(VOV) - George Esper, who covered the war in Vietnam for the Associated Press over nearly a decade, has died at the age of 79.
On February 3, his son, Thomas, said that his father passed away in his sleep on February 2.
Esper was the AP bureau chief in Saigon during the last two years of the war and when the war ended in April 1975, he refused to leave his post, remaining behind to cover the fall of Saigon.
He later covered the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Esper became an AP special reporter when he returned to the US, retiring from the AP in 2000 to teach journalism at West Virginia University.