I saw a huge ammo dump explosion nearly 40 years ago

[Jackpine Radical]

in Vietnam. It was the 1st Cav ammo dump, and it was hit when it was very full of munitions, just before the Cav went in to Khe Sanh to dig out the Marines who had been besieged there since Tet. The dump was hit by one or more 122mm rockets and blew off all night.

THERE WERE NO CASUALTIES. NONE. Ammo dumps are designed to blow safely.

Keep this in mind when you hear stories about more current events.

[knowbody0]

1. definitely arrogance and stupidity in command

[onenote]

2. thanks

Its amazing how some DUers, who probably wouldn't know a munitions storage facility if they were standing on top of one, are so certain about what happened at Camp Falcon (although if you asked them where Camp Falcon is, its size, the type of structures, the location of personnel, and any other details about the place, you'd be met with total silence).

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. I saw a big fuel storage tank blow once

Across from a marina I was living in down in the Keys. I was close enough to feel the heat on back has I was running away. Somehow no one got hurt but a lot of people went swimming that day.

[acmejack]

4. The biggest concern I have is when I hear that we were already

short on ammo. That means the guys are using old crap of dubious reliability, too. I don't know if you remember some of that old stuff with the exudate and the dates from forties. There is still some people that claim that kind of stuff caused a lot of the problems the Navy had with their big guns, including the Iowa incident, but that is another story.

You hear of them buying up ammo from from foreign manufacturers and horror stories of the guys being short of ammo when they go out on patrol, it doesn't inspire confidence. I hope those tales are just bs & I am taking them for that until I get better confirmation. I wouldn't expect our guys to go out short of the most basic of combat necessities-munitions.

[truedelphi]

6. Plus it's been the WORD for the last two years

Our military encourages the Iraqi Government to get its own people in uniform and serve in the Army there (Hmm - wasn't that why we attacked in the first place - to get rid of the Iraqi Army? Jon Stewart's thinking - not mine)

We often do not give these Iraqi men in uniform anything more than the words to the song "YMCA"

If you think our guys go out on missions with short supplies, don't even think about The Iraqi patrols.

[yellerpup]

5. Thank you for this insight

Just as I suspected. 300 casualties made no sense at all. Thanks for your service and for your calm voice of experience.

[Sapere aude]

7. I saw an ammo dump blow at Ben Hoa air base during Tet.

We were driving along the road at night going to our position to defend our work site when the pad over the storage dump for the stores that the jets carried blew up. The concussion pushed our truck in the ditch along the side of the road. It looked like a mushroom cloud even though it was night time. We were not injured but I don't know about any one else. The explosions went on all night. I read a book about Vietnam a few months ago and found out that we were attacked by 12 divisions of North Vietnamese regular army troops.

[Jacobin]

8. Kickin it

I don't think this will sway some, but I think we have enough problems and disasters without making the ones we have seem worse.

[DemoTex]

9. The spectacular Cam Ranh Bay ammo dump blow of 1971 ..

No US casualties. A few VC sappers died. See my earlier post at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2556214#2556879



One of the 21 15K bombs that exploded at Cam Ranh Bay (notice the shock waves)


The $11-million ammo dump blow (1971)