Cambodia Remains May Be Those of 2 Americans

The Cambodian government on Saturday gave the United States what could be the remains of two Marines killed in the Indochina War, amid growing bilateral efforts to determine the fate of Americans missing in action.

The two sets of remains, in small wooden caskets topped with folded American flags, were placed aboard an Air Force C-130 transport plane to be flown to Army laboratories in Hawaii.

The Cambodians also provided two dog tags that correlate with Americans reported missing in action, said Chief Warrant Officer James Webb. The names on the dog tags were not released.

Officials said the remains may be among those of five Marines missing in the May 15, 1975, attempt to free the Mayaguez, an American merchant ship that had been seized by Khmer Rouge guerrillas for sailing close to an island.

The Khmer Rouge eventually released the ship, but not before a U.S. Marine assault force landed on Koh Tang to rescue the crew members. The five soldiers were among 38 killed in the operation.

They are considered the last American casualties of the Indochina War.

For more than a decade, efforts to determine the fate of 83 servicemen missing in Cambodia were stalled because the United States supported the non-Communist guerrillas trying to topple the Cambodian government.

The signing of a U.S.-backed peace accord in October, however, paved the way for increased cooperation on the issue.

“The authorities here have been providing full cooperation, and it has only gotten better,” said Charles Twining, the top U.S. diplomat in Phnom Penh.

Twining said Phnom Penh previously has turned over at least six sets of remains, but none has yet been identified as that of an American MIA.

He said the two sides plan to work this year on excavating plane crash sites, researching documents and investigating the authenticity of photographs purporting to show Americans still held in Indochina.