LANCE CORPORAL ANDRES GARCIA COMES HOME

Coming home
By Kyle Marksteiner
Current-Argus Staff Writer

It was the end of the Vietnam War and the fighting, according to new president Gerald Ford, "was finished" — except for a rescue mission that involved a young soldier by the name of Andy Garcia. And now that young son of Carlsbad will soon be coming home. Just more than 25 years ago, Andres "Andy" Garcia sat around a Thanksgiving table with his mother, father and seven of his brothers and sisters. It was 1974 and the Garcia family was celebrating early this year because 20-year-old Andy, the fourth oldest of nine children, was going off to Okinawa. Unlike so many of the young men a few years older than him, Andy volunteered to join the armed forces. A soft-spoken young man who his brothers remember for his love of basketball and his gift at tinkering with small electronic objects, Andy graduated from Carlsbad High in spring of 1973 and joined the Marines a few months later. By then newly appointed President Gerald Ford was pulling all the troops he could out of Vietnam and Cambodia. The Vietnam War was over. Or so everyone thought. On May 15, 1975, Andy was one of 18 soldiers lost or killed in the Mayaguez Incident, a rescue mission on a small island near Cambodia that is historically considered the last battle of the decade-long conflict in Southeast Asia. The 18 men, 14 of them Marines, are considered to be the final American casualties of the war. Andy was pronounced legally dead, but his remains were never recovered. For 25 years, his family had no symbol of their loss. In their hearts and in their minds, they could never put Andy to rest. A generation later, on March 30, 2000, Mr. and Mrs. Matilde Garcia received a call from the United States Marines. Their family will be together again; Andy, their son, is coming home.

Andy Garcia's story, like so many others, starts with a history lesson. When U.S. troops were pulled out of Southeast Asia in early 1975, communist troops in Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia began a rapid series of conquests. Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, fell April 17, while the Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell April 30. American troops had left the area; the war, according to the president, "was finished." But, on May 12, the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez, on it's way to Thailand from Hong Kong, was seized by the Khmer Rouge in the Gulf of Siam, about 60 miles from the Cambodian coastline. The ship was carrying a non-arms cargo for military bases. The ship had been sailing within the boundaries of international waters, but the Khmer Rouge had recently claimed territorial waters 90 miles from the coast of Cambodia. All 40 men on board the Mayaguez were taken prisoner. Though promising to "wait a bit to see what diplomacy can achieve," newly appointed Ford opted for a show of force. Ford ordered the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea, the guided missile destroyer USS Henry B. Wilson and the USS Holt to the area. He then directed Lt. Gen. John Burns, 7th Air Force Commander, to assemble a rescue force. Burns assembled a group of combat ready security policemen, all specially trained for evacuating embassies in Southeast Asia. By helicopter, the Air Force team left Nakhon Phanom (NKP) Air Force base for the staging area in Utapao, Thailand. About 37 miles west of NKP, mechanical problems caused one of the helicopters to stagger out of formation. It crashed into a thickly wooded area and exploded. All 23 men on board, mostly Air Force security team members, were killed. Learning of the tragedy, Burns put the security force at Utapao on hold until Marine forces could deploy from Okinawa. A battalion landing team of Marines was ordered flown from bases in Okinawa and the Philippines to assemble at Utapao. They were to prepare for an assault on Koh Tang Island, a small island off the coast of Cambodia where the Mayaguez was docked. The Marines sent by helicopter to rescue the Mayaguez crew weren't hardened Vietnam vets. Most of them had never seen a minute of combat. They'd been together for about a month. "All of us were green," recalls Dale Clark, a Seattle resident and former Marine involved in the Mayaguez rescue. "Most of us were just a month out of ITS (infantry training school). We were kids."

One of the Marines sent to reclaim the Mayaguez was 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Andres Garcia, 2nd battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. Garcia led a fire team of five at the time. "The platoon was filled with younger guys," recalls former Marine Larry Barnett, who posted a Web page a few years ago dedicated to Garcia. "Most of the guys in the platoon were boasting and bragging. The thing I remember most about Andy is that he was the only one who was quiet."

In the early morning hours of May 15, 1975, the Marine attack force left the base at Utapao for the assault. "The sun was coming up," Clark said. "It was actually a pretty sight with all those helicopters in line."

The troops were all high-spirited during the 45-minute ride from the base to the island. They were young, invincible men looking for a chance to be heroes. "I remember snoozing," Clark said. "All of us thought it was pretty neat to go on this rescue mission that made the international news. "

Military intelligence indicated that the Mayaguez was still docked near Koh Tang. Some of the Marines in the attack force, flown by helicopter to the USS Holt, stormed the ship and found it deserted. Meanwhile, eight helicopters, each with about 20 Marines, were sent out to the island itself. The plan was to surround the Khmer Rouge compound on Koh Tang by landing on both sides of the island. The troops had been told to expect between 20 and 40 Khmer Rouge soldiers on the island. They encountered somewhere between 150 and 300. The estimation error has been the subject of a 25-year discussion among the survivors of the incident and for the family members of those who didn't. It's one of the primary subjects of John Gilmartin's book "A Short War." "We had accurate intelligence," said Gilmartin in an e-mail, "But for various reasons, mostly bureaucratic inertia, the information never got to the people who needed it."

During the assault, Garcia was onboard a Sikorsky CH-53A helicopter, callsign "Knife 31" flown by Air Force Maj. Howard Corson and 2Lt. Richard Van de Greer that was assigned to land on the east beach of the island. On board were 22 Marines and two Navy medics, an August 1998 "Popular Science" article reports. Barnett said he thinks Garcia was supposed to ride with him on "Knife 23," the helicopter that flew next to the Knife 31 during the assault, but he switched positions when weapons teams were being loaded. Garcia may have been the only member of his platoon onboard the ill-fated Knife 31. Clark rode in one of the helicopters set to attack in the second wave. With him were two Army linguists. "The initial plan was to have no weapons fired," Clark said. "We were going to talk to the Cambodians, and they were going to release the crew. We were told we would not be fired at. None of us anticipated this."

When they reached the island, the helicopters were supposed to turn around and drop off the Marines. They received no air or sea coverage. "That was the first, and as far as I know the last time, they tried such a maneuver," Barnett said. At the same time, the USS Coral Sea was being used to bombard airfields on the Cambodian coastline. As the helicopters closed on the island, Khmer Rouge soldiers began firing anti-aircraftweapons. "As we were heading toward the island you could see the Mayaguez on the right side of the helicopter," recalls Clark. "It was still light out when we got there. All off a sudden things started happening and they were firing at the helicopters. "We weren't told to lock and load; we didn't anticipate fire."

As bullets and rockets whistled through the air, Knife 31 and Knife 23 led the assault on the east side of the island. When the two helicopters approached the beach, they turned 180 degrees and started to land. Somehow, Barnett recalls, the choppers got mixed up – Knife 31 wound up where Knife 23 had been and vice versa. Clark said his helicopter, attacking in the second wave, was supposed to land on the west beach but they was somehow diverted to an area just behind Garcia and Barnett's helicopter. The Marines inside the two front helicopters gripped their weapons and prepared for the landing. Somewhere on the island an RPG(rocket propelled grenade) launcher went off. Tracers crisscrossed the sea. The rocket hit a fuel tank on the left side of Garcia's helicopter and exploded. The helicopter, still in mid-air, burst into flames. "The site was horrifying," recalls Barnett. "I don't have to take anyone's word for it because I saw it with my own two eyes."

As soldiers inside Garcia's helicopter attempted to return fire from the cabin gun port and cockpit, a second RPG blew away the helicopter's instrument panel. The chopper began to fall. Marines fought frantically to douse the flames that were consuming their helicopter, but exploding ammunition, heated by the fire, turned the interior into a death-trap. Though his helicopter was on fire, Corson would not give up so easily. "The pilot of that chopper reacted like a hero," Barnett said. "While the chopper was still burning he set down approximately 25 to 30 yards from the beach. That guy kept fighting."

Because of the pilot's efforts, Barnett said, 12 men on board were able to swim out to sea for rescue — but other members of the crew were not so fortunate. Ten died in the explosion and crash. Three more attempted to advance on the beach but were killed almost instantly by a mass of gunfire. Meanwhile, the other helicopters continued to battle for a place to land. Barnett's chopper took a rocket hit in the rotor and was forced into an emergency landing. Despite heavy fire, the Marines were able to evacuate the helicopter and hold a thin perimeter on the beach. Clark's helicopter was also hit. "When we started landing we were driven off by heavy weapons," he said. "We were hit by a rocket that blew a big hole in the side and plastered my face full of plastic."

Clark said he was forced to relive the entire scenario, painfully, a few years ago. "I was a police officer back in 1995 and almost got my head blown off," he said. "The whole situation reminded me of back in Koh Tang, and suddenly it all came back."

Clark's team landed near the command post of the island. He said they were under heavy fire for hours. "For the first 4 1/2 hours it was intensive," he said. "We were in shock throughout the day. Eventually, one of the pilots on the other side of the island called the Air Force for support in the assault. The pressure subsided – a little. "Had it not been for that radio we would have all been dead," Barnett said.

For 14 hours, the Marines held their ground, trading occasional fire with the horde of Cambodian soldiers who occupied most of the island. What they didn't know was that the Mayaguez crew was no longer on Koh Tang Island. When the Marines landed, the crew had already been boarded on a small fishing ship and taken to another island. During the assault on Koh Tang, the fishing ship was spotted making its way back toward the Mayaguez. The missile destroyer USS Henry B. Wilson moved in to rescue the crew. A May 19 memo, sent from Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Ford, indicates the Khmer Rouge had anticipated the rescue attempt. "It also shows that the crew was released before our Marines landed on the island," Kissinger wrote. "Though not before they (the Marines) left their stations or before you made the decision to proceed with the landing."

With the crew recovered, it was time to get the Marines off the island. That was easier said than done; three helicopters had been shot down and most were severely damaged. Fifty men were wounded. "There was only one helicopter left operating," Clark said. "I remember we had 125 guys packed in there when we were going out."

In addition to the soldiers lost when Garcia's helicopter was hit, five more soldiers were lost that day. One Air Force pilot died in another helicopter crash and one Marine stepped on a land mine. Three were left behind. As the Marines began cramming together to leave, three men, Lance Cpl. Joseph Hargrove, Pfc. Gary Hall and Pvt. Danny G. Marshall, held their position to protect the flank of their fellow soldiers. Hargrove, Hall and Marshall, out of ammunition, were ordered to board the last helicopter and leave. But they were never seen again.

Amidst all the confusion and growing darkness, the three men were unaccounted for during the island evacuation. The men may have been taken prisoner. In 1998 a former Khmer medical officer claimed to have seen four American prisoners taken off the island to the mainland. The military speculates that Hargrove, Hall and Marshall were three of those prisoners. The fourth, according to the "Popular Science" article was described as wearing a Navy uniform, which means one of the two Navy medics on board Garcia's helicopter may have somehow survived the crash and made it to the island. The Mayaguez rescue, the final conflict of the war in Southeast Asia, was over. Eighteen soldiers, including Garcia, were missing.

Initial public knowledge of the incident was sketchy. A May 15, 1975, article in the Current-Argus, written by the Associated Press, states that only two Marines died during the rescue mission. The next day, a short article on the front page listed Garcia as MIA. "Andreas (sic) Garcia, 20, of Carlsbad was reported by the Red Cross to have been in one of the Marine helicopters that was shot down in the assault," the article stated, "The Garcias received word of their son's MIA status by telegram this morning." The day before the telegram arrived, the Garcia family was told of the situation by two Marine sergeants from El Paso, Texas. The military began making plans to send Garcia's brother Albert, who had 40 days left on an Army tour, home to his family. Meanwhile, the number of Marines lost at the Mayaguez incident began to increase daily in media reports. The Garcia family kept their hopes up. A May 18 article quoted Andy's father, Matilde, himself an Air Force veteran, as saying that he would believe his son was alive until proven otherwise. The next day, Garcia was declared legally dead, his sister, Sara Neff, said. Plans were made for a memorial service. Memorial Day 1975 was declared Andres "Andy" Garcia Day by the Eddy County Commission. A plaque bearing Garcia's name was set up in the "Tree of Honor" grove near the Carlsbad beach park. Each tree honors a Carlsbad resident who was a prisoner of war or killed in action. The names of Andy and the other Marines killed during the Mayaguez incident were inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Their names are on the final panel, the final few casualties of a memorial that honors thousands of American men who lost their lives over a nine-year period. Andy and the other men lost at Mayaguez were casualties of a war that was officially over when they fought their battle. But one of the last to fall may be the first to come home.

Allen Semrau, an official with the Carlsbad Chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he was told Garcia may be the first Vietnam-era MIA from New Mexico to make it back home. "As far as I know he's the first one," Semrau said. "There are still 20 more missing."According to a 1998 Web release by the POW/MIA Families organization, three of the 20 Vietnam-era MIA's from New Mexico are from Carlsbad. The statement lists Carlsbad's unaccounted for as Ricardo Gonzales Davis, Calvin Walter Maxwell and Max Coleman Simpson. Simpson was reportedly lost in 1968 while Davis and Maxwell were both last accounted for in 1969. "We plan to set up a fund to help those 20 remaining families," Neff said.

In the 25 years since Andy was last seen, his eight brothers and sisters grew up. Five moved away while three stayed home. They took jobs as teachers and mechanics, got married and had children. To honor her brother, Neff joined the Navy when she was 20 and served for seven years. Today, she's a laboratory technician for DuPont and lives in San Diego. Family members found a way to preserve their memories of Andy by communicating through the Internet with Barnett and other Marines who served in the Mayaguez incident. Andy and his comrades, meanwhile, rested in the buried hull of Knife 31 on the east beach of Koh Tang Island. Around 1991, the political situation in Cambodia had changed to the point where U.S. forces were able to search Koh Tang Island. For the next seven years, a group of military investigators, called Joint Task Force-Full Accounting, scoured the island for the remains of the lost Marines. Intrigued by the research, the Discovery Channel plans to air a documentary on the Mayaguez rescue and about the recovery efforts on or about May 15. Ralph Wetterhahn, who described a 1995 trip to Koh Tang Island in "Popular Science" magazine, reported the rotor head of the Knife 31 still jutted from the surf during low tide. Wetterhahn's article reports that the team used suction pumps and an elaborate system of wire screens to retrieve the soldiers' remains from the sea. A total of 161 bones were painstakingly recovered. Using a technique called mitochondrial DNA analysis, the military is able to obtain a soldier's genetic makeup from the bone fragments. Mitochondria, the cell's energy producers, contain DNA only from the mother's side of the family. Most DNA patterns decay rapidly after death, but mitochondria DNA, located deep inside the bone tissue, last for much longer. Scientists are able to compare this DNA with some taken from the maternal relatives of the MIA to look for a match. Through this process, the task force was able to identify some of the missing Marines. The identification process, though expensive, seems to be one of the few governmental programs for which nobody minds paying. "When you make the ultimate sacrifice then I think money is no limit," Mike Kearl, sociology professor at Trinity University in San Antonio, said. "This is the best thing they could spend money on," Barnett added.

On March 20, 2000, 24 years and 10 months after the first fateful telegram, Mr. and Mrs. Garcia received a phone-call from Maj. Mark Ward of the U.S. Marine Corps. The military had found and identified their son's remains. "Basically, they called and said his remains have been found and are going to be returned for burial," Andy's sister, Anita Garcia Ybaben, said. Interestingly, just a few months before, T.J. Trevino, head of the local chapter of the American Legion, gave the Garcia family a bracelet of Andy's he had worn in the lost soldier's honor. He said they might need it. On April 4, Ward, accompanied by William Spafford Jr., assistant program manager for the Navy and Mark Wadham of the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab, paid the Garcia family a visit at their home in Carlsbad. Andy's eight brothers and sisters returned to their parents' Carlsbad home for the visit. The three visiting soldiers, Neff said, provided complete proof that Andy's remains had been found. "They discussed the incident with us, they discussed the remains and the identification process. Then they clearly explained the DNA process," she said. The Marines also provided the Garcia family with a large book that gave a detailed explanation about how Andy's remains had been identified. The Garcias were convinced. "Any questions we had were answered, usually before we could ask them," Neff said. "We always thought we had lost him but it wasn't until March 20 that we knew it was for sure."

The Garcia family said Ward was doing a tour across the country, meeting with the families of the former MIAs. He didn't tell them how many of the 18 MIAs from Mayaguez had been identified. "All we know now is that our brother has been identified," another sister of Andy's, Anita Garcia Ybaben, said. Seven of the 18 missing soldiers had been identified, according to the "Popular Science" article. Ward could not be reached for comment on how many soldiers were found. An official with the Marines said he was sent back out on assignment days after he finished talking to the families of the Marines lost in the Mayaguez incident. This time, he was sent to speak with the families of the 19 Marines who died last week when an MV-22 Osprey crashed during training exercises in Arizona. The discovery and delivery of Garcia's remains will provide some much-needed closure to the long-suffering Garcia family. Logically, the Garcia family knew they lost Andy 25 years ago. Emotionally, they could never be sure. Most grieving families have trouble accepting the loss of a loved one, but those never provided proof usually have the most trouble. "We never put him to rest," Neff said. "It doesn't make a bit of sense, but it's just not real. You always wondered if maybe he escaped and has just been living on an island somewhere."

"It's been 25 years of worry and heartache," added Garcia Ybaben. "You'd be at your job and say ‘Well, he's going to walk in here.' It was especially bad at family gatherings — you just kept thinking he'd walk in the door."

The need to have the remains of a loved one "is a human thing," said Kearl, who teaches classes about the sociology of death and bereavement. "There is always the harboring of a possibility, always the uncertainty and doubt as long as they don't know where the remains are."

Kearl said there seems to be no time frame for the need to have a symbol of a lost family member. He's heard of families who recently acquired the remains of soldiers who died during World War II and has read of descendants of Civil War veterans who fought to keep the remains of their loved ones from being buried with other soldiers in a communal plot. "Why do you think we still look for Amelia Earhart?" he asked. "Every time you always hear the same thing from the family, ‘Now they are home.'"

The desire to find and identify the remains of the 18 U.S. soldiers lost on Koh Tang Island has also become a rallying cry for former Marines across the country. Clark and Barnett still seemed especially upset about the three Marines who were left on the island during the evacuation. "Why did we leave Hargrove and those two other guys behind?" Clark asked. "The senior staff told us they were killed when we were withdrawing. They shouldn't have been forgotten."

Living or dead, Marines don't forget other Marines. "There is a saying in the Marines," Barnett said. "We don't leave anyone behind — this all goes back to that."

Some time in late May, Andy's remains will be brought to New Mexico for a full military burial at the Carlsbad Cemetery. Neff said the Marines plan to conduct one more test to again verify the identification of the remains they have. The funeral may take place May 15, the anniversary of Andy's death or May 25, the 25-year anniversary of the holiday held in Andy's honor. Andy's family members, meanwhile, will be "going around getting a few things together," Neff said. Neff said members of the Carlsbad community have offered to assist in any way possible, from donating food to paying for burial expenses. "My father is quoted in a June 1, 1975, story as saying the people in Carlsbad are the finest in the world," Neff said. "We're experiencing that all over again."

The family has also been getting in touch with their past. "We've been searching through old articles," Neff said. "We were only teen-agers when this happened." They've also called old friends to tell them what's going on and notified some of the Marines who they've come in contact with over the Internet. "When they called me it was a mixture of every emotion," Barnett said. "I was laughing and crying at the same time."

Memories of the event, long suppressed by the soldiers who served with Andy, have resurfaced. "I've just now even been able to talk to my family about this," Barnett said. "There are only a few guys I've found who were even talking about it," Clark added. "I'm sure most of them put it the back of their minds. We all moved on, but as time went on things started to come back out."

Members of the Carlsbad VFW and American Legion, meanwhile, have plans to turn Andy's arrival into a memorable event. "What I've got right now is I've got State Police and Carlsbad Police and Sheriff's Officers to provide an escort," Semrau with the VFW said. "I've got a feeling it's going to be pretty big."

"Some of our people are probably going to go down to El Paso and drive back with him," Sal Martinez, VFW president, said. "Those who can't will meet him at the state line." To welcome him home.

Article reprinted from The Current-Argus. Many thanks!

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