U.S. to ID Bodies of 6 Marines in 1975 Rescue Try

The Pentagon has identified the remains of six Marines who were among 18 American servicemen listed as missing in action after an attempt to rescue the crew of the American merchant ship Mayaguez 25 years ago this week, defense officials said Tuesday.

The Pentagon plans to announce the identifications this week.

The men lost in the tragic rescue attempt on Tang Island off the coast of Cambodia on May 15, 1975, were the last U.S. combat casualties in Southeast Asia, just 1 1/2 months after the official end of the war in neighboring Vietnam.

Among the six Marines whose remains have been positively identified by Army forensic experts is Lance Cpl. Andres “Andy” Garcia, 20, of Carlsbad, N.M., whose family was notified two months ago.

Another is Pfc. Kelton Turner, 18, of San Antonio.

The names of the four others could not be learned Tuesday in advance of the Pentagon’s planned announcement. The names of Turner and Garcia were provided by an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Robert Jones, head of the Pentagon office in charge of accounting for missing American service members, said in an interview last week that nine sets of remains from the Mayaguez incident were in the final stage of identification and that he believed “another two or three” were approaching the final stage.

The remains were recovered during a series of searches on Tang Island over the last several years.

The six to be disclosed this week are among 13 U.S. servicemen who were lost when the CH-53 helicopter in which they were riding was hit by a rocket from communist Khmer Rouge troops as it approached the island.

The CH-53 was part of a raid meant to rescue 40 members of the Mayaguez crew, who had been taken captive near the island in the Gulf of Thailand on May 12. President Ford ordered U.S. forces into action to rescue the crew.

On the morning of May 15, a team of Marines was flown by Air Force special operations helicopters to Tang Island, where they encountered unexpectedly strong resistance. As it turned out, the crew of the Mayaguez already had been removed from the island and were released to the United States unharmed.