“I stayed up that night, and at around 0200 on the 29^th walked around to check on the Marines at their posts,” said Sgt. Ted Murray, who arrived at the Saigon detachment the previous December.  “Almost all of them smiled and asked for some sleep, something that we all needed, but they were Marines – Embassy Marines -- and they knew their job.”

  The last MSGs Murray visited were Lance Cpl. Darwin Judge and Cpl. Charles McMahon Jr., who assumed their Post 1 positions at midnight.  At approximately 3:30 a.m., a series of randomly-launched rockets began pounding the air base.  As Marines poured from their quarters and began to assess the situation, it was discovered that Post 1, the closest position to the main gate, had taken a direct hit.  The two MSGs manning this position, Judge and McMahon, had been killed during the attack and subsequently became the last U.S. service members to die as a result of enemy fire on Vietnamese soil (See sidebar.)