Camp Evans Ammo Dump

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

May 19, 1968
Ho Chi Minh's Birthday
Camp Evans Ammo Dump Explosion
by Bob Witt (A/227)

We decided to celebrate Uncle Ho's Birthday after a long day of missions. Gathering on top of the still not completed bunker in the front of the company area we mixed "Screech" and gathered our ammo box chairs. Lounging in the last light of the day we heard a "THUMP" and focused our attention to a column of smoke rising from the division ammo dump across the flight line.
Great minds had placed the ammo dump in the middle of Camp Evans, surrounded on one side by the flight line. The ammo dump was over loaded with ammunition needed to support the intense combat that the Division had been engaged in, plus a large amount of captured enemy ammunition. After considering the folly of this arrangement other great minds devised "Operation Eagle". A plan where only Division Commander could order an evacuation of the flight line if something happened in the ammo dump. As it turns out the Division Commander was on R&R the night of Uncle Ho's Birthday.
We watched the smoke for a few minutes, and decided it was time to get our camera's. One of pilots set up his Tripod with a camera and a large lens attached. Then there was an intense detonation "BLAM!!!". The shock wave sent us all tumbling off the bunker. I looked over and saw the pilot, camera, lens, and ammo box chair tangled in a heap and shattered at the base of the bunker mound. One of the first casualties of that shock wave was our new six-hole latrine. It was occupied, knocked over and disintegrated. A series of huge explosions, detonations, and shock waves began and continued for 18 hours. We ran to our collapsed tents to get our flight gear. Some one yelled: "We don't have the order yet" The reply was: "#%! * the order". I ran towards the revetment when my helicopter was parked. Explosion shock waves knocked me down, and the "Zizzz WHAP!" of shrapnel made me crouch as I ran to the revetment. The crew chief was sitting casually on the revetment wall. I Yelled: "Untie the Blade" he replied; "We ain't goin nowhere." Running around to the left side of the helicopter I saw that it was shattered and destroyed. An unexploded artillery round had gone through the windshield and was lodged in the left seat.
That night and through the next day was like being in the middle of Dante's Inferno. When the ammo dump finally burned out perhaps over 100 helicopters were destroyed. The tents and other parts of company areas, and battalion headquarters, were burned and destroyed. EOD would take weeks to remove all the unexploded ordnance that littered the area.
About 40 of us spent the night crowded in the un finished bunker. At 2:00AM an unexploded 81mm motor round flew through the open door and landed in the middle of the group. The round was glowing red hot, sparking and spewing. The bunker emptied very quickly.
As best we could we crawled into our tents to retrieve our rifles and helmets, expecting that a ground attack was soon to follow. Fortunately, that did not occur. For the rest of the night I huddled against a sandbag wall and watched a sky full of burning roiling smoke from fires and explosions. Burning objects and ammunition rocketed high into the sky trailing smoke, fire, and debris. We drank water poured into helmet and passed around. Shrapnel cut through anything more than a few feet off the ground. Burning debris and unexploded artillery rounds would land with earthshaking thumps, causing a grimace waiting for an explosion. Intense and blinding heat would erupt as fuel storage depots erupted.
I have often though that some little NVA sitting in the mountains west of Camp Evans that night must have been stunned that his rocket caused the spectacle he was watching. All The helicopters assigned to Alpha Company, except one, were damaged beyond repair. A week later we were flying again with brand new H Model Hueys. For us it was just another day in the CAV.

Photos of the Camp Evans Ammo Dump