From the S&S archives:
Stripes' newsman killed in action near DMZ

SAIGON (S&S) — Pacific Stars and Stripes staff correspondent Paul D. Savanuck, who fought to come to Vietnam and "face something head-on," was killed Friday night in a North Vietnamese attack little more than a mile from the Demilitarized Zone.

He had been a member of Stripes' Vietnam Bureau for just two weeks. He was the first Stripes correspondent killed since the Korean war.

Although the battle occurred Friday, details of Savanuck's death could not be released until his parents could be notified.

Savanuck, 23, was one of 11 Americans slain when NVA soldiers and infiltrating sappers overran pact of a night encampment occupied by C Troop of the 3rd Sqdn. 5th Cav. Regt., about four miles northwest of Cam Lo, a town in the flatlands of upper Quang Tri Province. Twenty-three other Americans were wounded, and 13 enemy bodies were found in and around the camp site when the fightings ended early Saturday.

The young newsman was hit in the back by one or more bullets from an automatic rifle. He was hit in the early minutes of the battle, which started at about 8:30 p.m.

Savanuck had been on his way to do a story on pacification operations near the DMZ.

He was raised in Baltimore and was a senior at Maryland State University when he enlisted in the Army. It was his 21st birthday, March 24, 1967. He'd been restless and not very interested in college and wasn't going to graduate on time, he said.

Savanuck was sworn in on July 10 and sent to Ft. Benjamin Harrison for advanced military journalism training after basic. There, he asked for Vietnam.

"I wasn't particularly enchanted with the U. S. involvement in Vietnam and especially the idea of going there," he wrote once. "So I asked for assignment to Vietnam.

" ... A thought had hit me — this was a point in my life where I could meet something head-on instead of avoiding it."

The Army sent him to a missile operation center in Germany. He didn't like it but he worked harder than he had at college and got promoted so Specialist 5. He asked again for Vietnam. He was promised another promotion if he canceled his transfer request. Now, he had started to like Germany and Europe but lie still wanted Vietnam.

Savanuck waited three months for his transfer.. It didn't come. Then he wrote to the officer in charge of military journalists for Vietnam and got an answer. Twelve days later, he had his orders for the war zone.

He got to South Vietnam late last June and joined the information office staff of the 23rd Arty. Gp. at Phi Loi. There he became section chief. He wrote well and fast enough to increase his outfit's news releases and at the same time travel around the country.

He had decided to be a newsman. Last October he cabled Stripes' Saigon offices and asked for a job — Pacific Stars and Stripes Vietnam Bureau is maintained largely by military enlisted men, some of them on temporary duty from the major combat units in country. There was no opening.

He came back seven times in six months. The seventh time there was a spot, and his commander agreed to grant Savanuck TDY orders. He reported for work April 4.

Last Monday, after having turned in some stories and photos from Tay Ninh Province, he volunteered to go to I Corps for a pacification story. After arrival at Da Nang, he found other stories on hand and it was Friday before he tied up with a 5th Div. armored unit heading north to the site of his planned story. He never got there.

Savanuck had a letter Harvard University, asking for admission. He wanted to get degree after lie was discharged. A copy of it was given to his fellow Stripes staffers to "proof read."

"I have found what I want to do," it said near the end. Paul Savanuck died doing it well.