history

31 January Me Wood, Specht, and I think Webb, and a few of the other guys were on the the roof of the Team Villa, having a few drinks, and watching the Tet fireworks when one of the guys noticed that the bottle rockets were going pretty straight, they were tracers. Keep in mind that back then, we would go anywhere in civvies, unarmed. I guess I was the only one that night that was always paranoid and never went anywhere without my 45. When we realized that we were under attack, we made a run for our Villa, about 400 Yards. I was the only one with a weapon, so I would stop and fire at nothing, but what did they know, you could hear the rounds going by, you know the sound, sounds like angry bee's. firing the 45 must have worked, we all made it back OK.

Back in our own Villa the other guys were already on the balcony returning fire. One thing about an MP convoy recon unit, we had a lot of M-60's and ammo. We cut a hole in the roof so we could access the roof from one of the rooms, and we had a pretty wide field of fire from up there. The hard part was all the sandbags we put up there, a Chicom round would go right through those hollow brick walls they made the Villa out of. We held out till morning, then Sarge determined that it would be best to head for the airfield and fortify it to make a stand.

We loaded up with as much ammo as we could carry, and made our way to the airfield. Before we left we took as much ammo as we could carry, but that meant that we had to leave al lot of small arms ammo behind.

We booby trapped the ammo room. We guessed that if Charley wanted our arms room, he would check for wires first, (all we did was lay wire out that anybody could see so he would think it was booby trapped), my god man we were MP's, not demo guys. We told "Gleeful Schaefer", the radio call sign for the river boats, and the gun-ships (Swamp Fox's) that we were leaving, and that any activity after that was the enemy. When we made it to the airfield we took up positions in bunkers with the other airfield guys. I had plenty of ammo on me plus my M-14, M-79 grenade launcher, a 45 Cal. Grease gun, hand grenades, and extra M-60 barrels. One of the airfield guys told me that if I would of taken a round, I'd have gone up like a roman candle.

Once I sat down and the adrenaline (a wonderful drug) wore off, I couldn't get up. The mortars were falling pretty regularly but they were after the aircraft, not the bunkers. We Stayed at the airfield for a day, then went back to our Villa. In the daylight we could see what kind of beating it took. One thing we forgot to do was let the brown water navy know we were back. They shelled the hell out of us, one of them owes me an Akai reel to reel tape deck that a 50 Cal. round tore up!

We know today that what the ten of us were up against was a Battalion sized unit of NVA Regulars, I think we did our country proud. Specht took a round in the leg but wouldn't leave his M-60. We kept them from using the highway that ran in front of our Villa, and made it a little tougher for them to move out of Vinh Long toward the airfield. Thanks to the Swamp Foxes and the guys in the Brown water Navy, we drove the VC out. That day we knew the war had changed. SP/4 Eldon Banegas, 148th MP Platoon, 557th MP Company, 95th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, June 1967-March 1968.

SP/4 James F. X. Gilmartin, a machine gunner, with complete disregard for his personal safety exposed himself to enemy fire and ground attack. He maintained his position and provided cover fire while the rest of his detachment evacuated the compound. Because of his actions, his comrades were able to escape without losing a single man. On 7 March SP/4 Gilmartin was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for Valor.

Shortly after the Tet Offensive (Jan-Feb) the operational, administrative and logistics support for the 148th MP Platoon changed from the 557th MP Company, 95th MP Battalion (Long Binh Post) to the 300th MP Company (Physical Security Saigon Military Port), 92nd MP Battalion, located at Pershing Field, Saigon, giving them a command closer to their area of operations.