Forty five years ago today at about 4 am on April 29, 1975 two young Marines died in a rocket attack on the Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon. Those men, 21 year old Cpl. Charles McMahon from Woburn Massachusetts (May 10, 1953 – April 29, 1975) and 19 year old LCpl. Darwin Lee Judge of Marshalltown Iowa (February 16, 1956 – April 29, 1975) died instantly when a PAVN rocket made a direct hit on Guardpost 1 outside the Defense Attaché Office Compound where they were assigned to provide security during the evacuation of Saigon in the final hours before operation Frequent Wind.
McMahon and Judge were the last U.S. casualties on the ground in the Vietnam war. The two Marines had been in country only a week.
Cpl. McMahon and LCpl. Judge were assigned to the Marine security detail at the U.S. Embassy and if they had been on duty there on April 29th — 30th despite the chaos that enveloped the Embassy compound during the final hours of the evacuation, they would have evacuated by helicopter from the embassy rooftop along with the rest of the Marine security detail and in all likelihood would have survived their brief tour of duty. However, because of their youth and inexperience, their commanding officers assigned McMahon and Judge to the airport security detail because they believed the young Marines would be safer there. Such is fate in war.
Saigon fell the next day on April 30th, bringing an end of sorts to a long running tragedy.
I relate to Darwin Judge — we were about the same age in 1975 and like me Darwin Judge was an Eagle Scout who had also played second base on his midwestern little league team. While I protested the war and resisted the draft, Judge volunteered and joined the Marines during in his senior year is high school, knowing full well that he would be sent to Vietnam. After graduating at the top of his class in boot camp, Judge was assigned to the Embassy Security detail in Saigon, an honor reserved for Marines judged to be the most proficient and capable, the very best of the best.
In his short time in Vietnam, Judge made a difference in the lives of at least one family. He is remembered by fellow Marine Doug Potratz for his help in evacuating Potratz’s three-year-old step daughter Becky. Potratz had difficulty getting her on a plane out of Saigon, and succeeded only when Judge intervened.
"He picked her up, put her on his back, piggyback style, and quick as a bunny ran, ran out to the plane and put her on the plane," Potratz said.
Darwin L. Judge and Charles McMahon have their names etched in stone on panel 1W, line 124 on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial www.nps.gov/… They can be found at the V shaped bend at the center of the wall, where the circle closes and the names of those killed at the beginning of the war abut those of the last United States servicemen killed.
As I write this diary I am compelled to make an unreasonable comparison between the current Covid-19 epidemic and Vietnam. Just 10 or 12 weeks into the Covid-19 epidemic, as politicians blindly talk about ‘reopening’ the country, the US death total has now passed that of all 58, 220 service men and women who perished in nearly two decades of US involvement in Vietnam www.npr.org/… www.nationalgeographic.com/...www.nytimes.com/...
There is unlikely to ever be an accurate count of the Covid-19 death toll, or a permanent acknowledgement of the last person to die of Covid-19, let alone a monument to record those who have passed. The virus has now spread around the globe to every country and will surely be endemic for years to come. Even with a vaccine (should one ever be developed), there is a chance that Covid-19 will still be with us years from now. I expect that five years from now, on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, this comparison will appear trivial, as the cost in human lives from Covid-19 will by then be many many times that of the tragic toll in Vietnam.