June 13, 1998 Amb. Kenneth Quinn
Having highlighted the extraordinary history of the three young Marines who had inadvertently been left behind on Koh Tang Island in 1975 during the Mayaguez Operation, Ambassador Quinn was honored to preside at a ceremony in 1999 at which time what was believed to be the remains of one of those Marines was turned over to the United States by the Cambodian Government. A U.S. Air Force plane with a special Honor Guard flew to Cambodia to carry the remains back to the United States. It was a deeply emotional event which Ambassador Quinn acknowledged in his remarks emphasizing how the Marines had remained true to the motto of the Marine Corp-- Semper Fi-- as they remained faithful and never surrendered despite their hopeless situation. Ambassador Quinn had earlier created a marble monument which stands at the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh and on which inscribed the names of all of the American Military Personnel who lost their lives during that battle to free the crew of the ship S.S. Mayaguez in May 1975.