Ammo Dump, Part 2, transcript
notes: "--" indicates unintelligible words in a sentence.
"-" indicates a short pause.
statements inside [] indicates editor's note. [?] indicates a guess on my part.
statements inside () refer to what's happening on the audio.
=====================================
[pilot]
Dak To -- 053
[Ernie reporting]
Now the, uh, the artillery shells and stuff that are on the plane are exploding, it makes a louder bang than the mortars did even. I think you can hear them easily from in here.
[voice on radio]
Five -- Four
[pilot on radio]
eh, Dak To tower, Dak To tower, -- 079.
[controller on radio]
079 Dak To.
[pilot on radio]
Uh, roger. Are you open for business now?
[controller]
079, negative, our, uh, two C130s are still burning vigorously on the south ramp and the artillery shells they had inside are, uh, exploding at this time.
[pilot]
uh, is your POL -- correct? [inop?]
[controller]
uh, you can land northside POL, I believe it is still operational. We have a man out there manning the pumps.
[pilot]
(garbled)
-- aircraft -- radio -- POL operation -- open
[Voice in tower]
No, No, No.
[controller on radio]
Negative, only, uh, north side POL at pilot's discretion. South side POL is closed.
[pilot]
(unintelligible)
[voice in tower, maybe Ernie]
Boy, look at that ship swinging around.
(pause with explosions sounding)
[voice in tower, maybe Ernie]
There's, uh, 23 I think, another one was suppose to come in and try to refuel. You know what they oughta do is they oughta put - your thing is running - yeah, I know - they oughta put bladders all over the place.
Yeah.
They oughta put, uh, an av-gas bladder way down there at that end.
[pilot on radio]
Dak To, -- 305 -- POL -- avgas -- clear.
[voice in tower]
Yeah
[controller]
Roger, cleared for takeoff, cleared to depart to the east. Two on-fire C130s sitting west taxiway.
[voice]
East!
[pilot]
05 --
[voice]
No
[controller]
correct. 05 depart to the west
[pilot]
05 --
[another pilot]
Dak To -- 430
[controller]
430 Dak To
[pilot]
430 is the POL open here?
[voice of other controller]
No!
[controller]
430, if you wish to refuel with avgas you'll have to at your own risk
[other controller's voice]
No, EOD says that's negative, the runway is closed, the airfield is closed.
[another voice on the radio, another pilot? Operations Center? EOD?]
Dak To this is -- 5. I don't recommend refueling with avgas, there's a lot of shrapnel flying around down there.
[tower controller]
Roger, EOD has just closed the field due to a lot of shrapnel. [EOD=Explosive Ordinance Demolition]
[voice on tower]
That was all[?] aircraft
(garbled)
[pilot]
Dak To -- 656
[tower]
656 Dak To
[pilot]
Roger, 656 LOC pad. Can we get to, uh, north POL?
[voice on tower]
No, No, closed
[tower controller]
Unable to approve, uh, the field is closed to all traffic due to exploding shells -- two C130s.
[pilot]
Uh, roger, we are at the LOC pad at this time, uh, we are to depart for the -- area if it's OK.
[tower]
Roger, cleared for takeoff.
[another pilot]
Dak To, this is -- 43
[tower]
43 Dak To
[voice on tower (Ernie?)]
Wow! man that was low! You should have seen that one header[?], man, he zipped right over the field just about 100 feet off the ground, he hit that hill to the south of us.
[tower]
030 Dak To
[I believe this is the pilot]
(garbled talking)
430[?] -- tank just about empty, I had to get out of here the last time that we got mortared and I was flying around here for quite a while --
[controller on radio]
-- 430 be advised that the field is closed if you will - if your gonna land it will be at your own risk but I, uh, strongly, uh, uh, suggest that you don't because the, uh, artillery shells and stuff in these two C130s are being scattered all over the field.
(loud garbled voices)
[voice on radio]
-- understand right traffic 03 right[?]
[voice on radio]
430 Dak To
430 Dak To
430 Dak To Tower, over.
[tower]
(unintelligible)
[voice on radio]
430 Dak To Tower
[tower]
(unintelligible)
[voice on radio (pilot?)]
Uh, roger -- wanted this, uh, -- ton heliport -- MACV -- one and -- tomorrow northeast Dak to
[tower]
uh, roger, using the blacktop area for
[pilot]
430 say again
[voice]
blacktop area, that's the blacktop area
[pilot]
uh, 430, uh, negative, it's an -- area in the, uh, MACV compound, uh, to the west of the city of Tan Cahn, it's up on the hill. There's room for about six helicopters there.
[another pilot]
Roger, I'll look around a little more --
[another pilot calls in]
Dak To Tower -- 090
[tower]
090 Dak To
[pilot]
090 is 3 east for, uh, landing at the west end -- runway, over.
[tower]
090 be advised that the field is closed due to shrapnel flying from, uh, C130s on the, uh, south ramp. If you wish to land at west end, it it will be at pilot's discretion.
[pilot]
Roger
[another pilot]
Dak To, -- 305
[tower]
305 Dak To
[pilot]
305 runway center -- takeoff
[tower]
Roger, cleared for takeoff
[pilot]
(unintelligible)
[tower]
roger
[voice]
out
[tower]
out
[another pilot]
Dak To Tower 995 -- POL
(pause)
[Ernie?]
Hoo Wee, time for --
(explosion sound)
Look at those babies
[pilot]
Dak To --
[Ernie]
Hey, Hey, I see, I see one piece I'm gonna get. See that little piece of smoke right there? Right between the two revetments? - How is that cone over there? - it's too damn big.
There's a good little piece there, right over there. It's all burned out.
[pilot]
Dak To -- two-niner over (pause) all right -- 98 be advised we are to -- for landing, over.
[Ernie reporting]
The field is closed, I guess, uh, you know by now. The C130s are all exploding and stuff, and we have F100s making low passes about a mile to the south, or even closer than that, and they are hitting the hill right over here, just about a mile and a half away from us. Here comes another one, you can't hear him, too bad. I wish I had my camera. (roar sound) What did I say you can't hear him, he just gave 'em a strafing run with his 20 millimeter cannon.
[controller]
-- Dak To
[pilot]
(unintelligible question)
uh, roger, -- 602 -- replacement -- code 6 up there is using. Do you happen to know if 93 is still on the ground?
[tower]
602 I don't know if he is or not.
[pilot]
-- be real fine. Is it possible to land anywhere, uh, at this time?
[tower]
roger, if you wish, you can land at the west end of the field, there is no fire or, uh, no mortars landing at that end of the field.
[pilot]
roger, you still under attack?
[tower]
uh, not at this time, no, we're not under attack but we have artillery shells that were on those two C130s exploding.
[pilot]
OK, real fine, we'll come up and check it out
[tower]
roger
[someone calls out]
-- how many?
[Ernie]
They're all landing, there was six or nine, I think.
[pilot call in]
Dak To Tower Bikini --
[tower]
roger, cleared to land
[pilot]
uh, roger.
[someone]
Can't do it
[someone else]
counts off 12 of something
(pause)
[someone (Ernie?]
God damn, that's a perfect target for Charlie now.
[Ernie]
Charley's out there in any mood to do some firing
(pause)
[voices on radio]
(garbled conversations stepping on each other)
[tower]
roger understand
(more garbled conversations)
[tower]
roger
[Ernie]
That's the only bad thing about taping at one and seven eighths, you can't get it down to - you know when you were in here talking to aircraft and I was taping from out there, I could pick you up all right.
(garbled)
[pilot]
420 --
[Ernie]
All those sounds that comes from over there were all distorted, like -- --
[pilot]
Dak To, this is -- 430
[tower]
430 Dak To
(unintelligible conversation)
[tower]
-- roger, at the west end --
[pilot]
roger, --
[Ernie]
-- (kfcs?) under attack, huh? - They're not?
(pause)
I wonder what kind of ammunition they had in those, uh, C130s?
[another controller]
I don't know but it sure was loud.
[Ernie]
An awful lot louder than those mortars were.
(loud sound)
Wow, there's our boys out working out there. Where's that artillery, it should be coming down most any time now.
(more sounds)
This could be a tape to save for posterity when it's finished. "The Day Dak To got Attacked" for sure.
[another controller]
That's a three day
[Ernie]
Today's the third day?
[other]
(unintelligible)
[Ernie]
Well, I'll be jiggered! Three times in a row, three days apart, huh? God, I wish I had some more tapes. I gotta send a tape to a friend of mine at Kessler, let him know what we do out in the field.
[other]
Huh?
[Ernie]
I gotta send this tape to a friend of mine at Kessler, let him know what we do out in the field.
[pilot]
Dak To Tower, Cowboy four niner eight
[Ernie on radio]
498 Dak To
[pilot]
Cowboy four niner eight, what's your status at this time?
[tower]
498 the field is closed to all traffic, the two C130s on the south ramp, uh, their artillery shells are exploding.
[pilot]
roger
[another controller]
Is that what happened 0852?
[Ernie]
What?
[other controller]
When the last -- status, that's when it all started, huh?
[Ernie]
No, it started before that. It started before 7, just before 73 landed
[pilot cuts in]
Dak To Tower Blackjack 5, my, correction 589
[Ernie]
Just before 73 touched down.
[controller on radio]
589 Dak To
[pilot]
I tried to call Kontum. Uh, what's their freq [radio frequency]
[controller (Ernie?]
Their Fox Mike freq is, uh, 456
[pilot]
UHF 285 niner
(other voice on radio, garbled)
[another radio voice]
Dak To -- tower, Kontum tower, Blackjack --
[controller (Ernie)]
143 Dak To
[pilot]
uh, Roger, this is 143, uh, we're over at the gate[?] at this time, like to come over your north POL.
[another controller]
(garbled)
[controller]
143 be advised the field is closed at this time. Landing the north POL will be at your own risk.
[pilot]
Uh, roger, uh, we'll --
[controller]
Roger
(pause)
-- Dak To tower this is --
[Ernie]
Kind of quiet now, nobody is doing anything.
[other controller]
-- artillery -- come in
[Ernie]
Yeah, that's about right.
There's a little plume of smoke -- up there in that hill. Looks like a grenade, a smoke grenade or something. Right up there, doesn't look like a fire or --. Looks like a tree.
Funny there's no fires started out there -- fire starts. Must have started easy enough over here on the north side. Winds blowing now. -- 16 miles an hour.
[Ernie reporting]
It's been quiet here for about, uh, close to half an hour then all of a sudden I was just sittin here, you know, just, just sitting around and I just, kinda glanced over toward the C130s. The first one was is completely burned, there's nothing left but the tail. But the other one was just kind of smoldering, you know, the stuff was still leaking out of the wings, you know, was hitting the ground. All of a sudden this gigantic fireball just went up so I just, I just hit the ground and grabbed my hands over my head and there was this gigantic explosion, you know it was the, uh, ammo that was stored along side the, uh, right along side the plane just went up.
And now we have an ammo point. It's a great big section right off, uh, off the side of the runway. It takes up a whole corner of our field and it's just full of nothing but ammunition that we store up. And that's on fire now and all the ammunition out there is exploding. Well I guess we are going to have exploding ammo for some time yet.
There's a flying crane, a CH54 is gonna be coming in and, ah, it should be here in about 10 minutes or so to try and throw some foam on it. Right now the whole thing has just started up here and we have a gigantic cloud of smoke, man, it's just about uh 2 miles long and I don't know, couple hundred feet up in the air, and you can hear those explosions going, that's our, all of our ammunition, God, there's millions of dollars worth of ammunition sitting out there. That stuff sounds an awful lot louder than anything I've ever heard comin' in.
There's about 15 men who, uh, live over at the 15th aerial port. They have their, uh, tent, it just sits right off the side of the, uh, south ramp over there, and right now the fire is right in the middle of their area. They had a bunker sitting out behind their tent. I sure hope those guys are alive. I don't know. By the way it looks now I think they are all done for. Because, uh, the tent they lived in, we saw it catch fire a long time ago. And there was a, uh, a fork lift sitting right next to the place, and it has completely just burned down to the ground, you know, and it gets, it has to be kinda hot before you burn a fork lift all the way up. There's another one sittin there - well there goes the ammo, its just getting hotter, well you can believe how hot it is because there is one entire C130, there is absolutely nothing left of it, except for the tail. The tail is the only thing that's left of one of 'em, the rest of it is just nothing but ashes. And this other one is going to be that way before too much longer. The wings and everything are still intact, but the whole front end from the wings forward is nothing but ashes on that one, and the tail, of course, is all shot up.
But that was one, just one gigantic ball of flame that was sittin' off to the side there from that ammo exploding. I don't know, we're going be checking it out when we go over there. I'll probably be going over there as soon as its all over and we'll see what's left of the 15th Aerial Port.
I know for sure we've already had some casualties because I saw a couple of, uh, three quarters come by with, uh, men in the back, they're all bandaged up and some were pretty bloody lookin. And we had a, uh, armored personnel carrier come by and it was full too.
[Ernie calls out to another controller]
Hey, what's that Chinook doing out here?
Hey, what's that Chinook here for? What's he here for? Oh, yeah, I see it. A Chinook just landed on the runway and he's just full of foam. They're gonna use him to try and control these fires. I don't think they are even going to put them into use until, uh, the whole thing dies down because, I mean its just taking your life into your own hands when you get close to that exploding ammo. We have 175 shells, that's the biggest artillery that we're using in Viet Nam, and everything else you can think of, sittin' over in that ammo point and it's all going up.
Well the second C130 finally caught on fire. It's one big gigantic ball of flame, won't be too much longer before its gone. And, the stuff inside is going off. Boy, I tell you, that artillery is just flying all over the place and exploding, it's just as good as if Charlie was putting them on 'em, was laying them right on us. Boy, its giving us the same effect.
Boy, that was a big one. - I'm all right. That last explosion broke its back, man. The wings are on the ground. Won't be but a matter of minutes before there's nothing left.
[asking another controller]
Smoke, how high is that smoke anyway? That looks a couple thousand feet up, straight up.
[Ernie continues reporting]
Well, it's one o'clock now and I think the action is all over. All except for the billions and billions of aircraft we're gonna have coming into the area just to take a look at the big thing that just happened here. Ah, both aircraft completely burned, the other one sitting on the west taxiway and they're playing with it. I don't know what they're gonna do to get it out of here. EOD is running up and down the active finding all these duds and exploding 'em. And already we have north POL is, uh, full of aircraft refueling, you know, and reconnoitering the area and stuff like that.
We had a couple of, uh, ABC newsmen come up here. One of the guys came up here with his little movie camera and took pictures of the area and all this stuff, so for sure you're going to be hearing about Dak To, in the, in the newspapers, on TV and everywhere, you know. It's a big thing when we lose, uh, two half-million dollar aircraft plus all their cargo and stuff.
So, I guess this is it, just about the end of the battle of Dak To. Not too much else for me to say and it's a good thing because I'm running low on tape.
Hope you enjoyed this little episode in the daily lives of us hardy Dak To controllers.
All I can do is sit here and wait for you to send me some tapes because sorry to say this is the last empty tape I have. So I do hope you get a package together -- and you'll be getting more action and such from your war correspondent.
Good Bye.
"-" indicates a short pause.
statements inside [] indicates editor's note. [?] indicates a guess on my part.
statements inside () refer to what's happening on the audio.
=====================================
[pilot]
Dak To -- 053
[Ernie reporting]
Now the, uh, the artillery shells and stuff that are on the plane are exploding, it makes a louder bang than the mortars did even. I think you can hear them easily from in here.
[voice on radio]
Five -- Four
[pilot on radio]
eh, Dak To tower, Dak To tower, -- 079.
[controller on radio]
079 Dak To.
[pilot on radio]
Uh, roger. Are you open for business now?
[controller]
079, negative, our, uh, two C130s are still burning vigorously on the south ramp and the artillery shells they had inside are, uh, exploding at this time.
[pilot]
uh, is your POL -- correct? [inop?]
[controller]
uh, you can land northside POL, I believe it is still operational. We have a man out there manning the pumps.
[pilot]
(garbled)
-- aircraft -- radio -- POL operation -- open
[Voice in tower]
No, No, No.
[controller on radio]
Negative, only, uh, north side POL at pilot's discretion. South side POL is closed.
[pilot]
(unintelligible)
[voice in tower, maybe Ernie]
Boy, look at that ship swinging around.
(pause with explosions sounding)
[voice in tower, maybe Ernie]
There's, uh, 23 I think, another one was suppose to come in and try to refuel. You know what they oughta do is they oughta put - your thing is running - yeah, I know - they oughta put bladders all over the place.
Yeah.
They oughta put, uh, an av-gas bladder way down there at that end.
[pilot on radio]
Dak To, -- 305 -- POL -- avgas -- clear.
[voice in tower]
Yeah
[controller]
Roger, cleared for takeoff, cleared to depart to the east. Two on-fire C130s sitting west taxiway.
[voice]
East!
[pilot]
05 --
[voice]
No
[controller]
correct. 05 depart to the west
[pilot]
05 --
[another pilot]
Dak To -- 430
[controller]
430 Dak To
[pilot]
430 is the POL open here?
[voice of other controller]
No!
[controller]
430, if you wish to refuel with avgas you'll have to at your own risk
[other controller's voice]
No, EOD says that's negative, the runway is closed, the airfield is closed.
[another voice on the radio, another pilot? Operations Center? EOD?]
Dak To this is -- 5. I don't recommend refueling with avgas, there's a lot of shrapnel flying around down there.
[tower controller]
Roger, EOD has just closed the field due to a lot of shrapnel. [EOD=Explosive Ordinance Demolition]
[voice on tower]
That was all[?] aircraft
(garbled)
[pilot]
Dak To -- 656
[tower]
656 Dak To
[pilot]
Roger, 656 LOC pad. Can we get to, uh, north POL?
[voice on tower]
No, No, closed
[tower controller]
Unable to approve, uh, the field is closed to all traffic due to exploding shells -- two C130s.
[pilot]
Uh, roger, we are at the LOC pad at this time, uh, we are to depart for the -- area if it's OK.
[tower]
Roger, cleared for takeoff.
[another pilot]
Dak To, this is -- 43
[tower]
43 Dak To
[voice on tower (Ernie?)]
Wow! man that was low! You should have seen that one header[?], man, he zipped right over the field just about 100 feet off the ground, he hit that hill to the south of us.
[tower]
030 Dak To
[I believe this is the pilot]
(garbled talking)
430[?] -- tank just about empty, I had to get out of here the last time that we got mortared and I was flying around here for quite a while --
[controller on radio]
-- 430 be advised that the field is closed if you will - if your gonna land it will be at your own risk but I, uh, strongly, uh, uh, suggest that you don't because the, uh, artillery shells and stuff in these two C130s are being scattered all over the field.
(loud garbled voices)
[voice on radio]
-- understand right traffic 03 right[?]
[voice on radio]
430 Dak To
430 Dak To
430 Dak To Tower, over.
[tower]
(unintelligible)
[voice on radio]
430 Dak To Tower
[tower]
(unintelligible)
[voice on radio (pilot?)]
Uh, roger -- wanted this, uh, -- ton heliport -- MACV -- one and -- tomorrow northeast Dak to
[tower]
uh, roger, using the blacktop area for
[pilot]
430 say again
[voice]
blacktop area, that's the blacktop area
[pilot]
uh, 430, uh, negative, it's an -- area in the, uh, MACV compound, uh, to the west of the city of Tan Cahn, it's up on the hill. There's room for about six helicopters there.
[another pilot]
Roger, I'll look around a little more --
[another pilot calls in]
Dak To Tower -- 090
[tower]
090 Dak To
[pilot]
090 is 3 east for, uh, landing at the west end -- runway, over.
[tower]
090 be advised that the field is closed due to shrapnel flying from, uh, C130s on the, uh, south ramp. If you wish to land at west end, it it will be at pilot's discretion.
[pilot]
Roger
[another pilot]
Dak To, -- 305
[tower]
305 Dak To
[pilot]
305 runway center -- takeoff
[tower]
Roger, cleared for takeoff
[pilot]
(unintelligible)
[tower]
roger
[voice]
out
[tower]
out
[another pilot]
Dak To Tower 995 -- POL
(pause)
[Ernie?]
Hoo Wee, time for --
(explosion sound)
Look at those babies
[pilot]
Dak To --
[Ernie]
Hey, Hey, I see, I see one piece I'm gonna get. See that little piece of smoke right there? Right between the two revetments? - How is that cone over there? - it's too damn big.
There's a good little piece there, right over there. It's all burned out.
[pilot]
Dak To -- two-niner over (pause) all right -- 98 be advised we are to -- for landing, over.
[Ernie reporting]
The field is closed, I guess, uh, you know by now. The C130s are all exploding and stuff, and we have F100s making low passes about a mile to the south, or even closer than that, and they are hitting the hill right over here, just about a mile and a half away from us. Here comes another one, you can't hear him, too bad. I wish I had my camera. (roar sound) What did I say you can't hear him, he just gave 'em a strafing run with his 20 millimeter cannon.
[controller]
-- Dak To
[pilot]
(unintelligible question)
uh, roger, -- 602 -- replacement -- code 6 up there is using. Do you happen to know if 93 is still on the ground?
[tower]
602 I don't know if he is or not.
[pilot]
-- be real fine. Is it possible to land anywhere, uh, at this time?
[tower]
roger, if you wish, you can land at the west end of the field, there is no fire or, uh, no mortars landing at that end of the field.
[pilot]
roger, you still under attack?
[tower]
uh, not at this time, no, we're not under attack but we have artillery shells that were on those two C130s exploding.
[pilot]
OK, real fine, we'll come up and check it out
[tower]
roger
[someone calls out]
-- how many?
[Ernie]
They're all landing, there was six or nine, I think.
[pilot call in]
Dak To Tower Bikini --
[tower]
roger, cleared to land
[pilot]
uh, roger.
[someone]
Can't do it
[someone else]
counts off 12 of something
(pause)
[someone (Ernie?]
God damn, that's a perfect target for Charlie now.
[Ernie]
Charley's out there in any mood to do some firing
(pause)
[voices on radio]
(garbled conversations stepping on each other)
[tower]
roger understand
(more garbled conversations)
[tower]
roger
[Ernie]
That's the only bad thing about taping at one and seven eighths, you can't get it down to - you know when you were in here talking to aircraft and I was taping from out there, I could pick you up all right.
(garbled)
[pilot]
420 --
[Ernie]
All those sounds that comes from over there were all distorted, like -- --
[pilot]
Dak To, this is -- 430
[tower]
430 Dak To
(unintelligible conversation)
[tower]
-- roger, at the west end --
[pilot]
roger, --
[Ernie]
-- (kfcs?) under attack, huh? - They're not?
(pause)
I wonder what kind of ammunition they had in those, uh, C130s?
[another controller]
I don't know but it sure was loud.
[Ernie]
An awful lot louder than those mortars were.
(loud sound)
Wow, there's our boys out working out there. Where's that artillery, it should be coming down most any time now.
(more sounds)
This could be a tape to save for posterity when it's finished. "The Day Dak To got Attacked" for sure.
[another controller]
That's a three day
[Ernie]
Today's the third day?
[other]
(unintelligible)
[Ernie]
Well, I'll be jiggered! Three times in a row, three days apart, huh? God, I wish I had some more tapes. I gotta send a tape to a friend of mine at Kessler, let him know what we do out in the field.
[other]
Huh?
[Ernie]
I gotta send this tape to a friend of mine at Kessler, let him know what we do out in the field.
[pilot]
Dak To Tower, Cowboy four niner eight
[Ernie on radio]
498 Dak To
[pilot]
Cowboy four niner eight, what's your status at this time?
[tower]
498 the field is closed to all traffic, the two C130s on the south ramp, uh, their artillery shells are exploding.
[pilot]
roger
[another controller]
Is that what happened 0852?
[Ernie]
What?
[other controller]
When the last -- status, that's when it all started, huh?
[Ernie]
No, it started before that. It started before 7, just before 73 landed
[pilot cuts in]
Dak To Tower Blackjack 5, my, correction 589
[Ernie]
Just before 73 touched down.
[controller on radio]
589 Dak To
[pilot]
I tried to call Kontum. Uh, what's their freq [radio frequency]
[controller (Ernie?]
Their Fox Mike freq is, uh, 456
[pilot]
UHF 285 niner
(other voice on radio, garbled)
[another radio voice]
Dak To -- tower, Kontum tower, Blackjack --
[controller (Ernie)]
143 Dak To
[pilot]
uh, Roger, this is 143, uh, we're over at the gate[?] at this time, like to come over your north POL.
[another controller]
(garbled)
[controller]
143 be advised the field is closed at this time. Landing the north POL will be at your own risk.
[pilot]
Uh, roger, uh, we'll --
[controller]
Roger
(pause)
-- Dak To tower this is --
[Ernie]
Kind of quiet now, nobody is doing anything.
[other controller]
-- artillery -- come in
[Ernie]
Yeah, that's about right.
There's a little plume of smoke -- up there in that hill. Looks like a grenade, a smoke grenade or something. Right up there, doesn't look like a fire or --. Looks like a tree.
Funny there's no fires started out there -- fire starts. Must have started easy enough over here on the north side. Winds blowing now. -- 16 miles an hour.
[Ernie reporting]
It's been quiet here for about, uh, close to half an hour then all of a sudden I was just sittin here, you know, just, just sitting around and I just, kinda glanced over toward the C130s. The first one was is completely burned, there's nothing left but the tail. But the other one was just kind of smoldering, you know, the stuff was still leaking out of the wings, you know, was hitting the ground. All of a sudden this gigantic fireball just went up so I just, I just hit the ground and grabbed my hands over my head and there was this gigantic explosion, you know it was the, uh, ammo that was stored along side the, uh, right along side the plane just went up.
And now we have an ammo point. It's a great big section right off, uh, off the side of the runway. It takes up a whole corner of our field and it's just full of nothing but ammunition that we store up. And that's on fire now and all the ammunition out there is exploding. Well I guess we are going to have exploding ammo for some time yet.
There's a flying crane, a CH54 is gonna be coming in and, ah, it should be here in about 10 minutes or so to try and throw some foam on it. Right now the whole thing has just started up here and we have a gigantic cloud of smoke, man, it's just about uh 2 miles long and I don't know, couple hundred feet up in the air, and you can hear those explosions going, that's our, all of our ammunition, God, there's millions of dollars worth of ammunition sitting out there. That stuff sounds an awful lot louder than anything I've ever heard comin' in.
There's about 15 men who, uh, live over at the 15th aerial port. They have their, uh, tent, it just sits right off the side of the, uh, south ramp over there, and right now the fire is right in the middle of their area. They had a bunker sitting out behind their tent. I sure hope those guys are alive. I don't know. By the way it looks now I think they are all done for. Because, uh, the tent they lived in, we saw it catch fire a long time ago. And there was a, uh, a fork lift sitting right next to the place, and it has completely just burned down to the ground, you know, and it gets, it has to be kinda hot before you burn a fork lift all the way up. There's another one sittin there - well there goes the ammo, its just getting hotter, well you can believe how hot it is because there is one entire C130, there is absolutely nothing left of it, except for the tail. The tail is the only thing that's left of one of 'em, the rest of it is just nothing but ashes. And this other one is going to be that way before too much longer. The wings and everything are still intact, but the whole front end from the wings forward is nothing but ashes on that one, and the tail, of course, is all shot up.
But that was one, just one gigantic ball of flame that was sittin' off to the side there from that ammo exploding. I don't know, we're going be checking it out when we go over there. I'll probably be going over there as soon as its all over and we'll see what's left of the 15th Aerial Port.
I know for sure we've already had some casualties because I saw a couple of, uh, three quarters come by with, uh, men in the back, they're all bandaged up and some were pretty bloody lookin. And we had a, uh, armored personnel carrier come by and it was full too.
[Ernie calls out to another controller]
Hey, what's that Chinook doing out here?
Hey, what's that Chinook here for? What's he here for? Oh, yeah, I see it. A Chinook just landed on the runway and he's just full of foam. They're gonna use him to try and control these fires. I don't think they are even going to put them into use until, uh, the whole thing dies down because, I mean its just taking your life into your own hands when you get close to that exploding ammo. We have 175 shells, that's the biggest artillery that we're using in Viet Nam, and everything else you can think of, sittin' over in that ammo point and it's all going up.
Well the second C130 finally caught on fire. It's one big gigantic ball of flame, won't be too much longer before its gone. And, the stuff inside is going off. Boy, I tell you, that artillery is just flying all over the place and exploding, it's just as good as if Charlie was putting them on 'em, was laying them right on us. Boy, its giving us the same effect.
Boy, that was a big one. - I'm all right. That last explosion broke its back, man. The wings are on the ground. Won't be but a matter of minutes before there's nothing left.
[asking another controller]
Smoke, how high is that smoke anyway? That looks a couple thousand feet up, straight up.
[Ernie continues reporting]
Well, it's one o'clock now and I think the action is all over. All except for the billions and billions of aircraft we're gonna have coming into the area just to take a look at the big thing that just happened here. Ah, both aircraft completely burned, the other one sitting on the west taxiway and they're playing with it. I don't know what they're gonna do to get it out of here. EOD is running up and down the active finding all these duds and exploding 'em. And already we have north POL is, uh, full of aircraft refueling, you know, and reconnoitering the area and stuff like that.
We had a couple of, uh, ABC newsmen come up here. One of the guys came up here with his little movie camera and took pictures of the area and all this stuff, so for sure you're going to be hearing about Dak To, in the, in the newspapers, on TV and everywhere, you know. It's a big thing when we lose, uh, two half-million dollar aircraft plus all their cargo and stuff.
So, I guess this is it, just about the end of the battle of Dak To. Not too much else for me to say and it's a good thing because I'm running low on tape.
Hope you enjoyed this little episode in the daily lives of us hardy Dak To controllers.
All I can do is sit here and wait for you to send me some tapes because sorry to say this is the last empty tape I have. So I do hope you get a package together -- and you'll be getting more action and such from your war correspondent.
Good Bye.