Word: som
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...planes attacked with rockets and machine-gun fire, sinking five boats and hitting two others. A U.S. helicopter dipped down to pick up Cambodian survivors, but lifted off without any after it came under Cambodian fire. On Ford's orders, the eighth gunboat was allowed to proceed toward Kompong Som because a pilot reported seeing eight or nine men with "Caucasian faces" on deck; they were thought to be those of some or perhaps all of the Mayaguez's crew...
...radio broadcast, to be transmitted internationally, that he would halt military operations as soon as the Mayaguez's crew was released. At 8:45 p.m. (7:45 a.m. Cambodian time), A-6 Intruders and A-7 Corsairs took off from the Coral Sea to bomb Ream Airfield near Kompong Som...
...Minutes later, the U.S. planes began bombing Ream Airfield, destroying 17 Cambodian aircraft, mostly U.S.-built T-28 trainers that Cambodia's deposed Lon Nol government had got from the U.S. In a second raid about an hour later, U.S. jets bombed and destroyed an oil depot near Kompong Som...
...Mayaguez's crew later explained that their captors had kept them on the move?on Tuesday night to Koh Tang, on Wednesday to Kompong Som aboard the one gunboat that was unharmed by U.S. planes, and finally to the island of Rong, about 50 miles north of Koh Tang. More than an hour before the Marine assault on Koh Tang, the Cambodians had released the Americans and Thais, putting them aboard the fishing boat to make their way back to the Mayaguez...
...have questioned whether it was necessary to bomb the Cambodian mainlaind. After all, about the same time as the assault began, the Cambodians had expressed a willingness to release the Mayaguez. Ford argues that the bombing was needed to keep an estimated 2,400 Cambodian soldiers stationed around Kompong Som from joining the battle on the island. TIME Correspondent Dean Fischer reported that the President told congressional leaders just before the military action began: "I am not going to risk the life of one Marine. I'd never forgive myself." Ford further explained: "The question of doing too little weighed...