rallied to the patrols defense that idea seemed less tenable. Some Vietnamese people were bringing children out of. The land was very changeable. In due course, they came upon Mao, her remains a rigid crescent settled grotesquely in a half nest of soil and rocks and matted foliage. He said it was only human to make mistakes., Erikssons attempt to forget Mao proved futile, as he had really known it would. The four courts-martial took place in the winter of 1967, within a period of about ten days in the middle of March. I mean, if I let you go, do you think you can make it home? I wish Mao and I could have talked, Eriksson said, his voice tightening. Sometimes you hate the enemy so bad. Reporting another of Locs answers at the trial, the court interpreter stated, She said her sister have gold tooth, right side in lower jaw.. 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. When Mao saw me come into the hootch, she thought I was there to rape her, Eriksson said. Inevitably, though, the defense witnesses were unable to confine their remarks to Meserves service record, foralmost tactlessly, it seemedthe prosecutor would inject the topic of Maos murder, the implications of which had less to do with the conquest of an enemy than with the requirements of an ordered civilian life. The 1966 incident at hill 192, and the courage shown by p f c storeby is not in doubt. 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. 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. 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 figured somebody would have to be out there for security, because there were V.C. Loc and her father had moved from their native hamlet; they now lived in a village several miles from there. The novel was published in 1969. The young woman was abducted, not a prostitute. That had to have some purpose. be ambushed. It was impossible for me to have any part of what I knew was about to take place. He suspects that Meserve sensed this, for before anything else happened the Sergeant confronted him, demanding to know whether he would enter the hootch when his turn came. IJW: Casualties of War (1989) : r/Ijustwatched - Reddit His persistence in reporting the crime to higher authorities eventually resulted in general courts-martial against his four fellow squad mates. At the start, he spoke laconically, but gradually his natural reticence thawed out, and there were timesgenerally after one of his silenceswhen he produced such a burst of talk that it seemed to cost him an effort to bring it to a halt. . I discovered its not difficult to kill a human beingin combat its as instinctive as ducking bullets. It was the same sentence he had been serving, but now, having been transformed into a new verdict, it was subject to another review, the effects of which soon worked to Rafes advantage, for in August, 1969, the commanding general at Fort Leavenworth shortened his term to twenty-two months. The trials were held in a courthouse at Camp Radcliff, a frame structure measuring thirty feet by thirty and roofed with tin. Agreeing, the Lieutenant said that he would order another squad, operating at the base of the mountain, to cordinate its movements with those of Meserves patrol, and that he would also dispatch two other squads to the area. Asked by the prosecutor why he thought Eriksson had stayed out of the hootch, Manuel answered, Eriksson was different. Sometimes I didnt see what kept the stick from snapping. He had no idea how long this feeling would continue, but for the present, he knew, he lived with the charge daily, often wondering how Mao might have fared in a time of peace. 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. Eriksson had considered the jutting and twisted rock a highly unusual one, but now, refamiliarizing himself with his surroundings, he saw, to his surprise, that it had a practically identical twin close by. Panting, she finally reached the soldiers, indicating to them that the scarf was Maos and that she would like her daughter to have it; the womans cheeks were wet and her manner was imploring. Its time for some fun, he said. 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. June 17, 2022 . 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. Sprawled on the ground after the meal, Meserve, refreshed, glanced at his fellows and then, with a knowing smile, indicated the partly ruined structure. Eriksson also stated that the entire taking of the girl, the rape, and killing of the girl were pre-planned. Reillys immediate superior, Captain Otto Vorst, as was later brought out in court, was out in the field at the time on a tactical problem. He was not due back until November 22nd, the day Meserves patrol was scheduled to conclude its mission. 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. Interested in "Incident On Hill 192 Where Are They Now" find IP Addresses, Websites, IP Tools, Articles, and other useful resources on IPAddress.com. Incident on Hill 192 by Vanessa Pantoja - Prezi It took an hour to negotiate the climb, and the group had barely attained the ridge when Rafe, his eyes sweeping the vista below, saw five Vietnamese in peasant dress making their way along a mountain trail toward the paddy fields near the stream. You should know that the courage and steadfastness you demonstrated make me proud to have you a member of this division. wouldnt let me become a door gunner, Eriksson told me. He is a short man of fair complexion, blond and blue-eyed, and he is not voluble. 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. [10] At the trial of Thomas, who committed the actual stabbing and shooting, the prosecutor asked the jury to impose a death sentence. I saw him raise his rifle, Rafe stated, adding that he then started toward Clark. Below was a valley with a winding stream, and along its banks were paddy fields with neat little dikes around them. . He and his wife, Kirsten, have a neat, modest apartment of three rooms, its walls decorated with paintings by Mrs. Eriksson, a Sunday artist, who was present while we talked; she is twenty-three and is employed as a receptionist in an insurance office. incident on hill 192 where are they now - jbgetfit.com The Sergeant had made his announcement with a straight face, leaving his men to interpret it as they would. From his point of view, as he had indicated at the beginning of our talk, the legal consideration of the crime was a field day of fencing and distortion, of quibbling and traps. Eriksson shook his head again. 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. They lingered in it longer than they had in the other hootches, but since Eriksson was standing outside the hut he is unable to describe what went on inside. Acting on this, he enrolled in a non-credit course at the University of Minnesota designed to teach adults with an inadequate education how to study. Three times I saw the C.O. 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. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. entered the caves, he said, the patrol had long ago left the vicinity of the curiously shaped rock formation, and had descended so deep into the valley that the men were practically able to touch the thick, rough outer walls of the caves. whose ammunition pouch, girding his midriff, had exploded as the result of a hit. 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. Instead, to Erikssons astonishment, Reilly chose that moment to offer a reminiscence. The farther back you got, the closer you approached the way people lived in civilian life., On November 16, 1966, the commanding officer of Erikssons platoon, a Negro lieutenant, Harold Reilly (whose name, like every soldiers name in this account, has been changed), assigned him as one of five enlisted men who were to make up a reconnaissance patrol, its mission to comb a sector of the Central Highlands for signs of Vietcong activity. By the time he concluded his last appearance on the stand, he had been accused of lying, of cowardice, and even of Maos murder. . Clark was holding her elbow, and he pushed her forward when Meserve ordered the patrol to get moving. This sentence was first commuted to 20 years, then reduced to eight, which made him eligible for parole after half that time. It could keep them from believing that life was so valuableanyones life, I mean, even their own. Seeing him made me think at once of two questions I would have liked to ask him or his sergeant. Ad Choices, He wanted never to be away from her. LANG, DANIEL (Author) Secker and Warburg (Publisher) Production date. The girl was very much with us when Sven came home that day, and maybe she always will be, Mrs. Eriksson said. The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnapping, gang rape and murder of Tran Thi Oahn, a young Vietnamese woman on 19 November 1967 by an American squad during the Vietnam War. bus that collected G.I.s who had fallen on hard times in Sin City, a section of bars and bordellos in An Khe, two miles away. Daylight was coming on fast, and he wanted the girl in the light as little as possible, Eriksson told me. Phan Thi Mao (1945-1966) - Find a Grave Memorial Perhaps because Meserve had been the leader of the four accused, he came in for particularly heavy praise. Her fever and coughing had increased overnight, he said, and that didnt do her cause any good. Eriksson was determined to meet the Arizonans friend, he told me, for he had a feeling that the long-nosed chaplain was the man who would help him bring Maos case to light. When he first got back from Hill 192, he said, he had imagined that it might have been his peculiar misfortune to draw a patrol made up of psychopaths, but now each time a new G.I. Seeing him and Greenacre chatting together, Eriksson went on, had made him realize that the only chance he had of escaping the chain of command was through a chaplain. Navigation - The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School It was rustling. Rafes sentence of eight years had been cut to four, and Meserves ten years had been trimmed to eight. In addition to the occasional remarks he heard in the police barracks, a train of other developments served to remind him of the girl.