Koh Tang

I think Gail has written about our Khmer New Years vacation and our trip to the coast. We took an overnight trip out to some islands off of the coast and where the water was much clearer. We didn’t know what to expect but were pleasingly surprised at the choral and variety of reef fish.
The island we dove and anchored off of was named Koh Tang. It is somewhat famous here for the small military skirmish fought there between the Cambodian and US military. You might remember a container ship named the “Marguerite”, or something like that, being taken right after the Vietnam War was wrapping up in 1975. The story here is that the US sent in 7 helicopters to free the 30 some odd crew members of the container ship and teach little Cambodia a lesson. Well, things didn’t go so well and 15 American soldiers lost their lives on this tiny island and the Cambodians claimed a great military victory! The Americans expected to face off against some spear throwing type soldiers and instead faced some heavy resistance. The crew of the ship was later released when probably some big “B-2” bomber like threats were made! I read where Gerald Ford claimed a great US triumph in the press so the homeland could get rid of the “bad taste” in our collective mouths from the Vietnam nightmare.
Whatever happened, we enjoyed a 2 day dive trip and never once saw any burned out helicopters! I kept my eyes pealed! The jungle was so dense that I doubt if you could have even walked 20 feet in from the beach. rick