“A Wake Up Call To Remember”
Tay Ninh Base Camp Attack, 23 July 1971

The attack started approximately 0200 hours (2:00AM) on the 23rd, so everyone was sleeping in their billets at that time. There were approximately 10 or 12 of us in my billet.

There were people from other units on the base standing guard along with the ARVN’s and one of them killed a Viet Cong Sapper right outside one of our billets during the attack.

The majority of the damage to our detachment area was caused by mortars. I recall that the consensus among the members of the detachment was the Viet Cong walked them in until they starting hitting the billets.

	The VC Sappers also lobbed satchel charges in between the sandbag walls and the buildings. It was a nicely coordinated effort on their part, they were pretty much in and out. There was only the one sapper killed as they ran through the compound, that I can remember.

No one was in the Provost Marshal Office building at the time of the attack, but there was a weapons shed attached to the side and a detention cell (a modified artillery shipment container) attached to the rear of the building.

We actually had two soldiers locked up that morning when the attack started. The two began shouting for someone to get them out. I can’t recall who got to them and let them out during the attack. Needless to say, we never saw or heard from them again.

The mortars also struck and destroyed the detachment outhouse, fortunately there was no one inside at the time.

Bates, Baker, Binder and Timson were all very, very short at the time and I can remember listening to them howling during the attack about their bad luck in getting hit so close to leaving.

As you might expect, my recollections are somewhat blurred after 30+ years. I vaguely remember a ceremony on-site a few days after the attack where a number of the men from the detachment were awarded Purple Hearts as a result of wounds received during the attack. I believe there were seven or eight of them. I know there were more wounded than not, all from shrapnel. I also recollect a couple of the men who were more seriously wounded were dusted off to the hospital in Long Binh Post later in the morning of the day of the attack, our interpreter Thom I believe was one of them.

Additional information on the detachment members that were present during the attack, please contact the History Project Manager via the Email Link on the 23 July 1971 Time Line page.

SP/4 Timothy A. Roy, C & A Company, 720th MP Battalion, March 1971 to March 1972