However, he did call Clarks attention to a bush directly ahead. But then I dont know how much the C.I.D. Hey, Sven, how do you know that girl wasnt a V.C. In 1989 Brian De Palma directed the film Casualties of War, which was based on Lang's book. That leaves three to go.. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, Like their predecessors in all wars, American veterans of the Vietnamese campaign who are coming home to civilian life have their heads filled with memories that may last the rest of their days, for, no matter how far from the front a man may have spent his time as a soldier, he will remember it as a special time, when, fleetingly, his daily existence appeared to approach the heroic. All right, go ahead, Meserve said, and he instantly turned his attention to the enemy, ordering Eriksson to the lower ledge of rock while he and Manuel returned to the upper one, with Rafe to their rear. Departing from the hamlet with their prize, the soldiers moved west toward the main trail they should have been on. David Edward Gervase (1946-1981) - Find a Grave Memorial Vorst filled out transfer forms, and Eriksson signed them. 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. 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. Mrs. Eriksson, who was once more plying her husband and me with coffee and cake, put in, Sven and I are Lutherans. She was real goodpretty clean, he said. Did Eriksson know that military judges and jurors were notoriously lenient in their sentencing? Thomas caught her and shot her in the head with his M16 rifle. At Rafes court-martial, it was disclosed that for several days the two patients in the hospital ward seemingly talked about whatever came into their heads but that Rafe never mentioned Mao. No one would ever know what had become of her, he exclaimed. He first asked Sergeant Meserve, Do you know anything about this? To which Meserve said, We dont know what youre talking about. He then directed the same question to all of us, Do you people know what youve done up there? Captain Vorst then asked me did I know what would or could happen to me. Lang later turned the article into a book entitled "Casualties of War". Moreover, Eriksson told me, the enemy soldier inflicted casualties on the infantrymen deployed around the cave complex, which was some two hundred metres long and had numerous mouths. Gradually, though, the cops ear gave way to the chaplains. The men found her feverish and coughing, and Clark was all for rescheduling her death hour to that evening. As it turned out, they required no invitation to talk about herparticularly in the summer months, when the torrential monsoon rains drowned any possibility of outdoor routine. They were married four years ago, shortly after Eriksson was drafted. 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. The two sisters looked at each other. I had a feeling she had been injured in some waynot that I could tell. incident on hill 192 where are they now - sniscaffolding.com We made up something to get him to go away, Eriksson told me. 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. Meserve said nothing to Rafe; nor did he say anything to any of the others when, as the mission unfolded, they committed similar derelictions. Before Eriksson was through, even his possession of a sense of humor became an issue. I wanted to be very sure that he himself hadnt taken part in the rape. interrogators had apprised him of various rights he had, among them the right to remain silent and to have a lawyer, the interrogators had neglected to mention that he was entitled to have an appointed lawyer, meaning one whose services would be free of charge. Instead, to Erikssons astonishment, Reilly chose that moment to offer a reminiscence. Asked why, he answered, O.K., lets say you are on a patrol. He was paroled on June 18, 1970. His parents stayed home plenty of Sundays.. Meserve testified at his court-martial, The mother came out, like they always do, started crying, talking. went on, it was mild sentences that were the order of the day, and, what was more, they became even milder when they were up for review; safe and professionally idealistic back home, he said, the legal experts of military appellate bodies invariably looked with suspicion upon the administration of justice in war zones. I couldnt tell who was supposed to have the hard feelingsManuel or myself, Eriksson told me. Eriksson was now with them, and he saw that Mao had retreated to a corner of the hut, frightened, watchful, her eyes glistening with tears, her presence made known chiefly by a cough that had grown more pronounced since morning. They scare that discipline into you in basic training, Eriksson told me. He had wanted to tell of the way the episode with Mao had affected him, and why it was that he had felt impelled to report the othersfour young Americans like him, each dependent on the others for survival deep in enemy territory. 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. No doubt, Eriksson said, the close brushes that he and his friend had been through had something to do with this, but in his own case he had been deeply impressed while he was overseas by what he called an upside-down mentality, which he believed explained the general unconcern there about incidents like the one he had taken part in. Casualties of War: Incident On Hill 192 Dolce Vanity 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. I needed more of an impression of Boyd than I had, Eriksson said. With me, he said, he trusted he would be able to go into these matters freely, but he had early discovered that in a court of law they were of little interest. . The outmanned, outgunned enemy put up so strong a fight, he said, that the Sergeant, Clark, and Manuel ran out of ammunition, and the patrol had to interrupt its five-day mission long enough to go back for fresh supplies of bullets and grenades. War crimes such as the Incident on Hill 192 (dramatized in the equally harrowing Casualties of War ), the My Lai Massacre, the Shelling of Highway 1, the Phoenix Program, and many more all involved the torture, rape, and mass murder of unarmed Vietnamese civilians. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. They set you brooding about them for days. I knew the rendezvous spot, and if Mao and I could show up there at the right time, there was no question in my mind but that the fellows in the resupply squad would help us both. As far as he could make out, the company C.O. 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. Late in July, Eriksson was handed a communication from the commanding officer of his division, the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile). (Eriksson had done the same for Rafe at his trial in Vietnam.) Indeed, there are some that would say it did not even occur in civilization, when you are out on combat operations., Two weeks after the trials ended, one of the court interpreters, a Vietnamese schoolteacher, with whom Eriksson had made friends, brought word to him that Maos sister was missing. Incident Q : You feel that the government has done you a grave injustice in bringing you here today for trial? 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. 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. Eriksson himself helped Manuels case by testifying briefly as a defense witness, corroborating the fact that Manuel had refused to obey Meserves order to kill Mao. The next thing I knew, I was in jail, Eriksson told me. 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. You want her gold tooth? Clark called over his shoulder to Rafe, who was then, he testified, a foot away and was staring, aghast, at Mao. 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. Daylight was coming on fast, and he wanted the girl in the light as little as possible, Eriksson told me. At the time the fifth V.C. Loc and her father had moved from their native hamlet; they now lived in a village several miles from there. Flying back to Carson, I thought to myself, So Manuels out. Incident on Hill 192 | Imperial War Museums They were her last. (Asked by a C.I.D. That had to have some purpose. Incident on Hill 192 explained Tony Meserve (Sean Penn), kidnap a young Vietnamese woman named Oanh (Thuy Thu Le) from her village and take her on a patrol, making her their sex slave. LANG, DANIEL (Author) Secker and Warburg (Publisher) Production date. He also remembers that she was wearing dusty earrings made of bluish glass; he noticed the trinkets because they gave off a dull glint one bright afternoon when he was assigned to stand guard over her. Thinking like thatwell, as I say, it could change some fellows. When the two men were aloft and sitting side by side, the artilleryman suddenly glanced at Eriksson with fresh interest and said, Say, werent you the guy who turned in that patrol? An infantryman, Eriksson saw a fair amount of action, so, if he chose, he could reminisce about strong points he helped take and fire fights in which he was pinned down, and one ambush, in particular, in which half his unit was wounded. . Evacuated by a medical helicopter, he was flown to a hospital at Qui Nhon. But here was this Marine, who had put in much more combat service than Meserve or Clark or anyone else Id met, and he felt exactly as I did about the crime., Eriksson now fell into one of his silences, and I imagined he was contemplating the mystery of human character. Both refused, Eriksson said. Last winter, members of the Military Appeals Courtthe militarys highest appellate bodyhad decided that the admissions Rafe made in Vietnam were tainted; that is, like Manuel, he had made a confession without being fully informed of his rights. This was about 1400 hours, Manuel stated. A: Well, yes, sir, I think if someone has been found guilty of murder, they should be punished, but, knowing Meserve as an individual, I would accept him back in the unit, yes, sir. Q: As a matter of fact, you have complained [from the stockade] that your promotion is being held up? She had the spark of life., The Oddballs and Odysseys of Charles Portis. Arriving on the run, the two explained their errand to Clark, who heard the news eagerly, then pulled rank on Eriksson and ordered him to take his place in guarding the hootch. Helicopter crews might spot her. Before the patrol left the hamlet, a swarm of local children materialized, chattering agitatedly in a circle around Mao, and then out of the white hootch came Loc. He has yet to come to terms with the incident on Hill 192, Eriksson told me. [6] The court, however, sentenced Thomas to life imprisonment with hard labor. When she tried to flee, three of the soldiers chased after her. . In addition, Meserve learned that he was again to be the recipient of artillery support; in a short while, Reilly said, helicopter gunshipsaircraft equipped with rocket artillery and machine gunswould be in the area. Cipriano Garcia's 4-year sentence was shortened to 22 months. All rights reserved. and wounding another. At first, the chain of command, including the company commander, took no action. Echoing the instructions that a battalion officer had given him earlier, the Sergeant informed the four men of the duties that each was expected to carry out, of the chain of command in the field, and of radio-communication arrangements with the platoon command, and then, consulting the grid cordinates of a map he was holding, the Sergeant described a precise westerly route that the patrol was to follow. . 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. Acknowledging the danger in which Eriksson had placed himself, the Lieutenant told him, If I sent you out with that patrol, youd never make it back.. Three times I saw the C.O. I had no idea where my unit was. Recurrently, the court records show, witnesses found it deplorable that the defendants should have to fight for their survival in a prisoners dock when they might be far better employed doing that on the battlefield; in their every utterance these witnesses reflected the view that losing soldiers of Meserves calibre could result only in gaining a stronger enemy. Greenacre might react disapprovingly, as the fellows in the platoon hador, for all Eriksson knew, Greenacre might turn out to be Meserves best friend. When Mao saw me come into the hootch, she thought I was there to rape her, Eriksson said. I knew I wouldnt rest until something was done about Maos murder. I simply asked, do you think a murderer should be retained in the United States Army? We were each acting the way we had to, he told me. . Erikssons patrol leader delivered a tongue-lashing to his counterpart, who apologized. 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. Possibly because of his coperative attitude at the trials, Rafe was given the lightest termeight years, for the crimes of rape and unpremeditated murder. They were very definite. The evidence gained as a result of the two field trips played an important part in the judicial proceedings, Eriksson told me. 2023 Cond Nast. I thought he wanted to destroy living evidence., In the morning, everyone got up shortly after six, and it wasnt long before Maos fate was sealed. Honorably discharged in April, 1968, this new war veteran, who is twenty-four and comes from a small farming community in northwestern Minnesota, isnt even sure that he would care to hold on to his recollections, if it were possible for him to control his memory. At first, we all denied any knowledge about it. Naturally, Meserve said, if the men could spot any Vietcong in the open, that would be all to the good, but the patrols ordersand these had been spelled out in no uncertain terms by the battalion commandwere to avoid any shooting matches with the enemy except in self-defense; as a so-called pony patrol, he said, they were out to collect early-warning information concerning enemy intentions. [6], Storeby initially reported the crime. It was as though he had shot himself with two rounds of his own ammo. The wounded man lay helpless, directly in front of the small opening from which the V.C. That was how my hunch went, and I didnt dare change it in any way. Eriksson moved cautiously. We just tell them to dee deemeaning to go away. Bunkers, trenches, trails that were not marked on maps, caches of enemy equipmentthese, too, were to be reconnaissance objectives. I told him I was being wrongly brought to trial. All four soldiers were sentenced to hard labor at the United States Army Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Eriksson also stated that the entire taking of the girl, the rape, and killing of the girl were pre-planned. Like most rural women, she was dressed in loose-fitting black pajamas. had shown for Erikssons safety be explained unless those cracks existed. All the others in the patrol had raped or killed her. Returning to the patrols briefing, Eriksson told me that Meserve was all business as he plunged into his talk. When she finished eating, she mumbled something in Vietnamese; maybe it was Thank youI wouldnt know. As far as he was concerned, Eriksson said, it had all seemed a morass of cleverness, but then, he conceded, he may well have entered the military courtroom in the Central Highlands, where the four trials were held, with unwarranted expectations, for it had been his hope that the trials would help him unravel his reactions to Maos fate. Otherwise, Id stay boxed in by the chain of command., On the last day of November, Eriksson was in a patrol that was chasing two or three V.C. It was another case of people doing their job, he told me. With Greenacre there, it meant that Sven was waiving his right to my silence, he said. In recalling it for investigators later on, Manuel stated, He told us he had attempted to keep the incident quiet but that now he couldnt give us any further advice or help. The M.P.s took the enlisted men to the Provost Marshals office at An Khe, where they were given an initial interrogation before being remanded to the stockade at Long Binh. an exit. Accompanied by a squad of armed enlisted men, as a precaution against an enemy ambush, the search party set out early the following morning, December 9th, flying from An Khe to an airstrip near Captain Vorsts company headquarters. Incident on Hill 192 by Daniel Lang - Goodreads . 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. As Mao stood listening, mute and uncomprehending, Meserve said that she had to be got out of the way; if they ran into action, he pointed out, she would be a hindrance, and even if they didnt, helicopter crews scouting the area might want to know who she was. It was Manuel, Eriksson told me. Through an interpreter, Loc related that after the patrol finished with their hamlet, she and her mother had searched desperately for Mao. It repeated itself in waves, broken only, Eriksson assumed, by Maos need to summon fresh breath. A: I wrote my senator. . 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. Among them, Eriksson said, these sizable elements, advancing toward the cave complex, succeeded in killing one V.C. be ambushed. (Dr. Finck, a well-known Army pathologist, was one of the team of three physicians that performed the autopsy on the late President Kennedy.) They may be out in a few months, he said. Eriksson now believes he should have foreseen that sooner or later one of these incidents was bound to strike him with special, climactic force. I wanted to get out of the platoon, he stated. Im talking about a murder. When he opened his eyes, a new passenger was sitting directly opposite hima young Oriental woman. However, in the last month or so, Rowan told Eriksson, the Sergeant, apparently undergoing changes, had exhibited a mean streak toward the Vietnamese; a couple of weeks before, Rowan said, Meserve had shot at and wounded one of them, giving as his reason afterward that he had felt like it. The way Curly talked about him, Meserve sounded as though he had become a kind of war casualty, Eriksson told me. And who was the man who fired the last shot? Eriksson wouldnt be going along, though; the Lieutenant had assigned another G.I. For Rafe, the fighting had ended an hour earlierwell before the patrol reached the cave complex. He had imagined that he would be able to ask how it was that he alone of the patrol had come to act as he had. It was certainly possible to do so, as I knew for myself from having read the court record of the trials he had brought about: seven bulky volumes in the offices of the Clerk of Courts, U.S. Army Judiciary, in Falls Church, Virginia, which included Erikssons testimony against the members of the patrol; their convictions and appeals; interminable correspondence between judges and opposing counsel; and depositions concerning the character of individual defendants. It makes for an easier mission and no problems. Each day, Eriksson said, he felt as though he were at war with war, a troublemaker out to undermine some careful, desperate code of survival. This time, he said, it would be Clark who would stay behind to guard Mao and the weapons in the hootch. But. It was an awkward moment, Eriksson said, and Clark terminated it. . Incident on Hill 192 View source 19 November 1967. Q: Did he endeavor to actively join in with the free-time activity of the rest of the people, or did he have to be coaxed. He told me that their bond was religion and that the interest each of them took in it had been heightened by their experiences in the war. If he said no, he would appear to be disowning the defendants, his comrades-in-arms; if he said yes, he would in effect be telling the jury that he regarded the war as a public-works project for criminals. You Are Here: ross dress for less throw blankets apprentissage des lettres de l'alphabet incident on hill 192 where are they now. She was the big thing that had happened in the war for me, he told me. Lang's article for The New Yorker described the so-called "Incident on Hill 192" that involved the kidnapping, . When I got up to the girl, I saw that her head was partially blown away, he testified. In True Grit, and other novels, Portis displayed a genius that went beyond character in the strictly literary sense. or did he just refuse at all times? Chief of the Philippine National Police, retirement | 297K views, 1.1K likes, 812 loves, 1K comments, 873 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Radio. Lets kill her and get it over with, he said, according to the court record. His last order before they left was to send Eriksson, Rafe, and Manuel to fetch the days supply of water from the stream. In one form or another, he said, they took place almost daily, but he was slow, or reluctant, to perceive that they were as much a part of the war as shells and targets were. Eriksson had no occasion to fire his grenade launcher, and that was just as well, he told me, since his mind was on Maoon the part of the war that, as he put it, had got to me. Perched on the mountainside, listening to the gunfire and the helicopters, he found his thoughts returning repeatedly to the fact that Rafe and Manuel had refused to kill the girl. In any event, Eriksson went on, he lost little time in seeking out his friend Curly Rowan to tell him the story of Mao. Outside, according to the court record, Clark was watching his comrade through a hole in the mud faade and letting out whoops of delight that mingled with Maos cries. Thus, defense lawyers raised no objections when the prosecutor asked the defendants and the defense witnesses whether a soldier who was condemned for having committed civilian homicide, such as the killing of Mao, should be kept on as a member of the armed forcesthat is, should be permitted to go on committing military homicide. It didnt take many further interrogations to convince the law-enforcement officers that they had a case, for Rafe and Manuel readily signed affidavits whose substance supported Erikssons account of the incident on Hill 192the name by which Maos murder became known among the military. 2. gcdc. Theyd say there had never been a girl with the patrol, and Id be left looking crazy., Shifting uneasily on the sofa, Eriksson went on, When I stepped back into the hootch, I saw that Mao had made up her mind that I wasnt going to harm her. Film rights were bought by David Susskind who was to produce the film for Warner Bros. Pete Hamill wrote a script and Jack Clayton was to direct. I called him back and commended him on the job that he did and reported it, in turn, to the company headquarters.. No such thing happened. Cross-examining, the prosecutor asked, When you say he didnt have a sense of humor, you mean he wasnt a jokester, running around making or seeing the funny side of everything?. It came from Maos mother, who was giving chase. One M.P., I remember, told me he could have understood it if Id gone to bat for a G.I. Please dont ask me to explain why they did it. Eriksson said to me, It only looked as though he was the one out to do everything in, but the C.O., I knew, had someone over him, and his superior had a superior. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. At the time, Eriksson told me, he had no idea that the Captain had chewed them out. Anyway, thats what made me believe I was interested in religion. Despite threats against his life by the soldiers who took part in the rape and murder, Storeby was determined to see the soldiers punished. Though Eriksson testified at greater length than anyone else, most of the witnesses who appeared in the close, noisy courtroom spoke in support of the defendants, extolling their gallantry, their sense of duty, and their other soldierly virtues. that he [had] thought [at first] the men were just joking about really completing the acts. Throughout, Eriksson told me, he had the distinct impression that his position and Vorsts were at variance. As for himself, Eriksson told me, Meserve had ordered him to a ledge from which he could overlook the complex as he trained his grenade launcher on two cave mouths in particular, either one of which, the Sergeant thought, could afford the entombed V.C. They were just doing their job. Once the pair had assessed the gravity of the crimes being charged, they moved swiftly. incident on hill 192 where are they now - pamelahudson.net Deciding that he was looking at a V.C., Rafe let fly with a couple of rounds from his M-16 rifle. I thought again of letting her go, but what would I tell Meserve when he got back? It was also noted that, like Meserve, Clark was the product of an impoverished and broken home. It seemed like a deal, but why was it, Eriksson asked himself, that a captain should feel constrained to bargain with a lowly enlisted man? He stated at the trial, From where I was, I observed Clark grab the girl by the arm and take her into the bushes nearby. Eriksson said, He told Meserve her coughing was going to give away our position, but I didnt think it was Charlie he had on his mind. When Eriksson was able to state that he had put in for door gunner aboard helicopters, which could hardly be considered safe duty, the lawyer persisted in reminding him that you testified you wanted to get out of the platoon., Eriksson agreed. 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. A: Well, in general, sir, [but] in this specific case. Eriksson expects that such steps as he has taken will be succeeded in time by others, though he has no idea at the moment what these may be. Eriksson had never laid eyes on the chaplain before. Thinking along these lines, Eriksson said, he arrived at a kind of strategy in regard to Mao. Besides, what if the four were court-martialled and found guilty? Before Meserve could devise any next step, Clark took hold of Maos arm. I didnt know Eriksson brought it up. Incident on Hill 192 - Wikipedia Thats where the woman was going in the early morning, but it was peacetime and it wasnt necessary either for her or for the peasant women she was with to smell the bodies that were always rotting for miles around, no one knew where, when I was in the Central Highlands. Speaking evenly, Eriksson said, They were among the onesamong the fewwho did what everyone around them wanted to do. Nor was he himself free of blame, he went on, without pausingonce again referring to the limitations within himself that he had glimpsed in Asia. The structure was in a state of extreme disrepair, and had a number of large holes in its mud walls. 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. . But the longer I was over there, the more I became convinced that it was the other way around that countedthat because we might not be around much longer, we had to take extra care how we behaved.
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