Lone,
What ever makes you think I am suggesting departing in the scenario you painted that closely approximates the situation the Crew was confronted with that night in Norfolk?
Military flying in combat is one thing and Corporate flying is quite another.
Once I lost the option to Legally depart from that field site I would have notified my Passengers and ensured they had overnight accommodation and I would have secured the aircraft and headed to the Pub for a Pint.
What the discussion has been about is how one "would" do such a take off in an aircraft equipped such as the one in question if One "were" to do so.
No one has suggested anywhere that I have seen that it would be the thing "to do". Quite the contrary, everyone seems to suggest it was "not" the thing to do.
As to doing the 0/0 take off thing, perch your aircraft on the deck edge of an elevated heli-deck offshore on a nasty night facing away from the Rig/Platform and any visible light and tell me about a visual transition to instruments after being at Vy and above MSALT! The instant you dip the nose on takeoff you are off into the Black Abyss. Every North Sea Offshore Pilot knows that as they do it very often.
The Army had different levels of clearance authorities and the highest level allowed the Pilot to be his own clearance authority and make 0/0 Takeoffs in helicopters and airplanes.
Those rules got scant notice during Vietnam combat operations for any number of reasons.
We pretty much just got after it and did whatever had to be done. We were judicious about how we went about it but the "Rule Book" was just a dusty Tome stuck into a Book Rack in Ops.
Most of my white hair came from such flying. My concern was not the take off but the landing part definitely was.