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~ 720th Military Police Battalion Reunion Association ~ Vietnam History Project ~

Reflections - The Ambush At Gasoline Alley #1
12 May 1967

I was the MP who was riding partner with CPL Cliff Walker on the Bien Hoa Town Patrol on the night of this ambush. We heard the ambush help radio call from Gasoline Alley and drove quite a distance to the scene where the gun jeeps had fallen back and parked. As I vividly remember, I was surprised we made it to the scene because Walker was driving really fast. I was concerned we would turn over the jeep when we did the corners getting out to Highway 1-Alpha from downtown Bien Hoa.

When we arrived in the dirt parking lot at Gasoline Alley, the highway patrol unit members were in shock, badly shot up and several were injured. I remember we were not at the scene very long when Corporal Pratt decided we would all make a run to the evacuation hospital at Long Binh.

While CPL Cliff Walker drove the open top jeep, I drove the armored gun jeep with PFC Bill Sanders, who was deceased and in the rear gunners compartment. PFC Harold Newcomb, who was also wounded and in severe shock was in the right-front seat of the jeep.

As we sped north up Highway 1-Alpha towards Long Binh Post I discovered that one of the jeeps front tires had been shot flat. I kept going until we reached the gate nearest the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, Long Binh. When we turned off of Hwy 1-Alpha into the post gate, I almost lost control of the jeep. We were running on the metal wheel rim and the sparks were flying everywhere.

When we arrived at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital, we started immediate triage and transferred the wounded inside. Almost simultaneously, a medic or doctor came out, climbed in the rear of the gun jeep and pronounced Bill Sanders dead. We lifted him from the gunner's area, placed him on a gurney and covered it.

Bill Sanders, Harold Newcomb and CPL Pratt were in my platoon, First Platoon, 615 MP Company. While this incident occurred in May, every Christmas since that year (1967) I think about that night and Bill Sanders.

I have talked via email with PFC Harold Newcomb about this incident.

I left Viet Nam right after the First Tet Offensive, 1968. I was reassigned to the 287th Military Police Company, West Berlin, Germany. I left the army in 1969 as a Sergeant E-5.

After the my service years, I graduated from college and served with the Los Angeles Police Department for seven years. In 2004 I retired from a Northern California sheriffs' department and am enjoying retirement.

PFC Steven C. "Apple-Knocker" Jones, 615th MP Company, 720th MP Battalion, 89th MP Group, 18th MP Brigade, February 1967 to March 1968.

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