BENEDETT, DANIEL ANDREW
Name: Daniel Andrew Benedett
Rank/Branch: E2/US Marine Corps
Unit: G/2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division
Date of Birth: 30 October 1955
Home City of Record: Auburn King WA
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
Other Personnel in Incident: Lynn Blessing; Walter Boyd; Gregory S.
Copenhaver; Andres Garcia; Bernard Gause Jr., James J. Jacques; Ronald J.
Manning; 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
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.
SYNOPSIS: When U.S. troops were pulled out of Southeast Asia in early 1975,
Vietnamese communist troops began capturing one city after another, with
Hue, Da Nang and Ban Me Thuot in March, Xuan Loc in April, and finally on
April 30, Saigon. In Cambodia, communist Khmer Rouge had captured the
capital city of Phnom Penh on April 17. The last Americans were evacuated
from Saigon during "Option IV", with U.S. Ambassador Martin departing on
April 29. The war, according to President Ford, "was finished."
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.
In 1988, the communist government of Kampuchea (Cambodia) announced that it
wished to return the remains of several dozen Americans to the United
States. (In fact, the number was higher than the official number of
Americans missing in Cambodia.) Because the U.S. does not officially
recognize the Cambodian government, it has refused to respond directly to
the Cambodians regarding the remains. Cambodia, wishing a direct
acknowledgment from the U.S. Government, still holds the remains.
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