A/N:

So, this chapter really kicked my butt. It's the reason there was a hiatus for as long as there was. It just didn't want to be written, but here it is. I'm still not entirely satisfied with it, but I've tried to go back and get it right multiple times and it just isn't happening, so~ Whatever. There's a sex scene in this chapter. It does not get very explicit, but if that's not your thing, feel free to skip it. It's very obvious which set of paragraphs it is, and I separated the only plot-important bit from the rest of that chunk.

Chapter 5

When Klaus had used the term 'child soldiers' to describe himself and the others in the Academy, he'd never known how accurate he was. Now that he was living and serving as an actual soldier, all those lessons he'd never fully managed to suppress became useful.

Guns had been less of a focus than hand-to-hand combat, but anything Reginald Hargreeves taught the children was required to be learned to absolute perfection. Because they were often fighting armed criminals, that meant knowing how to handle guns was on that list. He had never used the specific model of rifle that was supplied to him, but after several weeks of skirmishes, he was officially known as one of the best shots in the unit.

Actual physical combat, on the other hand… well. He was lucky that the war was fought with weapons, not fists. Training at the main base, "Tan Son Nhut Air Base," included physical combat anyways, and while Klaus knew the strategies and moves better than any of the other men, he just didn't have the muscle to back it up (at first). Unlike his father however, the sergeant was impressed and encouraging.

All of the soldiers were impressed and encouraging.

Klaus had always picked up new things quickly - he'd had to - so he fell into the lingo and routines very swiftly. It was clear to everyone in his squad that he'd never actually gone to boot camp, but that wasn't important to them. He was here, fighting, just like the rest of them. Dave took him under his wing most of all. It was from Dave he learned what Sarge had been yelling the first night: 'Charlie's on the wire.' Charlie referred to the Vietcong. It was taken from the phonetic alphabet abbreviation, Victor Charlie, and dropped to just Charlie. The wire meant the outskirts of their camp. It was important to know what everyone was talking about so that when they came under fire again (which happened multiple times during their retreat to Saigon), everyone was on the same page.

It astounded Klaus that no one really questioned where he had come from. The squad was very tight knit, a closeness that can only be formed from fighting for their lives together. This was nothing like what he'd had with his family. Their father had encouraged competition between them, something One and Two and Five had thrown themselves into. They all wanted to be the best. Their triumphs were theirs alone, and used as a benchmark to berate the rest of them with. Here, one man's success was the squad's success. They worked with each other instead of against each other.

It was like nothing Klaus had ever experienced. Every time he looked at the briefcase and considered trying to use it again, he found himself drawn back into the feeling of being part of a team and decided to wait. (It's not like he could actually die here, after all.)

It took a month of fighting and marching to reach the airbase in Saigon which was their current objective. Apparently there was some huge attack on the base right before Klaus had arrived in 1968, along with multiple other offenses which were launched at the same time.

All his knowledge of the future was useless here. He didn't really know much about the Vietnam War - Dad hadn't been too concerned with teaching them history when he thought missions were more important. The only thing Klaus remembered about the war was that it was widely regarded as a mistake, and something about protests.

Now his power over the dead, on the other hand… Klaus was glad he had never managed to find another moment alone to reinstate his barrier to block the dead after the first time he was told about a landmine no one else had noticed. It was a Vietnamese ghost, muttering about how great it would be to see the enemy blown to pieces, who drew his attention. He managed to stop the procession just in time. The others berated him at first, right up until he brushed away the dirt and leaves which had hidden the weapon from view. After that, he made sure to keep a close eye on all the dead soldiers, both the Americans and the enemy. That first mine he had found was considered luck, but as he saved more and more soldiers, he was moved closer to the front of the lines whenever they were marching.

They always moved in two lines with excessive distance between each of them, weighted down by what had to be at least fifty pounds of supplies (he latched the briefcase onto his backpack, and the others never said a word about it). He couldn't really get away with using telekinesis to make his load lighter without it swiftly becoming obvious, so Klaus labored on like all the rest, gritting his teeth through the muscle soreness. He much preferred the stretches where they were able to be bussed around (those were unfortunately few and far between - this was an active war zone, after all).

It was on the first bus ride where he had his first real conversation with Dave. Looking at the man's soft smile, Klaus had to remind himself that this was the 60's, and the army disapproved of gays. It didn't matter how attractive Dave was, Klaus didn't chase straight men. But when Dave smiled at him… that was the first time he considered not bothering with finding a way to work the briefcase.

Their friendship only deepened when they finally reached Saigon. The battle had been won long before they reached the city. While they initially had some work reinforcing the airbase in case of further attacks, it quickly became obvious that there was no further incursion incoming. Because Klaus' squad had been on the frontlines for significantly longer than Klaus had been with them, this meant they were given a lot of downtime. At the start, they were encouraged to stay on base, which is where Klaus received a tongue lashing for "losing his dog tags," and sent to the personnel office to acquire new ones. He also was forced to do a shitload of push-ups, and only avoided punishment detail by the number of lives he'd managed to save on the way to the base. (He'd been told that if he ever lost them again, the punishment would be latrine duty… he'd watched the other soldiers move and burn the giant barrels of waste, and he very much would never be part of that.)

The constant exercise and training helped Klaus pack on a lot of muscle, but he was still glad when they were finally told they could have some time off in the city. The first thing he did was grab Dave and drag them both to a store for party clothes. Dave chose something extremely tame, but Klaus picked out something he could actually feel comfortable in (although he did avoid anything too feminine - he wanted to have fun, not deal with slurs). They met up with some of the others from their squad at the disco, and Klaus remembered his joking backstory for Five's eyeball quest ("we met at the… disco!"). He realized it was the first time he thought about the apocalypse quest for quite some time. He ignored that in favor of joining the others on the dance floor.

This - this was exactly what he had needed. He had fallen into the soldier mindset far too easily. Yes, he had been avoiding going home, but really, what was waiting for him there? A bunch of assholes for siblings, an asshole for a mentor, a dead asshole of a father, and an impending apocalypse. At least here, in the war, he was surrounded by people who actually liked him. It wasn't something he could ever remember wanting, but now that he had it, he wasn't sure he wanted to give it up. And it wasn't like the war would be able to kill him - nothing could kill him! He wasn't truly risking his life here, like the others. And maybe the 60's weren't an optimal time for someone like him, but he had the Stonewall Riots to look forward to. Once he made it to the States, he was sure he could find other members of the LGBT community. And in the States, his knowledge of the future would definitely come in use - he wouldn't even need blackmail to make money, he would just need to invest in all the companies and inventions which he already knows will make it big.

Klaus was brought out of his thoughts by someone stumbling into him. He turned with a joking fist raised, and met Dave's eyes. Dave who had been there for him this whole time, who had sat and laughed and joked with him for hours, who was currently staring at him with… longing? Admiration? Love? No. It couldn't be. He was used to gazes filled with lust and hunger. He knew what that looked like, and this wasn't it.

When Dave brought him to the bar, he indulged in a few shots with the others, but he made sure he didn't have enough to get drunk. This was still a war zone, and he didn't need to lose his powers when there could be danger at any moment.

They moved back onto the dance floor with some of the girls in the club, but somehow he and Dave wound up orbiting each other again. He didn't know what it was that kept drawing him back to Dave. Normally if he was attracted to someone, they fucked and he got it out of his system. But with Dave… he didn't feel like he wanted just a quick fuck.

Somehow, they ended up in one of the back rooms, where the music was quieter and there were no other patrons. Despite the amount of open space, Dave chose to lean against the wall directly next to him, their shoulders pressing together.

"You looked like you were having fun out there," Dave turned a shy smile his way.

"I love the disco. Don't you?" Klaus grinned.

"It's nice," Dave agreed, "although I'm not nearly as confident as you are out there. Every eye was on you…" he trailed off.

"Including yours?" Klaus waggled his eyebrows, expecting a joke.

"Yes, including mine," Dave stated firmly. "Klaus, you are beautiful."

Klaus had done more than his share of clubbing, and he'd received more than his share of compliments from guys (and gals) looking to get into his pants, but he'd never been called beautiful, and never in that tone.

He stared at Dave in a sort of stunned disbelief, and Dave raised one of his hands and gently cupped Klaus' cheek (so cautious, like he was cradling something precious), and with that look of devotion in his eyes - Klaus melted into him. He'd never been touched so carefully in his life.

His lips parted, but he couldn't find words to respond, and Dave was so close, so warm, and he leaned forwards…

The kiss was simple, nothing more than a press of their lips together, but somehow it was better than any he'd ever had before. He tried to lean further, to deepen it, but Dave held him steady. He was slow, and careful, and tender. Klaus knew kissing, but he'd never had one like this. It didn't feel like it was leading to more, like it was just a precursor to sex. It felt like they could stand there for hours doing nothing more than this, and Klaus could be happy with it.

What was Dave doing to him? He'd never been this soft about anything.

He got the urge to pull away, to back off, to find someone for a quick fuck and act like this had never happened. It's what he should do. What Frank would want him to do. Frank would be so disappointed with him right now - no. He didn't care what Frank thought anymore. His opinion didn't matter, Klaus could do whatever the fuck he wanted, and he wanted to stay here, with Dave.

That first night, Dave didn't let it go further than kissing, no matter how much Klaus pushed. He said he wanted to do this right. And by this, he meant an actual relationship. A real, adult romance between two men in the 1960's in the middle of a fucking war zone. (Klaus was besotted).

They stole time together just as they had before, but now, all of their conversations were filled with the undertones of their relationship. It felt intimate in a way he had never experienced before. Their time together was filled with firsts that Klaus had never anticipated. Just as he had never anticipated enjoying it so much. Dave was always so careful with him, as though he was something delicate which could break easily. No matter what Klaus did to try to break that impression, it never worked. Klaus knew he was harsh, and jaded, and a pessimist, but Dave was such a bright, shining optimist, that Klaus could actually see building a future with him. It terrified him in a way nothing ever had before. It was wonderful.

They had a relatively peaceful month in Saigon before they were redeployed back to the actual fighting. When they received the orders, the whole squad went out together, and they all got matching tattoos with their brigade stated proudly. It almost reminded Klaus of receiving his umbrella with the others, except that was a brand of ownership, and this was a mark of pride. They were a part of the 173rd, the first brigade to enter combat in Vietnam, and the most skilled soldiers in the fight. They were on the front lines, and were a necessary part of the war effort. This time, when the others tried to pull him into a hug, Klaus returned it happily. This is what a team felt like. This is what family felt like. The Academy had never been a real family. They were just a bunch of soldiers living under the same roof. Only, he didn't even want to call them soldiers anymore, because that was an insult to his unit. They were a bunch of snobbish, militant, children (...yeah, Klaus included. But he was learning. The others never had.).

It was harder to steal time together while in the field, but that didn't mean it was impossible. Whenever possible, Klaus and Dave were joined at the hip. They maintained a platonic air around the other men, but Klaus had never known there were so many parts to a relationship outside of intimate acts. When Dave finally asked him about his family, Klaus didn't hesitate when he gave the whole truth. He spoke of mysterious births, a billionaire who never should have been approved to adopt children, a torturous upbringing with six other siblings, and all their unique abilities. He had been prepared to offer a demonstration as proof when Dave asked for it, and was astounded when Dave immediately accepted his word for it. No one had ever believed in him like this before. (He still demonstrated his telekinesis the next time they were alone, using it to hold Dave against a tree. He still insisted they didn't have actual sex until they had an opportunity to do it properly (there was a proper way to fuck?), but he did concede to more passionate kissing, to Klaus' delight.)

It was six months into their relationship (seven months since Klaus had landed in the past), and they hadn't even had sex yet, when Dave first said "I love you." It was the first time the words had ever been directed towards him, and Klaus was dumbfounded. Dave was staring at him so earnestly, even as he explained that it was alright if Klaus couldn't say it back yet, but they were in the middle of a war and could be separated at any time, and he needed Klaus to know before it was too late.

Klaus didn't even know what love truly felt like, but he imagined it was something like the fluttering feeling in his chest whenever he saw Dave looking at him like that. Dave knew him better than anyone else ever had, and loved and accepted him anyway. He couldn't speak the words back, and as Dave had promised, he wasn't hurt or offended by it, but that night, Klaus waited until everyone else was asleep and then slipped out of camp with the briefcase.

He walked until he was outside of hearing distance, then set the case down and stared at it. Home - he had never had anything he'd truly thought felt like home. The future wasn't his home. LA wasn't his home. The Academy was the farthest thing from a home. But Dave - Dave was everything.

With a flick of his fingers, the briefcase tore itself apart, metal components rattling as it exploded.

This was his home now.

After months of fighting, Klaus' squad returned to Saigon and finally were given downtime again. He managed to sweet talk the Sarge into giving them all a whole night to themselves (much to his squad's pleasure). Almost immediately, he dragged Dave to a motel. He had waited so long for this, for Dave to finally give in.

"Almost," because Dave insisted they go out for dinner first, in what felt suspiciously like a date despite the lack of romantic atmosphere.

But finally, they had their own room in a cheap motel, and a nice queen bed.

The moment the door was closed, Klaus was pushing Dave back, removing their clothes. His motions were almost frantic, and he hoped the months of buildup didn't cheapen the actual reward.

"Klaus," Dave murmured against his lips. "It's okay, you can slow down. We have all night."

"I've waited so long for this Dave, I don't want to wait any longer," Klaus was already down to his underwear, an expert at quickly removing his clothes. Dave was slightly more stubborn and had only lost his shirt.

"I told you, I want to do this right," Dave gave that soft smile Klaus loved so much, and Klaus could never say no to him. He took a step back, spreading his arms wide. He would let Dave take the lead here. Whatever Dave wanted.

Dave stepped closer to him, pressed their chests together, and then reached a hand up to cup his cheek, just as he had that first night in the club. He held them together like that for a few moments, not kissing, just breathing the same air. When he finally closed the last few inches, Klaus melted into his embrace, struggling not to push for more than what Dave was offering.

He needn't have worried too much, because the kiss was certainly one of their more passionate ones, but somehow it felt different than when Klaus himself was leading it. He found himself encircled by Dave's arms, and gently led to the bed, their lips not separating for more than an instant. Dave's pants finally hit the ground before he joined Klaus on the bed.

He wasn't sure what exactly he expected, when everything with Dave had already been so different from his past experiences, but he thought they would jump into the main event now.

Instead, Dave seemed content to lay with him, exploring each other's mouths. He didn't know how long had passed when Dave finally moved again, but he merely was taking his time, exploring his body, and avoiding the one area Klaus really wanted him to touch.

"Dave, please," Klaus whimpered, as fingers danced along his thighs.

Dave smiled at him from between his legs, and Klaus nearly turned into a puddle. Goddamn.

But finally, finally, Dave removed Klaus' underwear, and bent his head further down.

Klaus threw his head back as Dave's mouth engulfed him. He was so caught up in the sensation, he hardly noticed when a slick finger prodded between his cheeks (when and where had Dave found lube?). As with everything else, Dave took his time with this too, despite it not truly being necessary. Klaus'd had plenty of sex with no actual preparation before. Still, it felt amazing, and it was Dave, so that was even better.

By the time Dave finally deemed it enough, it felt like Klaus had been begging for hours. He was impatient as Dave moved back up his body and kissed him again, barely patient enough for the condom to roll on (he knew how big of a deal AIDS would blow up to be at some point in the future). They remained face-to-face as Dave pressed inside, holding him so carefully, and moving so slowly… Even once he was fully seated, he was so gentle, not moving at all even as Klaus begged for more. He waited until Klaus' voice died down to move, and each thrust was like a revelation. Klaus had fucked before, he'd had sex in every position imaginable, but never like this. He'd never been loved like this. He didn't realize there were tears falling from his eyes until Dave brushed them away, kissing the tracks left behind. Dave Dave Dave Dave, he chanted. It was the only thing in his mind. I love you, I love you, I love you, Dave said back, both with and without words. When they climaxed, it was together, and Klaus had never come so hard in his life.

Afterwards, he lay in Dave's embrace, and the words that had been building all this time fell from his lips. "I love you too," Klaus nearly whispered. "And I'm not just saying that because of the mind-blowing sex, although I loved that too." He felt Dave smile against his back. "I didn't think I was even capable of this. Of feeling for someone like this. But I do. I love you."

"I love you too," Dave responded, and Klaus believed him.

The next day, Klaus found a discreet tattoo artist, and had a symbol of his love written across his abdomen. He wanted this, needed this, a constant reminder of this feeling. "Klaus loves Dave." None of the other men in the unit speak or read Vietnamese despite their current location, so that was a safer language for it than English.

Hiding behind sandbags, surrounded by his squad and gunfire, Klaus had never felt more alive. He adjusted his grip on his weapon, taking advantage of a brief lull in shots to fire back. Almost immediately he faced return fire, and he dove back down, cackling. "Christ on a cracker! That was a close one, eh Dave?"

He turned to glance at his partner in crime, and froze.

"Dave?" he pushed against his shoulder, and Dave slumped over, revealing the wound in his chest.

No. NO.

"Medic!" Klaus screamed, even as he tried to stop the bleeding. He already knew it was too late. "No, no, no, no, no!" This was the man he'd left everything for! He wasn't allowed to die!

He pressed harder against Dave's chest, even as Dave coughed and struggled to breathe. His palms wet with blood, Klaus pulled back slightly to get a better look at the wound, then froze.

This… This was not a wound from enemy fire. This was the exit wound. The shot had come from behind them.

It felt like the world had stopped around him, the gunfire and explosions freezing along with everything and everyone else. And then he realized, it had all stopped. He had stopped it. He was holding the entire battlefield, enemies and friendlies alike, his telekinesis applied on a much larger scale than anything he had ever even attempted. He reached out, flinging his power outwards, searching, searching, even as he clutched Dave to his chest, and then - there.

Klaus opened his eyes. He was holding a gun that was far too modern to belong to this time period, eye still pressed to the scope. Through it he could see his own body, could see Dave's body, could see the unnaturally still battlefield.

He pulled his eye away from the gun and looked down. He was wearing a tailored suit, much too clean to belong here, on the front lines of Vietnam. He was perched in a sniper's nest, a cursed briefcase resting near his feet. Klaus set the sniper rifle down, reached for the pistol he could feel holstered at his waist, and placed the barrel between his teeth.

When he pulled the trigger, he found himself back in his own body, Dave's blood staining his hands. He saw Dave try to say something, but the pain and blood loss was too much… He coughed again, then fell back to the ground, still.

"NO!" Klaus yelled, screamed, cried. And with his yell, the world resumed. The men around him started yelling, panicking, but there were no more shots being fired at them. Despite the panicked soldiers, there were no more shots being fired at all. All the enemies on the other side were dead. Upon inspection, it would be found that it looked as though they'd all pointed their guns at each other and pulled the trigger, but Klaus wasn't aware enough to even notice his squad cautiously leaving to investigate. He remained clutching Dave's body, waiting. He'd died violently, his ghost should already be here. Where was he?

"Dave!" he cried out again, and then he slumped over as everything went black.

Klaus woke up. He wished he hadn't. There was no moment of disjointedness, no brief second where he forgot what had happened - no. Dave was dead. He'd been killed, not as part of this war they were fighting in, but by the same assholes who wanted to trigger the apocalypse.

He looked around, and found he was in one of the tents back in camp. He was on a bedroll on the ground. There were a few others who were also unconscious, and multiple dead in the same tent. Dave wasn't among them.

Dave knew about his powers, and Dave was dead. If he wanted to see Klaus, he would already be here.

Klaus felt empty inside, like he'd been hollowed out to make room for something new, but now the new was gone. Or maybe it had never actually arrived. He pushed himself to his feet with still-bloodstained hands, and made his way out of the tent. He immediately knew where their dead had been stored - the tent was swarming with new ghosts, clamoring and crying.

It was a simple matter to enter the tent, and find Dave's body. As he'd thought, there was no one else around.

He knew Dave wasn't really here anymore, that this empty shell wasn't the man he - the man he had loved, but he also knew what Dave's faith meant to him.

He knelt next to the body, and grasped its hand. He would take up shemira until someone else could. He would do this for Dave, and then he would take down the fuckers who killed him.

When Klaus was finally relieved from his position, he took Dave's dog tags with him, and left his own clenched in the man's fist. There were enough men left in their squad that there was no way Dave's body would be misidentified. He made it clear to the soldier who had entered - one of the newer guys that he didn't really know well yet - that Dave could not be left alone until they were ready to send him back to the States. He was sure he had scared the kid, still covered in blood as he was, but he couldn't really find it in himself to care.

Klaus took his gun and a spare ammo belt and nothing else. Then he walked back into the jungle. He hadn't known exactly where they were when he woke up, but it was easy to follow the trail of the dead back to where the battle had been.

Once there, he used his power and pulled the assassin in front of him. The man was short and balding, inconspicuous. "Why Dave?" He demanded.

"What, I don't -" the man stumbled over his words.

Klaus narrowed his eyes, and pressed with his power. "Why. Dave?"

"I - I don't know. I'm just a worker bee, not a case manager. I get a name, I terminate them, that's how it works. I don't choose the targets!" The man looked terrified, but Klaus couldn't empathize.

"You're going to tell me everything you know about your organization, and then you're going to tell me how to work your stupid briefcase."

After wringing every possible detail from a very cooperative spirit, Klaus reached out again, and gripped the very fabric of the man's soul, as he had to Frank only ten months earlier. This monster had killed Dave. He could no longer be allowed to exist. It wasn't something he had ever tried before, but he found it very instinctual. Within moments, all that was left of the assassin was tattered remnants of his soul, which quickly drifted away. The screams had been nearly therapeutic.

With a flash of blue, Klaus opened his eyes in 1955. The Temps Commission. He needed to find the Handler. Either she gave the order, or she should know who would.

He appeared in what seemed to be a courtyard. The biggest building had smoke pouring out of one of the windows, and there were people running out of the building screaming. Someone had beaten him here.

There was no point in asking nicely for directions when everyone was screaming and running, so Klaus pulled at one of the freshest spirits. The older woman who appeared before him told him her name was Gloria, and she was a fount of information. He found out who was in charge of the apocalypse, where the Handler would be headed, and what had happened here. Five had happened here. The Five who looked thirteen, that is. The little psychopath had both helped and hindered - he now knew more than he would've if Gloria hadn't been killed (apparently she was a "very vital cog"), but he had also taken part of the pleasure of destroying this place away from him. Whatever. He'd just have to be more thorough than Five had been.

He ignored the busy bees running around him (without noticing a soldier whose arms were covered in blood? What must their lives be like…) and entered the main building. He followed Gloria's instructions and made his way into a room full of typewriters. (There were so many rooms like this he would have gotten lost without his guide.) This specific room was empty except for a darker-skinned woman who was flipping frantically through several folders.

"That's her," Gloria confirmed.

Klaus considered firing his gun, but he didn't want to ruin any of the files. Instead, he snapped her neck with his telekinesis before she even took note of him - too kind of a death for a person like her, but he was out of patience.

Her ghost emerged very soon after, helped along by Klaus' rage. "Hello Dot. I hear you know a thing or two about the apocalypse. You're going to tell me everything you know."

When Klaus was finally finished with the Commission, he left a smoldering ruin devoid of both life and unlife. Let them try to rebuild from that. He took his time with the Handler's death. She'd already been damaged from what Five had done, but she had never expected him. She was the one who figured out Dave's death would be necessary to return Klaus back to 2019. The only problem is, she was working with out-dated information.

Five had changed everything when he chose to leave the Commission and travel back in time. In fact, the dominoes from that one act had already been enough to at the very least postpone the apocalypse. It had also led to Hazel and Cha-Cha being sent after him, which resulted in Klaus' kidnapping, which gave him the briefcase, and left him stranded in 1968. If Five had never come back, then Klaus would never have been sent back in time, and never would have summoned Frank. He would never have had a relationship with Frank at all. And from the information in the Commission's files, well. Klaus had done the right thing in not destroying him yet. The Klaus that never received that tutelage, who had never gotten stronger, had fallen so deep into drugs that he didn't even know he had powers beyond seeing the dead. And that was the Klaus the Commission had been anticipating, all this time. It was truly a shame they hadn't been more thorough, but then, he guessed he was the one better off for it.

All of the Commission's dead had a number of secrets they had sworn never to reveal, and all of them fed those secrets to Klaus. When he was done with them, he ripped their spirits to shreds. (Well, some of them. Most he saved for later - there were a lot of dead to go through). He certainly had done enough damage that the Temps Aeternalis would be left reeling.

Klaus took the last surviving briefcase, the one he'd arrived with, and returned to 2019.

A/N:

Just a couple notes. I am not a soldier/veteran, and while I did some searches on the Vietnam War and consulted a friend who IS a veteran (although she served in Iraq). I did my best to maintain an air of accuracy. The 173rd was actually a real brigade, so I did some research on what battles they fought in, but there wasn't much for the time Klaus arrived. What did happen was the start of the Tet Offensive in January, so in my timeline, that's when he arrived in '68 - January. During the Tet Offensive, there was a genuine attack on Saigon, including the base mentioned in this story. But as I said, I am far from an expert on the Vietnam War. If you saw anything I got wrong, feel free to let me know so I can fix it. (The battle where Dave dies obviously doesn't have any actual historical relevancy).