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thedrifter
12-04-03, 12:11 PM
Issue Date: December 08, 2003

Lore of the Corps
The Mayaguez Incident: Marines tasked with a deadly, futile mission

By Keith A. Milks
Special to the Times

On May 8, 1975, the U.S.-flagged merchant ship Mayaguez left Hong Kong bound for Thailand.
It was a bad time to be in the South China Sea waters off Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia was in a dispute with Thailand over watery boundary lines, and in Vietnam, Saigon had fallen and U.S. troops and personnel were evacuating.

On May 12, a Cambodian gunboat crew, claiming the Mayaguez entered Cambodian territorial waters, boarded the ship and took her captain and crew prisoner. It was an act that set off a tragic chain of events that proved deadly to both Cambodians and Americans. Within hours of the ship’s capture, the United States began positioning forces in the region.

The day after its seizure, the Mayaguez was taken to Koh Tang Island, approximately 30 miles from the Cambodian mainland, while her crew was taken to nearby Koh Rong Island.

American officials made their first move the day of the seizure, when members of the Air Force’s 56th Security Police Squadron boarded five helicopters bound for U Tapao Royal Thai Air Force Base in preparation for an as-yet-unapproved rescue plan. But only minutes into the flight one of the helicopters crashed, killing 18 security troops and the five aircrew members, according to an Air Force history of the mission. By dawn on the 12th, the plan was postponed, and within 24 hours the job fell to the Marines.

On Thursday, May 15, 227 leathernecks from 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, boarded 11 HH-53 heavy-lift helicopters at U Tapao airport. The helicopters flew toward Koh Tang Island, where they intended to retake the Mayaguez and her crew. But as the flight neared the end of its 200-mile trek, three aircraft broke off to rendezvous with the destroyer Harold E. Holt before heading toward the Mayaguez.

A force of 60 Marines and sailors fast-roped onto the Holt, which then pulled alongside the Mayaguez. The Marines leapt onto the deck of the merchant ship, only to find it deserted.

Meanwhile, the remaining eight helicopters continued to Koh Tang island with 179 Marines from Golf Company, 2/9, reaching it at 6 a.m. The helicopters split up to land forces simultaneously on the east and west sides of the 3-mile-long island.

On the eastern approach, Cambodian ground fire shot down two helicopters, one erupting into flames in the shallow water and killing seven Marines, two sailors and the aircraft’s co-pilot. Under fire, the 16 survivors swam into the ocean; 13 were plucked from the sea by the destroyer Henry B. Wilson, three later would die. The second helicopter crash-landed on the beach and the 20 Marines and four airmen established a perimeter, where they remained for 12 hours under constant attack.

The helicopters approaching the western end of Koh Tang fared little better.

Intense ground fire damaged one helicopter so severely it had to return to Thailand, while another, after disgorging its cargo of Marines, was shot down and one of its crewmen killed. Three helicopters carrying the bulk of Golf Company diverted to another landing zone and the fourth helicopter, carrying the battalion command group, was forced to land a kilometer to the south. Due to casualties and the withdrawal of the disabled helicopter, little more than two-thirds of the 179 Marines were ashore and they were isolated in three positions.

Despite their best efforts, and with the support of Navy and Air Force air strikes, the three Marine positions had a hard time consolidating. At noon, a platoon led by 2nd Lt. Richard Zales overran the Cambodians separating the battalion command group and the bulk of Golf Company, eventually bringing the two sections together.

Meanwhile, a second wave of aircraft approached Koh Tang with 100 Marines from Golf and Echo Companies. These Marines landed and a number of Golf Company’s wounded were evacuated. It took the rest of the day to evacuate the Marines.

Under constant fire, bit by bit, the Marines were extracted.

During the withdrawal, a C-130 Hercules unloaded a 15,000-pound bomb on a particularly resolute Cambodian position, and the destroyer Wilson moved in and unleashed salvos from its three-inch guns.

The last Marines flew out at approximately 8:30 p.m., 13 hours after the first Marines landed.

Eighteen Americans — 15 Marines, two Navy corpsmen and an Air Force helicopter pilot — were killed in the raid on Koh Tang, according to the Pentagon, of which eight remain unaccounted for. Fifty wounded men were evacuated Those casualties were in addition to the 23 airmen killed in the earlier helicopter crash in Thailand. An unknown number of Cambodians were killed, but an estimate between 200 and 300 generally is accepted.

In Washington, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger called the battle “an eminently successful operation” carried out “for the well being of [American] society,” according to Orr Kelly in his 1996 book, “From a Dark Sky.”

In fact, the mission was an exercise in futility. The Mayaguez crew was released via a fishing boat two hours before the Marines reached Koh Tang.

The writer is a gunnery sergeant stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He can be reached at kambtp@aol.com.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-1554034.php


Sempers,

Roger
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