Word: rocketings
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Already safely out of Indochina were the other men who had covered the disintegration of Cambodia and South Viet Nam for TIME: Peter Range, William McWhirter, David Aikman and former Phnom-Penh Stringer Steven Heder. All looked back on two months of dangerous work during which they often dodged rocket-borne shrapnel while moving among insurgent armies and panicked refugees; they took sad professional satisfaction in being able to report the end of the tragic story. News of the evacuation also stirred memories among the correspondents who have reported Indochina's wars for TIME since our Saigon bureau opened...
...ATTACK. At about 4 a.m. Tuesday, the Communists launched a massive rocket and artillery assault on already beleaguered Tan Son Nhut air base. Some 150 rockets and 130-mm. shells whined in, forcing an immediate halt in the ongoing evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese. From the sanctuary of the Continental Palace Hotel, Western correspondents and cameramen listened to an account of the attack on the UHF frequency used by the U.S. mission: "The ices [International Commission for Control and Supervision] compound is burning . . . The back end of the gymnasium's been hit . . . My God, control, we've got two Marine...
During the preceding eight days, U.S. planes had evacuated almost 40,000 American and South Vietnamese refugees from Tan Son Nhut airbase near Saigon. But by last week, the airlift was growing increasingly dangerous. Artillery shells and rockets closed Tan Son Nhut airport Monday morning. Next day a U.S. C-130 transport was hit by a rocket on the runway and burst into flames as the crew escaped. A short tune later, two U.S. Marine corporals guarding the U.S. defense attache's compound at Tan Son Nhut were killed by Communist artillery...
...buses began to move again and headed toward Tan Son Nhut-right into the rocket belt. Guards at the gate were firing at the buses. Pillars of black smoke rose from the airbase ahead. Over the radio we heard our own Marine escort ("Wagon Master") ask Dodge City, "What's the situation at the gate?" "Bust it if necessary," came the reply...
...been here four years," she said later. "These have been good years until this week. But this has been the saddest ever." The day before, 90 children from the convent had been taken out to Tan Son Nhut but had been unable to get on a plane before the rocket attack began. "Oh God, I hope they got home," said Sister Fidema...