Khe Sanh - 1968: As a young 1st LT., I was the last military man out of Khe Sanh. No, I didn't plan it that way, but here is how it happened:

I was assigned to accompany an NBC film crew to film the last troops to leave Khe Sanh Combat Base. To accomplish this, a Huey dropped us off and left the area so there would be total silence and emptiness when the last ship lifted off.
      In due course, the last troops did their CSMO (artillery talk for close station, move out) and the last ship lifted off into the clear blue sky. The crew then panned around, with us quietly circling behind the cameraman as he pivoted, and did a short voice over about closing an era in military history. Memories of ghosts seemed to walk the red clay, still pockmarked with craters and a heavy scent of churned earth, gunpowder and gasoline.

      We all then sat down to wait. After about fifteen minutes, it occurred to me that, as a 1st LT., I was the only military man among the four men group and I didn't have a radio. I only had a .45 auto with the clip in it. I was really stupid (that thought occurred to me pretty often in 'Nam).

     
I started wondering how long it would take for anyone to miss us if anything happened to our chopper. I mean, the flight crew were the same guys that, a couple weeks ago, had flown me into the Z strafing bunkers with our .45's while waiting for a landing spot at one of the Charlie bases---I wasn't too confident in their return. Fortunately, a few minutes later they showed up just laughing and I loaded the camera crew on, spit once, and jumped on. I kept a pretty good grip on my M-16 and a couple bandoliers for several weeks after that.