Colonel John W. Haggerty III, the MAP G-3, point�ed out in late 1970:

One of the problems ... all over is going to be getting rid of real estate .... We don't want [the ARVN] to end up doing nothing but guarding property .... But we've got so darn much, . . real estate in Vietnam, not Just the Marine Corps but everybody, that it cakes twice the ARVN forces just to guard it ail. . . ."

In spite of these difficulties, III MAP gradually rid itself of its surplus real estate. Ill MAF turned over 26 camps and bases in Keystone Robin Charlie and Oriole Alpha. The Marines tried to leave each instal�lation immaculate and in good repair. Major General Widdecke, the 1st Marine Division Commander, ac�cording to his G-4, "was very interested in the Ma�rine Corps image in turning over this property" and insisted that electric fixtures and toilets must work and that screens and doors on huts be correctly installed. At combat positions, under division orders, "all waste will be buried [and] bunkers, trenches and fighting holes will be left in place."45

Ill MAF also tried to clean up its battlefield. In April 1970, Lieutenant General McCutcheon institut�ed a program to find and retrieve wrecked Marine tanks, amphibian tractors, aircraft, trucks, and other large pieces of equipment that littered the Quang Nam countryside after five years of war. Marines from FLC's Maintenance Battalion assisted by division and force engineer elements, located 144 hulks. Using cranes, bulldozers, and recovery vehicles, work crews extricated the wrecks and dragged them to the U.S. Army Property Disposal salvage yard. On one occa�sion, Company A, 1st Engineer Battalion dug up and turned in seven amphibian tractors buried near the 2d Battalion, 1st Marines CP at Camp Lauer. This par�ticular recovery required 714 man-hours of work and the employment of 13 cranes, tractors, and other pieces of earthmoving and salvage equipment. Helicopter support team Marines of Company C, 1st Shore Party Battalion, also played a large role in retrieval of aban�doned gear. For HST Marines this salvage mission usually required "an early morning home LZ helicop�ter pickup and insertion at a remote site to effect helicopter retrieval of downed aircraft and destroyed equipment." The mission often demanded ingenuity of HST Marines "to gain access and rig the lifts." Of the 144 wrecks located. Marines had removed 125 by April 1971. The Marines could have retrieved the re�maining 19 hulks only at excessive risk to men and equipment and hence left them where they were.48

The immense logistic effort accomplished its intend�ed purpose. When the last ship of Keystone Oriole Alpha, the USS Saint Louis (LKA 116), sailed from Da Nang on 25 June 1971, the only major pieces of Marine Corps material left behind were several Butler buildings packed on trailers and awaiting pick�up by a commercial roll-on-roll-off cargo vessel. Gener�al Armstrong reported: "As far as I know, that's the only usable property that belonged to us that was still there."47