Operation Marathon Pacific
Operation Prompt Return 95

Army forces in the Pacific participated in Operation Marathon Pacific involving Chinese migrants on Wake Island. The operation successfully repatriated the Chinese. The Jung Sheng Number 8, a 160-foot-long vessel interdicted near Hawaii on July 3, 1995. The vessel had left Canton, People's Republic of China, June 2 with 147 passengers, mostly young males, and 12 crewmembers. The immigrants had paid or had promised to pay nearly $30,000 each for passage to the United States. The immigrants were found in a dark fish hold, suffering from stifling 100-degree heat. US authorities took the Jung Sheng Number 8, along with its passengers, to Wake Island, a small atoll about 2,300 miles west of Hawaii. All the migrants were returned to China on August 7, 1995. Under adverse conditions, Operation Prompt Return 95 provided Air Force support for the repatriation and humanitarian assistance to 147 Chinese migrants and a crew of 11 off of Wake Island in the mid-Pacific, from July 21 to August 10, 1995.