I was still in IRR and living near base in J-Ville when this fiasco went down.
In many ways I relate this operation to Eagle Claw, and, to a lesser extent, the Battle of Mogadishu. Although in the latter case, the Rangers and Delta people brought their dead out with them; a sacred Marine Corps point of honor that was notoriously and disgracefully abandoned during this abortion of an Op. Fifteen dead Marines including some Navy Corpsmen, fifty WIA, three MIA and what, three 53's destroyed, a few more shot to hell and one crash, killing the crew and a fifteen-man AF security detachment.
Intel was a fucking Black Hole.
Em Son, the Khymer commander who's men defended the island, had one of the three missing Marines executed, although his story has changed over the years. The other two were later beaten to death.
I cringe remembering how this was viewed as a "successful" operation at the time. It was not...but with an American public used to an average of anywhere between 50 to 500 US combat deaths a week for the previous ten years, I guess a few more didn't account for much.
No blame should fall on the Marines who went into this. There was honor and courage under fire. But there were some decisions made here by commanders that I felt then, and still feel, smacked of timidity and risk aversion. Most notably unassing the AO and leaving our dead on the battlefield and failing to mount a rescue mission for the three Marines left behind.
In my humble opinion, they didn't disobey orders and fail to withdraw to the LZ, they just never got the fuckin word...and like good Marines they remained at their MG position.
RIP my Brothers.
EDIT
Incidentally, we dropped a BLU-82 on the island during this engagement. Marines hastily requested no more be dropped.
