would
protect the helicopters and the presence of airborne helicopters would usually
terminate a VC mortar attack. It had
worked in the past.
The entire flight line east of the tower
was afire and black smoke towered above the base. John thought something had detonated
accidentally and that it was not an attack.
More explosions rocked our area for the next half hour as we remained in
the bunker. My ears were ringing and I
had trouble hearing for a while. After
it was quiet for about 5 minutes we did a cursory inspection of the helicopters
using binoculars while we kept the tower between us and the fire. Both helicopters that were exposed to the
flight line had serious damage. The
Plexiglas canopies were almost totally gone and both fuselages were peppered
with holes. One of the helicopters was
leaking fuel. The third helicopter which
was not in a direct line to the explosions looked ok but we would have to go
over it well to check for damage.
Jack got on the land line with
After several hours most of the fire was under
control and it was reasonably safe to inspect the aircraft and to remove the
glass and debris that had showered the alert area. None of the alert crews were injured. The one helicopter that had minor damage was
inspected and returned to alert duty. We
had enough spare parts and by borrowing from the other two damaged aircraft we
had it ready to fly. Fortunately we kept
parachutes in the alert helicopter and they were ok. When we went to the parachute loft east of
the tower, we found the entire building riddled with shrapnel. All the parachutes had been damaged beyond
repair. The remainder of the day and
evening was spent identifying what was salvageable and what we needed to return
us to full alert posture. The
maintenance crews worked without a break for the next day or so to make one of
the helicopters operationally ready. The
third helicopter would be repaired by the next week.
It was surmised that
ordinance had fallen from a bomb shackle on a parked B-57 and had
exploded. This set the B-57 on fire and
all the remaining bombs cooked off in the inferno that followed. Each explosion ignited other aircraft in the
vicinity and some of their bombs would detonate from the intense heat. Fortunately all of the bombs on all of the
aircraft did not explode, but those remaining were now shock sensitive from the
nearby heat and blasts. Another would
detonate the following afternoon while the bomb disposal teams were attempting
to defuse the remaining ammunition.
There were casualties but I never knew how many.
Missions resumed within a day or two, after the debris had been
bulldozed out of the way and all the cement surfaces had been swept clean to
prevent engine, propeller, and tire damage from metal fragments. For weeks afterwards we could find pieces of
jagged metal in the grass around our hooches and on
the roofs of flat containers and even in the base swimming pool. The accident was on all the newswires. I sent a quick note to my wife Kathy saying
we had a major accident on the base and that I was ok. I had been sending “I’m ok” notes anytime I
thought news of a mortar attack on the base or any other incident might appear
on stateside television.
Joe Connell
(Fourth from the left)
Editor’s
Note: A USAF investigation disclosed
that the probable cause was a VNAF A-1 Skyraider that
had a bomb loaded with a faulty installed safety wire. The aircraft had flown a
mission, where the bomb armed in the air. After landing VNAF munitions
personnel attempted to download the weapon and it exploded. Other sympathetic
explosions occurred and shockwaves broke the acid vials in delayed action fuses
adding to the holocaust.
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