'Battle' defines war's final chapter

"The Last Battle: The Mayaguez Incident and the End of the Vietnam War"

by Ralph Wetterhahn. Carroll & Graf, $27

Ralph Wetterhahn's "The Last Battle" reads like a novel, but the plot of this thriller was written in a lonely killing field in Cambodia. Wetterhahn has unearthed a story buried in unmarked graves for more than 20 years.

Five years ago, Wetterhahn, a classmate and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy class of 1963, told me about his strange return to southeast Asia. He was bumped from a flight to Hanoi by former President George Bush.

Wetterhahn visited Koh Tang Island, the site of America's last horrific battle of the Vietnam War. He had a wild tale of searching to recover remains of 18 Americans lost on the island in May 1975.

He told of searches on the beach and in the water; a typhoon that swamped search boats; white phosphorous that dried out and burst into flame after the ramp of a downed HH-53 was pulled from the water; his jungle encounter with Cambodian troops; and his finding that much of the battle could be traced through overgrown emplacements, discarded shell casings and trees marked during 14 hours of desperate fighting.

Wetterhahn's fluency in the Thai language helped him discover the last battle's most troubling aspect. While U.S. Air Force helicopters returned under heavy fire to rescue the ill-fated American force from the darkened beach, three of those 18 Americans were left behind.

Even in the mid-1990s, Wetterhahn was convinced the three U.S. Marines were critical in holding the right flank and keeping the Cambodians off the beach.

Now, "The Last Battle" provides the full accounting of events.

Wetterhahn's research into previously top secret accounts of National Security Council meetings integrates the story of high- level decisions with tales of valor on the beaches of Koh Tang. Through his several returns trips to Cambodia and his interviews with American and Cambodian veterans, he has extended previous tellings of the Mayaguez incident.

Wetterhahn gained the confidence of Em Son, the grizzled one- legged Cambodian veteran who commanded Khmer Rouge forces on Koh Tang in May 1975. Through discussions with Em Son, Wetterhahn learned of the final resting places of the three Americans left behind, and of a fourth American whose body couldn't be recovered during the evacuation.

Of the many photos provided in "The Last Battle," the final one, taken in January 2001, shows the flag-draped casket thought to include remains of Ashton Loney, the fourth American.

- Butler is a retired Air Force colonel and the author of "A Certain Brotherhood," "Red Lightning, Black Thunder" and "The Iskra Incident."

Copyright 2001
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