✦ History

Mayaguez incident

May 12–15, 1975 · Koh Tang

Result Khmer Rouge victory

The Khmer Rouge seized the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez. US forces attacked Koh Tang island to rescue the crew, and 41 Americans died.

On the map Contemporaries

South Vietnam and allies

Cambodia

United States
Cambodia

Strength and losses

Strength
300
Killed
38
Wounded
50
Captured
3
Aircraft lost
c. 3

Units

12th Littoral Combat Team 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines 21st Special Operations Squadron 23rd Flying Training Squadron 40th Helicopter Squadron 56th Rescue Squadron United States Air Force Carrier Air Wing Fifteen

Before and after

Followed from
Vietnam War November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975

Related events 1 degree away • 2 degrees away

1947
1951
1955
1959
1963
1967
1971
1975
1979
1983
1987
1991
 
First Indochina War
 
Cold War
 
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
 
Vietnam War
 
Laotian Civil War
 
Gulf of Tonkin incident
 
Cambodian Civil War
 
Fall of Saigon
 
Mayaguez incident