Col. David Odell; Turned Over U.S. Command to S. Vietnamese

David A. Odell, 72, retired Air Force officer who officially turned over American command to the South Vietnamese in 1973. Odell flew 53 combat missions during the Vietnam War and was commander of the 377th Air Base Wing in Saigon. He earned international attention in March 1973 when he became the last U.S. officer to relinquish his post, turning over command of the Tan Son Nhut Air Base to his South Vietnamese counterparts. Odell had trained many Vietnamese officers and, after the war, sponsored Vietnamese refugees who emigrated to the United States. He retired as a colonel in 1974 and moved to La Jolla, where he became active in historic preservation, coastal conservation and legislation dealing with hazardous materials. Born in St. Paul, Minn., Odell was drafted into the Army in 1942 during his freshman year at the University of Minnesota. He was soon sent to West Point, where he studied military engineering and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force. He later flew with the Strategic Air Command. On March 27 in La Jolla of lung cancer.