Return to Koh Tang Island

In May of 1975, two weeks after the fall of Saigon and the departure of most American troops from Southeast Asia, rogue elements of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge Navy attacked and captured a U.S.-flagged, unarmed merchant container ship. the S.S. Mayaguez. The ship and her crew were taken to a small island, called Koh Tang, in the Gulf of Thailand, 29 miles off the coast, near the Cambodia-Vietnam border. A hastily planned operation built on poor intelligence was quickly conceived to send inexperienced Marines from Okinawa, Japan, to rescue the Mayaguez and her crew. The mission would become known as the last battle of the Vietnam War.This month, 40 years after the deadly fighting, American veterans of that operation return to Koh Tang Island.

The Marines who were deployed to the island in 1975 had been pulled from training exercises in the field and quickly flown to Utapao, Thailand, where the rescue operation would be launched.

The only assets in the region available to transport the Marines to Koh Tang were US Air Force helicopters from a Special Operations and a Search and Rescue Squadron which had never trained for a Marine-type heliborne assault. The island was held by a reinforced Khmer Rouge Battalion. The first wave of the assault, with a reinforced rifle company, was met with disastrous results. The four helicopters of the first wave were all shot down.

Forty-one American servicemen were killed during the Mayaguez Operation. They were the last names inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

A 14-hour firefight ultimately resulted in the capture of the Mayaguez and rescue of her crew. Were it not for dedication and heroics of the young Marines and the courageous skill of the Air Force helicopter crews that extracted them off the island, many more lives would have been lost. Tragically, in the chaos of the night extraction, under heavy fire, three Marines were left behind. Their fate has never been determined.

For the 40th anniversary of the operation, the Koh Tang veterans will walk on the sand where they fought the Khmer Rouge. After decades of dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and sleepless nights lost wondering about the fate of those left behind, the trip is a step in the healing process, according to members, who will provide photos and observations about the experience for The American Legion website.