Page 143 - NS-2 Textbook

136 MARITIME HISTORY

Even before the u.s. withdrawal from Vietnam THE MAYAGUEZ INCIDENT
sweeping changes were being planned in personnel pol~
A month after the last Americans left South Vietnam on
icy, administration, technology, and weapons in the
12 May 1975 a disabled American merchant ship, th~ SS
Navy. The old Navy bureau organization was changed to
Mayaguez, was seized in international waters off Cambo-
five material systems commands in the interest of im-
dia by the Khmer Rouge, who had seized power in that
proving efficiency and keeping up with the rapid pace of
country a few weeks earlier. TI,e exact reason why they
technological advances. TI,ese commands-Air Systems,
did this has never been determined. They then began
Sea Systems, Electronics Systems, Supply Systems, and
towing the ship toward Kompong Sam on the mainiand.
Facilities Engineering-were placed under the chief of
When President Gerald Ford was told of the developing
naval material. That chief, along with the chief of naval
incident, he was determined that this would not become
personnel and the chief of the Bureau of Medicine and
another hostage situation similar to the Pueblo incident in
Surgery, reported directly to the chief of naval opera-
1968. He ordered the carrier Coral Sea and the destroyers
tions.
USS Hellry B. WilSall and USS Holt to steam at full speed
In the early 1970s a program to update many per-
to the Gulf of Thailand to rescue the ship and its crew.
sonnel administrative practices was initiated by Admiral
Meanwhile the ship was spotted anchored off Kho Tang
Zumwalt, who was, at the age of forty-nine, the youngest
Island, 40 miles from the Cambodian shore. The Holt was
CNO in the history of the Navy. He made many changes,
directed to proceed there to seize the ship, while a force
promulgated by means of a series of directives called "Z-
of marines airlifted from Okinawa would rescue the
Grams." Beards, more liberal hairstyles, civilian clothes
crew, believed to be held on the island.
on liberty, motorcycles on bases, and other departures
On the morning of 15 May the first of an eventual 250
from tradition excited many of the younger people and
marines were landed by helicopter on Kho Tang. They
worried older hands. In some instances the rapid
immediately began to encounter heavy resistance from
changes institnted by the new CNO caused confusion,
Khmer Rouge troops there. While this firefight was in
necessitating more moderate courses of action to be
progress, planes from the Coral Sea bombed targets on
adopted by later CNOs. Efforts were instituted to make
the mainland. This action apparently convinced the
the Navy more attractive to women and minorities, and
Khmer Rouge that they had wlderestimated u.s. resolve.
these met with much success after some initial setbacks.
Soon a fishing boat was seen approaching the destroyer
WilSall flying a white flag. Aboard were the fuirty-nine
crewmen of the Mayaguez. At almost the same time, a
boarding party from the Holt boarded the deserted
Mayaguez and towed her to safety. That night the last of
the Marine attack force was successfully airlifted off the
island by Air Force helicopters. Altogether eighteen
marines and airmen were killed or Inissing in action dur-
ing the assault and withdrawal from Kho Tang. Another
twenty-three were killed in a helicopter crash on their
"vay to the operation. At a time when its resolve was in
doubt following the debacle in Vietnam, the incident
showed the world that the United States would pay
vvhatever price ,vas necessary to protect its citizens and
preserve its national honor.
THE FALKLANDS WAR
In early 1982 a major maritime event took place in the
South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina, when the Falk-
land Islands, long the subject of an ownership dispute
behveen Britain and Argentina} 'vere taken over by an
Argentine occupation force on 2 April. In response, the
British, whose colonists had occupied the islands since
1833, gathered an invasion force consisting of two ski-
Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, chief of naval operations from July 1970 to
July 1974. Perhaps more than any other post-World War Jl (NO he jump carriers, several amphibious ships, five sub-
modernized the Navy and brought it in line with modern organ'iza- marines, and about thirty escort, auxiliaries} and support
tiona I theory. ships. They sailed in groups from England across the