We usta get daily convoys of 500-lb bombs from Da Nang for the Chi Lai airbase. The daily convoy arrived later than usual and a really (not) smart person parked all 17 S&Ps (flatbed trailers) of 500-lb bombs together in the center of air base ammo dump.
Rockets started coming in sometime after midnight. As luck would have it, one of those 122mm rockets landed in the airbase ammo dump. BOOM! Twas the biggest explosion I've ever seen in my life. We were 2 1/2 ~ 3 miles away from the airfield and the shock wave knocked me on my ass. The blast also threw a few F-4s on the maintenance pad thru nearby hangers.
From Chu Lai south for at least 15 miles China Beach was covered in burned gunpowder. Black sand.
Too bad we didn't have digital photography in those days. 
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