The orange light flashed across the Afghanistan sky in the camp where he stood, and Randall Pinkston thought he was going to die.  “I thought ‘Oh my God, I’m out of here’,” said Pinkston, CBS news correspondent, as he described his near death experience to a University crowd of about 100 students Thursday night.  The former White House correspondent and three-time Emmy award-winning journalist told a group of students and faculty in the Journalism Building about his experiences in Baghdad, Tora Bora and Jalabad at the front lines of the War on Terror. He also talked about the importance of good reporting.    Pinkston was a foreign corespondent in Afghanistan  when the war was raging in 2001. He told his audience he reported when Osama bin Laden was last spotted leaving his camp and later found out it was possibly the last time anyone reported seeing him.Pinkston said he was in a dangerous place, but the experience was worth it to inform the public about the truth. “I walking around Osama bin Laden’s camp,” Pinkston said. “[Later I realized] it was certainly possible the camp could have been booby trapped.” But Pinkston didn’t have an easy start getting into the broadcast journalism scene. He said he grew up in Jackson, Miss. where the only two TV stations didn’t employ minorities.The only minority working at one of the stations was the janitor, Pinkston said. But after the FCC began to pressure the stations, they began to recruit minorities.Raimy Living, Association of Black Communicators president, said Pinkston was an inspiration to everyone and was honored to have him speak, especially during black history month. “What is important is diversity,” Pinkston said explaining he has fought for all kinds of diversity in his writing. He charged his audience to always be truthful and in writing to focus on the safety and well-being of the nation.”If you can look around and say I made someone’s life better … that wouldn’t be a bad legacy to leave behind,” he said. The Association of Black Communicators sponsored Pinkston’s visit, and the Manship School of Mass Communications funded his trip. —-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]