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FORGET?
NEVER!!!
Ronald Manning is home!
Rank/Branch: E3/US Navy
Unit: HQ Service Company,
2nd Battalion,
9th Marines,
3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 09 May 1954
Home City of Record: Toronto OH
Date of Loss: 15 May 1975
Country of Loss: Cambodia/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 101800N 1030830E (TS965400)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: CH53A
Refno: 2003
Source: Compiled from one or more of the following:
raw data from U.S.
Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families,
published sources, interviews. Updated by
the P.O.W. NETWORK in 1998.
Other Personnel in Incident: Lynn Blessing;
Walter Boyd; Gregory S.
Copenhaver; Andres Garcia; Daniel Benedett,
James J. Jacques; Daniel
Benedett; James R. Maxwell; Richard W. Rivenburgh;
Antonio R. Sandoval;
Kelton R. Turner; Richard Van de Geer (all
missing on CH53A); Gary L. Hall;
Joseph N. Hargrove; Danny G. Marshall (missing
on Koah Tang Island); Ashton
N. Loney (missing from Koah Tang Island);
Elwood E. Rumbaugh (missing from a
CH53A)
REMARKS: 750515 MAYAGUEZ INCIDENT LOSS
2Lt. Richard Van de Geer, assigned to the 21st
Special
Ops Squadron at NKP,
had participated in the evacuation of Saigon,
where helicopter pilots were
required to fly from the decks of the 7th
Fleet carriers stationed some 500
miles offshore, fly over armed enemy-held
territory, collect American and
allied personnel and return to the carriers
via the same hazardous route,
heavily loaded with passengers. Van de Geer
wrote to a friend, "We pulled
out close to 2,000 people. We couldn't pull
out any more because it was
beyond human endurance to go any more..."
At 11:21 a.m. on May 12, the U.S. merchant
ship MAYAGUEZ was seized by the
Khmer Rouge in the Gulf of Siam about 60 miles
from the Cambodian coastline
and eight miles from Poulo Wai island. The
ship, owned by Sea-Land
Corporation, was en route to Sattahip, Thailand
from Hong Kong, carrying a
non-arms cargo for military bases in Thailand.
Capt. Charles T. Miller, a veteran of more
than 40 years at sea, was on the
bridge. He had steered the ship within the
boundaries of international
waters, but the Cambodians had recently claimed
territorial waters 90 miles
from the coast of Cambodia. The thirty-nine
seamen aboard were taken
prisoner.
President Ford ordered the aircraft carrier
USS CORAL SEA, the guided
missile destroyer USS HENRY B. WILSON and
the USS HOLT to the area of
seizure. By night, a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft
located the MAYAGUEZ at
anchor off Poulo WaI island. Plans were made
to rescue the crew. A
battalion landing team of 1,100 Marines was
ordered flown from bases in
Okinawa and the Philippines to assemblE at
Utapao, Thailand in preparation
for the assault.
The first casualties of the effort to free
the MAYAGUEZ are recorded on May
13 when a helicopter carrying Air Force security
team personnel crashed en
route to Utapao, killing all 23 aboard.
Early in the morning of May 13, the Mayaguez
was ordered to head for Koh
Tang island. Its crew was loaded aboard a
Thai fishing boat and taken first
to Koh Tang, then to the mainland city of
Kompong Song, then to Rong San Lem
island. U.S. intelligence had observed a cove
with considerable activity on
the island of Koh Tang, a small five-mile
long island about 35 miles off the
coast of Cambodia southwest of the city of
Sihanoukville (Kampong Saom), and
believed that some of the crew might be held
there. They also knew of the
Thai fishing boat, and had observed what appeared
to be caucasians aboard
it, but it could not be determined if some
or all of the crew was aboard.
The USS HOLT was ordered to seize and secure
the MAYAGUEZ, still anchored
off Koh Tang. Marines were to land on the
island and rescue any of the crew.
Navy jets from the USS CORAL SEA were to make
four strikes on military
installments on the Cambodian mainland.
On May 15, the first wave of 179 Marines headed
for the island aboard eight
Air Force "Jolly Green Giant" helicopters.
Three Air Force helicopters
unloaded Marines from the 1st Battalion, 4th
Marines onto the landing pad of
the USS HOLT and then headed back to Utapao
to pick up the second wave of
Marines. Planes dropped tear gas on the MAYAGUEZ,
and the USS HOLT pulled up
along side the vessel and the Marines stormed
aboard. The MAYAGUEZ was
deserted.
Simultaneously, the Marines of the 2/9 were
making their landings on two
other areas of the island. The eastern landing
zone was on the cove side
where the Cambodian compound was located.
The western landing zone was a
narrow spit of beach about 500 feet behind
the compound on the other side of
the island. The Marines hoped to surround
the compound.
As the first troops began to unload on both
beaches, the Cambodians opened
fire. On the western beach, one helicopter
was hit and flew off crippled, to
ditch in the ocean about 1 mile away. The
pilot had just disembarked his
passengers, and he was rescued at sea.
Meanwhile, the eastern landing zone had become
a disaster. The first two
helicopters landing were met by enemy fire.
Ground commander, (now) Col.
Randall W. Austin had been told to expect
between 20 and 40 Khmer Rouge
soldiers on the island. Instead, between 150
and 200 were encountered.
First, Lt. John Shramm's helicopter tore apart
and crashed into the surf
after the rotor system was hit. All aboard
made a dash for the tree line on
the beach.
One CH53A helicopter was flown by U.S. Air
Force Major Howard Corson and
2Lt. Richard Van de Geer and carrying 23 U.S.
Marines and 2 U.S. Navy
corpsmen, all from the 2nd Battalion, 9th
Marines. As the helicopter
approached the island, it was caught in a
cross fire and hit by a rocket.
The severely damaged helicopter crashed into
the sea just off the coast of
the island and exploded. To avoid enemy fire,
survivors were forced to swim
out to sea for rescue. Twelve aboard, including
Maj. Corson, were rescued.
Those missing from the helicopter were 2Lt.
Richard Van de Geer, PFC Daniel
A. Benedett, PFC Lynn Blessing, PFC Walter
Boyd, Lcpl. Gregory S.
Copenhaver, Lcpl. Andres Garcia, PFC James
J. Jacques, PFC James R. Maxwell,
PFC Richard W. Rivenburgh, PFC Antonio R.
Sandoval, PFC Kelton R. Turner,
all U.S. Marines. Also missing were HM1 Bernard
Gause, Jr. and HM Ronald J.
Manning, the two corpsmen.
Other helicopters were more successful in landing
their passengers. One
CH53A, however was not. SSgt. Elwood E. Rumbaugh's
aircraft was near the
coastline when it was shot down. Rumbaugh
is the only missing man from the
aircraft. The passengers were safely extracted.
(It is not known whether the
passengers went down with the aircraft or
whether they were rescued from the
island.)
By midmorning, when the Cambodians on the mainland
began receiving reports
of the assault, they ordered the crew of the
MAYAGUEZ on a Thai boat, and
then left. The MAYAGUEZ crew was recovered
by the USS WILSON before the
second wave of Marines was deployed, but the
second wave was ordered to
attack anyway.
Late in the afternoon, the assault force had
consolidated its position on
the western landing zone and the eastern landing
zone was evacuated at 6:00
p.m. By the end of the 14-hour operation,
most of the Marines were extracted
from the island safely, with 50 wounded. Lcpl.
Ashton Loney had been killed
by enemy fire, but his body could not be recovered.
Protecting the perimeter during the final evacuation
was the machine gun
squad of PFC Gary L. Hall, Lcpl. Joseph N.
Hargrove and Pvt. Danny G.
Marshall. They had run out of ammunition and
were ordered to evacuate on the
last helicopter. It was their last contact.
Maj. McNemar and Maj. James H.
Davis made a final sweep of the beach before
boarding the helicopter and
were unable to locate them. They were declared
Missing in Action.
The eighteen men missing from the MAYAGUEZ
incident are listed among the
missing from the Vietnam war. Although authorities
believe that there are
perhaps hundreds of American prisoners still
alive in Southeast Asia from
the war, most are pessimistic about the fates
of those captured by the Khmer
Rouge.
On April 28, 2012, more remains of Ronald Manning were returned to Toronto, Ohio and now this man is finally home and at rest.
My wife and her family knew Ronald and his
family.
They were from the same home town.
Email:benware-mmcs@verizon.net