Bunker 051 at Tan Son Nhut, Tet '68

Bunker 051 at Tan Son Nhut Tet ‘68

Tan Son Nhut AFB just outside of Saigon was the target for the North Vietnamese directed Viet Cong 269th Main Force Battalion during the 1968 Tet Offensive. The most notable terrain feature in the attack on the air base was Bunker 051 which faced Route 1.

Here is a link to one of the many good online articles on the fight around this bunker:
https://vspa.com/tsn-o51-bunker-tet-coggins-to-the-last-man-1968.htm

The bunker was held by four USAF sergeants and one USAF Tech Sgt. Four of them died defending the bunker. The concrete bunker itself was originally built by the French. The Americans added a sandbag bunker on top.

Ever since reading A Hundred Miles of Bad Road by Dwight Birdwell (who was there in the ¾ Cav) and Keith William Nolan, and The Battle for Saigon: Tet 1968 by Keith Nolan, I have wanted to play a game involving the fight in this area.

I am crazy enough to want to have a bunker that was at least close to looking the way it should.

Here are photos of the original bunker, one before and the other after the fight. Most of the damage the bunker suffered was to the rear.





I commissioned a talented wargaming friend of mine to build a model for my 20mm figures of the concrete French portion of the bunker.  I used a resin sandbag bunker for the top. It was made by Ironclad Miniatures.

Here are a couple of photos of it.





I eventually ran a game based on two successive scenarios from Ambush Valley by Piers Brand and JosephTrevithick. I plan to do an AAR of that when I can.

Tom

Wow Tom, you really got that to look the part!

The French left some cool stuff behind after they were there.

Thanks , Todd.

That bunker, at least the concrete part was still standing not to terrible long ago. I forget the last date I read that said it was there. But it was many years after the war. I also forget where I read it.

Probably gone now.

Tom

Still, that's some pretty solid construction. Wow.

Looks like a good match to me.  Looking forward to your AAR(s).

cool

That is really cool!
Sounds like we need our on-site correspondent OTB to go take a recon! And n ow for the weather...

Did someone say "recon"? Well I have done an initial search...

So this bunker was on the Western end of the runway.....

Here's the map from Tom's linked article:



From the photos etc., it is clear what the location of the bunker is.

Let's have a look at Google Maps and see how it looks today:



Although the north-south runway was demolished to make way for construction of the new terminal late last century, the east-west runway is still the same and the airport boundaries have not changed...

There are still a lot of war-era structures along the runways: you notice the old holding pens for fighter aircraft etc. as you come into land and taxi to the terminal, but you don't get to see what's on the end of the runways when landing unless you're in the cockpit.

Let's look at Google's satellite view:

From the 1968 map, it looks like the bunker was located at the boundary, running in a straight line from the end of the bottom lane of the east-west runway. That area is now part of a building's site. It looks like there's a Volkswagen dealership where the bunker was.

However, if we look down the eastern end of the runway...



Those structures look suspiciously like bunkers to me....  

Presumably there's a security fence, but it is near the road....  

I could give it a go, but given it is a national security area, it might be the Radio Saigon incident all over again... (which involved a PAVN soldier toting an SMG telling me to clear off).  Maybe I could wave my "get out of jail free" pass at them...  

OTB wrote:
I could give it a go, but given it is a national security area, it might be the Radio Saigon incident all over again... (which involved a PAVN soldier toting an SMG telling me to clear off).  Maybe I could wave my "get out of jail free" pass at them...  

I haven't posted about the Radio Saigon incident - that'll be my next post in the SGC.

We should probably start the "OTB Bail Fund". Worse comes to worse it can quickly be transferred into the "OTB Memorial Fund"

OTB wrote: I haven't posted about the Radio Saigon incident - that'll be my next post in the SGC

Good! I was just thinking on the weekend we're long overdue for one of your amazing tales, over at the Club.

Darby wrote:We should probably start the "OTB Bail Fund".  Worse comes to worse it can quickly be transferred into the "OTB Memorial Fund"

Hey, I know you've seen "Uncommon Valor". We can just rescue him that way. Or hire the A-Team...

FlyinSquirrel wrote:Or hire the A-Team...

IF you can find them.

Well, OTB asked if his SOG get out of jail free card would help. I definitely think that it would. I think his Caravelle Hotel luggage tag with the Republic of Vietnam stylized flag, and his Air America luggage tag would help too.

Of course thanks to the propaganda and censorship ( I mean enlightened education and re-education) by Uncle Ho's successors, you may have trouble finding anyone under the age of 60 who even knows there was a Republic of Vietnam from 1954 to 1975.

I think the luggage tags should be attached to the guitar case and OTB should wear a dark suit. Just maybe one of the guys with an SMG will have seen a movie about American gangsters in Chicago during prohibition walking around in dark suits and carrying violin cases. All of that may intimidate the bad guys.

But then again it may not, so it might be wise to have things covered at home for an extended, or even permanent, absence.

Tom

GarryOwen wrote:I think the luggage tags should be attached to the guitar case and OTB should wear a dark suit. Just maybe one of the guys with an SMG will have seen a movie about American gangsters in Chicago during prohibition walking around in dark suits and carrying violin cases. All of that may intimidate the bad guys.

Darby wrote:We should probably start the "OTB Bail Fund".  Worse comes to worse it can quickly be transferred into the "OTB Memorial Fund"

FlyinSquirrel wrote:

Darby wrote:We should probably start the "OTB Bail Fund".  Worse comes to worse it can quickly be transferred into the "OTB Memorial Fund"

Hey, I know you've seen "Uncommon Valor".  We can just rescue him that way.  Or hire the A-Team...

The A-Team would probably be the son of the North Vietnamese fighter ace: "He's just a crazy round-eye interested in the war..."

Garryowen wrote:Well, OTB asked if his SOG get out of jail free card would help. I definitely think that it would. I think his Caravelle Hotel luggage tag with the Republic of Vietnam stylized flag, and his Air America luggage tag would help too.

Of course thanks to the propaganda and censorship ( I mean enlightened education and re-education) by Uncle Ho's successors, you may have trouble finding anyone under the age of 60 who even knows there was a Republic of Vietnam from 1954 to 1975.

I think the luggage tags should be attached to the guitar case and OTB should wear a dark suit. Just  maybe one of the guys with an SMG will have seen a movie about American gangsters in Chicago during prohibition walking around in dark suits and carrying violin cases. All of that may intimidate the bad guys.

But then again it may not, so it might be wise to have things covered at home for an extended, or even permanent, absence.

Tom