I can assure you I wasnt being paranoid in thinking he might be shot in the back for seeing me. The judges had ordered that the incarcerated Rafe be given a new trial, which, like Manuels, was held at Fort Leavenworth. No such thing happened. They were hard workers, those Vietnamese women picking little bananas, shinnying up palm trees for coconuts. It was maddening, Eriksson said, to realize that military discipline threatened to make Mao its victim again, just as it had on Hill 192, when all that certified Meserves orders was his rank as sergeant. Seeing him made me think at once of two questions I would have liked to ask him or his sergeant. To Erikssons surprise, the trial, which occurred in June, 1969, resulted in Rafes second conviction, an inevitable finding, in view of the fact that Rafe pleaded guilty to the charge of unpremeditated murder. Accompanied by troops of the South Vietnamese government, the two women had eventually come to the hootch on Hill 192, where they had found Maos brassiere, flecked with blood; the troops had burned down the hootch. He was at his wits end for a way to circumvent the system, Eriksson told me, because he was convinced that it was this system that lay at the heart of his difficulties. In the case of Manuel (the father of a three-month-old girl), this attitude of mystification became so palpable that the prosecutor finally inquired, Do you feel you are involved in any way in this rape and murder? To which Manuel replied No.. As far as he knew, he said, no legal developments were brewing in their behalfnot that it made much difference, he added, since he had learned just a few weeks earlier that Meserve and Clark stood to be declared eligible for parole before they had served even half their time at Fort Leavenworth. [1] Although news of the incident reached the U.S. shortly after the soldiers' trials,[3] the story gained widespread notoriety through Daniel Lang's 1969 article for The New Yorker[4] and his subsequent book. The following day, in the midst of a firefight with the Viet Cong, Thomas and Gervase became worried that the woman would be seen with the squad. Yes or no? Q : Well, you feel you are not involved in any way? The four soldiers visitation lasted nearly an hour and a half, and two minutes after it was terminated the men, to conceal themselves from any Vietcong who might be in the vicinity, rentered the hootch together. Of course, I was a foot soldier all this time. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. After the young woman was murdered, Pfc. It describes in detail the 1968 events that made up what the U.S. Army called the Incident on Hill 192, in which a forward patrol was found to have kidnapped a Vietnamese girl, raped her repeatedly, then murdered her to avoid being found out. Thinking like thatwell, as I say, it could change some fellows. Had he taken into account the amount of suffering that Americans had already undergone in behalf of the Vietnamese? It was to take them, ultimately, to Hill 192a height, in the Bong Son valley, that overlooked a ravine laced with a cave complex, which was suspected of serving as a Vietcong hideout. Nor could the concern that the C.O. Three Vietnamese were spotted walking along the edge of the water, and though they wore no uniforms, Meserve assumed they were V.C., and he and his men, including Eriksson, opened fire on them. It was an awkward moment, Eriksson said, and Clark terminated it. June 17, 2022 . Three times I saw the C.O. Twenty minutes later, they knew what it was. At any rate, he felt that he was on the right track, since chaplains were professionally concerned with conscience. We would be fools to think those men couldnt do again what they did before., He would never cease to condemn the members of the patrol personally for their crime, Eriksson said, but that didnt mean they were beyond pity. Manuel gave similar testimony. He thought of her as his plane, full of singing soldiers, took off from Cam Ranh Bay and he held his last look at the unhappy land below. The court record attests that it was in the midst of this encircling racket that Meserve chose to initiate radio contact with Lieutenant Reilly, the burden of the Sergeants message being that he wanted to report one V.C., K.I.A. Under cross-examination at Meserves court-martial, Reilly, appearing as a defense witness, testified, Sergeant Meserve called me up and informed me in the middle of the fire fight that a girl was fleeing up the side of the mountain, and I informed him to get the girl. The four courts-martial took place in the winter of 1967, within a period of about ten days in the middle of March. Q: You would suggest some minor form of punishment, in other words? The hootch contained a table, a low bench built against a wall, and tattered remnants of a straw mat strewn in a dark corner, and the dirt floor was littered with scrap metal, rocks, and cans. Mao wasnt there, and Eriksson, rejoining the waiting group, pointed to the other rock. Outside, a diesel generator, the base camps source of electricity, made a constant racket, causing the law officers frequently to request witnesses to raise their voices. They constantly reported rapes and kidnappings by the Vietcong; in fact, the Vietcong committed these crimes so indiscriminately that the victims were sometimes their own sympathizers. . They were all strange faces. Asked whether Maos continued presence on Hill 192 might not ultimately have endangered the lives of the members of the patrol, Eriksson said, Sir, this girl wasnt supposed to be on this patrol.. In warat least, the war we were init was nothing unusual to hear shots that were unexplained, to find a body that might or might not have been shot in combat. agent, poking through leaves with a bayonet, found teeth, finger bones, and yet more bullet fragments, all of which he deposited in a plastic bag. At first, the chain of command, including the company commander, took no action. If he had known this, he thinks, he might have realized then, as he did later, that the Captain was in a bind; that is, he was torn between the dictates of his conscience, which condemned the crime, and concern for his Army career, which, Eriksson later discovered, the battalion commanderwho outranked Vorst, and who was also a liferwas in the habit of admonishing the Captain to bear in mind. investigators before the trial started that he had committed rape, but when the subject came up in the courtroom, it appeared to be Manuels judgment that he had taken part in a reasonable enterprise, and the justification that he gave for doing so was military discipline. The Captaina lifer, or career Army manhad left instructions that he was to be sent urgent messages only, but shortly after Eriksson took leave of Reilly, the Lieutenant, confident that the murder merited his superiors attention, radioed word of it to Vorst. Pointing to the hootch, he signalled to Rafe to be his successor, and Rafe, sparing himself ridicule, walked in. You never knew whose turn it was to die, and that isnt how it was in rear areas. Well, during this Operation Thayer II, which started [last October], we ran into a hootch that was burned down. Uninitiated though he was in the ways of jurisprudence, Eriksson said, he found it odd that defense lawyers could freely engage him in conversation during court recesses, questioning him on subjects that he was later asked about under oath when the court session was resumed. It was like claiming that just because a drunken driver hit your friend, you had a right to get in your car and aim it at some pedestrian. Whatever I could do about her depended on finding someone with both the rank and the conscience to help me, he told me. The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman, on November 19, 1966 by an American squad during the Vietnam War. It was the least I could doI had failed her in so many ways. In the end, the four juries sitting at Camp Radcliff found the defendants guilty of one crime or another. He had wanted to unburden himself of his doubts about whether he had done all he might have done for Mao in her travaildoubts that gnaw at him to this day. To Eriksson, Meserves was the most surprising of the verdicts, for the Sergeant was found innocent of the charge of rape but guilty of unpremeditated murder, for which he was sentenced to a term of ten years. Translating the testimony of Loc, who was two years younger than Mao, an interpreter informed the court, She said they come in, use flashlight and shone around the house and saw her mothers face and her sisters face and all of them wake up at the same time. Im not saying that every fellow who roughed up a civilian liked himself for itnot that hed admit in so many words that he didnt. Gazing into the valley below, Rafe thought he spied a Vietnamese in a native type of straw hat standing in the stream. or did he just refuse at all times? Rafe later testified, There were helicopters flying around, and everyone was getting jumpy about having the girl.. In the Army, he had discovered, that kind of action depended entirely on the discretion of ones superiorunless it was possible to figure out some way of bypassing him. . Their eyes were terrified, Eriksson remembers. After his last talk with Vorst, he told me, that frustration was always with himeating at him, keeping him remote from his fellow-G.I.s, costing him sleep. And wasnt it just possible that the victim might not necessarily be Eriksson himself but, rather, his new bride? They send you reeling from the theatre. It could keep them from believing that life was so valuableanyones life, I mean, even their own. These guys right here are going to start laughing you out. He is now on duty as a soldier in the United States while awaiting further word on his case, which since September has been in the hands of a board of review. I wanted to get out of the whole company, because I could not see staying in a company that would do anything such as here. I then heard the girl cry out, but not too loud, Rafe continued. Things will get sorted out, he said. Invariably, Eriksson said, he found himself reproved for the deed. All of us had come back scared and upset, but Clark, I thought, showed it the most. Once Clark had left them, Eriksson continued with his story, feeling an immense relief when he had finished telling it. Deciding that he was looking at a V.C., Rafe let fly with a couple of rounds from his M-16 rifle. The film stars Michael J. It was a six-hour trek, over difficult terrain, and when the men finally stood just below the summit, several of them, who were unaccustomed to tramping so long, were near exhaustion. So now its only the father whos leftor is he? As a result, Eriksson spent the next two days surreptitiously doing a kind of security check on Greenacres character. All that awaited decision, Meserve went on, was the moment and method of the girls murder, but, whatever was settled on, the Sergeants thought was to have Eriksson do the job; if Eriksson refused, Meserve said, he would be reported as K.I.A.killed in action. The gunships were now unmistakably in the area, their motors sending up a storm of noise as the machines hovered low and their crews searched out the enemy. Eriksson himself stood scanning the landscape intently, looking for the curiously shaped rock formation where the stabbed girl had been shot. As he was leaving, he told me, the Captain called out reassuringly, Ill handle everything!, When Eriksson heard nothing from Vorst for four days, he sought an interview, which was granted. . Just as long as he stayed in line, just as long as he kept the setup going, he could do whatever he wanted., Perhaps the most jarring of all the discoveries he made during this unhappy period, Eriksson told me, was that his fellow-G.I.s took a dim view of his efforts in behalf of Mao. As for Manuel, who was fair-skinned and stockier than his cousin, his manner was on the jumpier side. You should know that the courage and steadfastness you demonstrated make me proud to have you a member of this division. To listen to them, and to the testimony that the guys in the patrol gave, Mao was probably living happily in her hamlet. As early as the opening day of Rafes trial, which was the first one held, he realized that it was idle to consider whether the G.I.s punishment would, or could, fit the crime. Since the verdicts would automatically come under review and the government might again need him as a witness, he was kept on in the post of military policeman at the division base. I hadnt let out anything to him about the murder, but as long as I was with Chaplain Kirk, I thought he was entitled to hear everything. The gesture impressed him, the chaplain has since told me. Im still young, he said, and it took me a moments effort to recall the fact of his youth, and the youth of Meserve and the rest of the patrol. Wed had to support each other in a new way after she was killed. This meant going to platoon headquartersthe home of four squads, and only a few minutes walk from company headquarters, where there were officers who outranked Reilly, the platoons lone lieutenant. In the hours we spent together, there were intervals that may have lasted as long as a minute when he sat silent, a brooding expression on his face, before resuming his account. He was shirtless; his face wore an expression of swaggering irresistibility. Throughout, Eriksson recalls, dozens of pictures were taken, for possible use as trial exhibits, the flashes of the photographers bulbs pale in the afternoon sun. Are you afraid of Sergeant Meserve? Eriksson was asked at one point, and he replied, Thats affirmative, sir. I had no idea where my unit was. But you could tell. The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman, on November 19, 1966 by an American squad during the Vietnam War. Eriksson had never laid eyes on the chaplain before. I was an inch too short. Somewhat gratefully, he went back to his prewar, and well-paid, job of cabinetmaking at the small department store. The five men and Mao kept up a steady pace. But, as Eriksson unhesitatingly acknowledges, the fact is that when he thinks of his tour of duty in Vietnam it is always a single image that comes to his mind. His last order before they left was to send Eriksson, Rafe, and Manuel to fetch the days supply of water from the stream. As he listened to her, he said, it had even crossed his mind to shoot her assailants, but then, he observed to me, Id have had the bodies of four men to justify. Asked in court for his thoughts during the period he had sat on the grassy turf, he testified, Well, sir, I was wishing I wasnt in the situation I was in. Rafe subsequently testified that the Sergeant was in an expansive mood, cheerfully observing to his men that it wasnt every day he could rate artillery support and have himself a woman as well. She was real goodpretty clean, he said. And it had to be Boyd Greenacre who would introduce me. All four soldiers were sentenced to hard labor at the United States Army Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. That just shows you it isnt all combat over here. Meserves lawyer, pleading for his client immediately after this, spoke of the pressures on twenty-year-old sergeants. He remembers that he talked with one of them while they were both shaving, and that in shooting the breeze with another he led the conversation around to Greenacre when the man mentioned that Arizona was where he dreamed of spending his first post-war vacation. Eriksson conceded, however, that the prospect of Meserves and Clarks freedom did disturb him. The two sisters looked at each other. I decided I was hearing an individual who wished he could have saved that girl but hadnt been able to, Kirk told me. Eriksson shook his head again. wouldnt let me become a door gunner, Eriksson told me. When they returned, Eriksson told me, they discovered that Clark was no longer alone in advocating Maos early demise. Another man might have called it something else, but the idea was simply that we had to answer for what we did. Unfortunately they do nothing but settle for him to be relocated in order to not be killed by his fellow squad members. As for the defendants themselves, only Rafe showed contrition, the most striking manifestation of which was his decision to testify against Clark. Can you add one ? Incident on Hill 192 View source 19 November 1967. Even the prosecutor predicted defeat, Eriksson told me, and during a short break Eriksson heard the judge remark to the court reporter that the trial was a waste of the taxpayers money. He said it would be good for the morale of the squad.. There is going to be four people on that patrol and an individual., Once Meserve had delivered his estimate of Erikssons virility, the ill-fated bacchanal got under way. I had this picture that when we did, theyd fire at us, or, at least, Meserve would have me up on charges of desertion. The paintings made her unhappy, or, rather, they led her to acknowledge the existence of an unhappiness that seemed always to have been inside her.. When Meserve and Clark rejoined their comrades, Eriksson told me, they had the bound Mao well in tow. What if he refused to arrange an introduction for me? You could never tell how a man was going to behave under pressure, Eriksson said. Today, on Hill 192, located between the Normandy cities of St. L and Bayeux, sleek horses graze the fields, and people in hacking gear travel the roads and bridle paths. Ordering Eriksson and Rafe to clean up the hootch, and leaving Mao in their charge, the Sergeant went off with Clark and Manuel to have a careful look around. With few exceptions, these witnesses had fought alongside the defendants, and it was a powerful camaraderie they shared, forged, as it was, in combat, where they had all saved each others lives more than once. It took him a while to realize this, he said, and, curiously, he became persuaded of its prevalence as a result of thinking about Vorst s negative handling. As he went over it in his mind for the hundredth time, he began to suspect the existence of cracks in the Captains seemingly certain, untroubled faade. The idea that came most easily to his mind was to continue in police work, in which he had been engaged since his days at Camp Radcliff, but on applying to the State Highway Patrol for a post as motorcycle cop he discovered that this was impracticable. To counter any such strategy, the prosecutor wanted to have on hand a statement attesting to his chief witnesss mental stability. . For protective custody, they said., From that point on, Erikssons life in the Army was radically changed. He had stopped the shooting as soon as he heard an American voice yell Hit it! Still fuming as the two patrols stood facing each other awkwardly, Erikssons sergeant declared that in all the time he had spent in Vietnam he had never before experienced any such mistake. As Eriksson waited for his sergeant to cool off, he idly scanned the men in the other squad, his eyes stopping abruptly when they met the expressionless gaze of a familiar face. He was ten when his father suddenly died. The prosecutor, it appeared, counted it a safe bet that the defense attorneys would attempt to portray Eriksson as some kind of repressed nut for having failed to join in the festivities on Hill 192. Eriksson now believes he should have foreseen that sooner or later one of these incidents was bound to strike him with special, climactic force. As if his family had any money! As if Sven had it so easy! Mrs. Eriksson said to me when she heard of these findings. Eriksson also stated that the entire taking of the girl, the rape, and killing of the girl were pre-planned. [15], "David E Gervase (1946-1981) - Find a Grave", "Report:Sailor-trial witness was in Vietnam rape-murder", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Incident_on_Hill_192&oldid=1147907196, This page was last edited on 2 April 2023, at 23:16. All he need do, he believed, was report that they had committed rape and murder, and the military authorities would investigate with the same alacrity that civilian authorities are expected to show in such situations. But I couldnt think any of my brainstorms through. A few rare films stun the senses. Incident on Hill 192 - Wikipedia. Here, the C.O. Reilly later testified in court, Captain Vorst stated to Eriksson, I guess you realize how serious this incident is, and that it could cause an international issue. Eriksson stated thats why he reported the incidentbecause he knew it was serious. Day after day, out on patrol, wed come to a narrow dirt path leading through some shabby village, and the elders would welcome us and the children come running with smiles on their faces, waiting for the candy wed give them. Thomas caught her and shot her in the head with his M16 rifle. 1945-1989 (content) Creator. In the meantime, Erikssons orders placed him on temporary duty with a carpentry detail that was constructing additional housing for the base, whose population came to twenty thousand. I had to know whether he could at least be trusted to keep quiet about what I was up to. As indirectly and offhandedly as he could, Eriksson sounded out various members of the work detail about Greenacrenone of whom, he remarked, he knew any better than he knew the Arizonan. But at the other end of the path, just as we were leaving the village behind, the enemy would open up on us, and there was bitterness among us that the villagers hadnt given us warning. It was like living in an overorganized junglefull of names, ranks, and serial numbers but not much else., Dispiriting though he found the atmosphere in the platoon area, Eriksson went on, there were traces of conscience there. Though the men had to struggle for footing, Eriksson related, they made a point of keeping an eye on the stream that ran near the hootch; it had its source high up on the mountain, flowing down past a number of rice fields. Mrs. Eriksson fetched it for me from a bureau drawer, and I read: 1: You are to be commended for the important role you played in seeing that justice was done in the recent court-martial cases involving four soldiers charged with the rape and murder of a young Vietnamese woman. In addition, Rafe flatly said, Eriksson could not see the girl, despite which, Rafe also testified, Eriksson stated, Oh, no, like he regretted that he had fired. Rafe himself let go with a burst from his M-16, which, inexplicably, caused his rifle to jam. Recalling the interview, Eriksson said, Id answer a question, then hed wait and Id have to wait along with him, then hed ask another question, real fast, and in Id come with my next answer. During his first hour back in camp, he recalls, no one could have persuaded him otherwise. rallied to the patrols defense that idea seemed less tenable. For Rafe, the fighting had ended an hour earlierwell before the patrol reached the cave complex. He had a wild mannerhe couldnt stand still, and his eyes looked every which way. In 1969, the New Yorker published a report by Daniel Lang about the court martial of a group of men who had served in Vietnam. However, a board of review in Washington, made up of three senior officers, had noticed the C.I.D.s oversight, and it had resulted in a second chance for Manuel. Given this confusion of values, the legalistic consideration of Maos death sometimes bordered on the incongruous. On the way, Greenacre told Eriksson that the chaplain, Captain Gerald Kirk, came from Ogden, Utah; he was a Mormon, Eriksson learned, and so was Greenacre. Sitting by himself on a sofa, Eriksson smiled somewhat ruefully, a deep dimple forming in one cheek. Sometimes I didnt see what kept the stick from snapping. Throughout each trial, Eriksson said, the exponents of military law strove diligently to apply judicial rules largely borrowed from civilian law, as though they were seeking to re-create a semblance of civilian life. Glancing at the girl with distaste, the Sergeant ordered Eriksson and Rafe to stay with her on the ridge, whereupon he, Clark, and Manuel began a cautious descent of the mountain, their purpose to stalk the Vietcong. But the Sergeant did nothing about the escaping V.C., for he was now powerfully distracted from the enemy; in the distance, still inaudible and looking miniaturized, were four approaching gunships. I might say I was praying to God that if I ever got out of there alive Id do everything I could to see that these men would pay for what they did., Eriksson now lapsed into the longest of his silences with me, and when he spoke again, it was, for him, at great length. Now the V.C., flushed from their temporary hideout, continued to beat a desperate retreat, relying on sniper fire to fend off their attackers, who were converging on them from both sides of the stream. Arriving at the austere hootch that Reilly used as a command post, Eriksson told me, he imagined that the Lieutenant, if only conversationally, would express dismay over the murder. incident on hill 192 where are they now. 2. gcdc. Thomas took Mao into a brushy area, and although he stabbed her three times with his hunting knife, he failed to kill her. Manuel admitted to C.I.D. And, in practice, neither Manuel nor any of the other defendants (nor Eriksson, for that matter) paid a cent for legal services. Related period. The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman [1] on 19 November 1966 [2] by an American squad during the Vietnam War. Eriksson was fond of his uncle, Mrs. Eriksson said, but, reluctantly, he answered, Im afraid I dont want to talk about her., When Erikssons leave was over, he finished out his two-year hitch at Fort Carson, Colorado, where many of the men were either completing their service, like him, or departing for war. No matter how close the questioning, and no matter how detailed the testimony he gave, or heard, it all seemed related to Maos murder in only a surface sense. After half an hour, their watch on the stream paid off, producing a more interesting sight than Rafes water buffalo. It was just that he was less than average as far as being one of the guys, should we say? He was upset and frustratedit was in all his letters. In fact, it would have been difficult to find any other kind in Vietnam, since the Army was dispensing such benefits all over the place. In that season, Eriksson told me, when the M.P.s yakked the hours away together in their quarters, one or another of his fellow-cops would periodically recall what Eriksson had chosen to do. However, it was essentially intact, and Meserve quickly converted it into a weapons depot, dumping ammunition stocks, and also food supplies, on its dirt floor. Clark, convicted of rape and premeditated murder, was to serve for life. It was another case of people doing their job, he told me. When you go out on a patrol, you aint going to be as good as you want to be, because these guys aint helping you do anything. All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. I told him I was being wrongly brought to trial. Incident on Hill 192 November 19, 1966 The kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman by an American squad of soldiers during the Vietnam War. I didnt know then that they were four hundred metres away, at the top of Hill 192, or that it would be a whole hour before they returned. Returning to the patrols briefing, Eriksson told me that Meserve was all business as he plunged into his talk. 1989 Topics Trailer, Movie, Drama During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager. This time, he said, it would be Clark who would stay behind to guard Mao and the weapons in the hootch. Mao was ungagged but was given no food; noticing that she was flushed and coughing slightly, Meserve handed her an aspirin. It came from Maos mother, who was giving chase. I wanted to find out first what Meserve and Clark might do. The fire fight in the ravine lasted several hours, the attackers finally breaking off after dark. None of the four hit anything, and the Sergeant radioed the platoon command for artillery support, which was quickly granted; the coperation, Eriksson recalled, pleased Meserve no end, since it implicitly conferred an importance on the skirmish. Deciding to close in on the three Vietnamese, Meserve dispatched Eriksson and Rafe to the hootch to pick up a supply of smoke grenades. Perhaps as an earnest of his friendship, Eriksson told the Marine about Mao one afternoon, and the captain was shocked to hear what had happened to her. section 8 housing polk county, iowa, collin palmer wrestling career, pizza dough recipe with crisco shortening,
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