However, Maos sister, Phan Thi Loc, who was present, has done this at one of the trials. 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. 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. I couldnt even guess at the answersnot without knowing what kind of jam Manuel thought he was in.. As the men had raced to get there, clambering and sliding, Rafe had slipped and fallen from a ledge, dislocating an elbow and a shoulder. Late in July, Eriksson was handed a communication from the commanding officer of his division, the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile). Asked why, he answered, O.K., lets say you are on a patrol. With Greenacre there, it meant that Sven was waiving his right to my silence, he said. 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. Who says we dont get along with Charlie? And, in fact, Eriksson told me, a C.I.D. 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. Thomas took Mao into a brushy area, and although he stabbed her three times with his hunting knife, he failed to kill her. . Having appeared as a witness before four tribunals in Vietnam, Eriksson told me, he had had his fill of the judicial processof the dogged grillings by lawyers and the repeated strictures of judges insisting on precise answers to questions that were often vague. Anyway, thats what made me believe I was interested in religion. Since the patrol would be going out again, Eriksson said, he knew he had to act fast, but that seemed no big deal. Rebuffed a second time, Meserve lashed out with an attack on Erikssons manliness, deriding him as queer and chicken. The attack didnt bother him, Eriksson told me, but it appears from the court record that it did affect Rafe, who testified that he could not have withstood the epithets he heard Meserve heap on Eriksson; it was his fear of such derision, Rafe stated, that caused him to join those who entered the hootch he had helped make tidy. 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. Of course, I was a foot soldier all this time. 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. This sentence was first commuted to 20 years, then reduced to eight, which made him eligible for parole after half that time. But. Manuel gave similar testimony. 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. Incident on Hill 192 explained 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. His parents stayed home plenty of Sundays.. He still has a tendency to fight off its memory, he said, and he thinks the reason for this is that although the experience he had may have revealed certain strengths in himself, he is far more concerned with the limitations it exposed. Sometimes you have your disagreements, and sometimes you dont voice them, you keep them to yourself.. 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. She might have helped me know what to do, instead of my having to figure it out aloneit was her life that was at stake. His discontent abated when he managed to remind himself of the plan he had made during his leave to reach out beyond his jobs, whatever they might be. 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. had shown for Erikssons safety be explained unless those cracks existed. It had all been a mistake, he saidhe and his men had been dozing when the sound of running feet aroused them, and instinctively they had assumed it was the enemy. Arriving at the platoon area, Eriksson told me, he felt as though he had reached the promised land; the anxiety in which he had lived the past two days yielded to what he described as an almost tangible sense of safety. 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. 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. Since returning to civilian life, a year and a half ago, Eriksson has been concerned primarily with what his wife calls sorting things out. Once he had been separated from the service at Fort Carson, he came back to Minneapolis determined to find employment at something other than carpentry. 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.. The C.I.D. A few rare films stun the senses. Incident On Hill 192 Paperback - Import, January 1, 1970 by Daniel Lang (Author) 1 rating Hardcover from $198.24 2 Used from $198.24 Paperback from $36.18 3 Used from $36.18 Print length 128 pages Language English Publisher Pan Books Publication date January 1, 1970 ISBN-10 033002518X ISBN-13 978-0330025188 See all details The Amazon Book Review "Jesus, we're supposed to be here to help these people!" . . . You traded the girls life for your well-being, he was told. The only thing these women had to do on their way to the stream was breathe pure mountain air.. The Vietcong, Loc said, had abducted her, accusing her of having led South Vietnamese forces to a V.C. He made one particular friend at Fort Carson, a Marine captain who had seen eighteen months of combat in Vietnam and was also about to become a civilian. Meserve, however, counselled patience. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. 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. Eriksson never exchanged a word with her; neither spoke the others language. email: dr.diipk@gmail.comtwitter.com/diipkfacebook.com/diipkhttps://literarism.blogspot.comTelegram Grouphttps://t.me/KashyapDeepak#diipk #KashyapDeepak Plot The evidence gained as a result of the two field trips played an important part in the judicial proceedings, Eriksson told me. Fortunately, he said, his assignments involved no murder or rape cases. 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 going to be a big outlay, considering the few men we were up against, Eriksson said. In April, Eriksson received his honorable discharge from the Army, and in April, too, he heard of further judicial developments. I am not afraid of him if he has no weapons. Eriksson answered, That is negative, sir, when a defense counsel, taking up the pre-Hill 192 patrol in which half of Erikssons squad had been wounded, inquired, Isnt it true, Eriksson, that you allowed the squad to walk into the ambush area without warning, because you were hiding in the bushes?. stockport council wards map; 0 comments. Related period. The five men and Mao kept up a steady pace. 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. Please dont ask me to explain why they did it. Incident on Hill 192 - Wikipedia She had no idea the kind of place she was helping to prepare, Eriksson said. 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. For that matter, he said, he knew almost nothing about Greenacreonly that he was a cowboy from Arizona, a wiry type, who put in a good days work as a carpenter and didnt have much to say. Just as the prosecutor had foreseen, the defense attorneys did try to make Eriksson look odd, but that was among the milder of their insinuations. The climb took longer than it had the day before, the mens pace slowed by the packs they bore. Q: You would suggest some minor form of punishment, in other words? 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. 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. But then I dont know how much the C.I.D. The judges had ordered that the incarcerated Rafe be given a new trial, which, like Manuels, was held at Fort Leavenworth. 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. Eriksson wouldnt be going along, though; the Lieutenant had assigned another G.I. 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. 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. She herself had thus far been the only person with whom her husband had discussed it since returning from Vietnam, and even with her he had not gone into much detail. Yes or no? I was operating in a forward area and probably seeing the war at its ugliest. He had yet to exonerate himself from the self-imposed charge of having failed to save Maos life. 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. Esri, HERE, Garmin, NGA, USGS, NPS. Where we were, it was a time and place for thousands of men to play for keeps, and that certainly included Meserve and the others in the patrol, because if they wanted to eliminate Sven as a potential witness they had the M-16s to do it with., Eriksson finished telling his story to the chaplain toward midnight, whereupon Kirk pressed him closely, as Vorst had done earlier, to determine whether he was certain in his mind that he was prepared to endure not just the cross-examinations but the risks attendant upon appearing as a government witness in open court. Testifying in his own defense, Rafe stated, I was afraid to tell [the officer], because I might be the only one who brought it up. Captain Vorst handed Meserve a piece of paper with three words printed on itKidnapping, Rape, Murder. 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. Boyd had been a big help, he told me. The film stars Michael J. 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. Had he taken into account the amount of suffering that Americans had already undergone in behalf of the Vietnamese? A veteran of thirty-five thousand autopsies, Professor Furue told the court, Compared with other female Mongoloids, Maos remains were well developed, a well-balanced body build., Meserve, Clark, and the two Diazes were taken into custody the day after the first search party made its visit to Hill 192. who was murdered, but how could I do it for a Vietnamese? A: Sir, Sergeant Meserve, he joined the unit in approximately February of last year, and he served under me when I was a rifle-platoon leader, and the reason he is a sergeant today is because we put the duties of squad leader upon him. Eriksson told me that he himself reacted silently but that after Meserve and the men had broken up to go their separate ways until morning he sought out his friend Corporal Curly Rowan, a West Virginian, who had been in Vietnam, and with the platoon, just as long as Meserve had. . Still in the process of waking, and not yet thinking clearly, he said, he had transformed her into a peasant woman on her way to do a days farming, such as he had seen many times in Vietnam; he had envisioned the passenger in a broad, peaked straw hat and black pajamas, carrying the traditional stick across her shoulders, with baskets at either end for holding crops. As Rafe recounted it, Meserve saw her and said, There she goes. Clark said, Why, that bitch, I stabbed her more than twice. Meserve told us all to shoot her before she could get away. We just tell them to dee deemeaning to go away. 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. He was just more serious-minded. [9], Thomas, Cipriano Garcia, and Joseph Garcia were each convicted of unpremeditated murder in March and April 1967. 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. It is going to be yourself. The "farm" houses and outbuildings have the polished look of some wealthy Parisian's country retreat rather than the more rugged appearance of a working farm. and went out to check, and she got away from you, right out of the hootch?. I saw him raise his rifle, Rafe stated, adding that he then started toward Clark. making slow progress toward the refuge of the cave complex, which was three hundred metres away, almost at the bottom of the ravine. The Sergeant seemed more attracted by the possibility of military action, to judge by the speed with which he had his charges break camp. 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. That was a bum rap. Smiling, Eriksson remarked to me, We were thirty thousand feet up by then, or he might have asked for his money back., In Minnesota, Eriksson returned to the small apartment in Minneapolis where we were sitting, his wife having maintained it while he was gone. Moving in on the bush, Clark blazed away with his M-16, and at once the rustling foliage grew still. Erikssons patrol leader delivered a tongue-lashing to his counterpart, who apologized. rallied to the patrols defense that idea seemed less tenable. 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. 1/4 Fifty-four years ago today four US army soldiers murdered Phan Thi Mao, whom they had kidnapped and gang-raped in what is now called the incident on hill 192. en.wikipedia.org. Out on a search-and-destroy mission the morning after leaving Meserves command, Eriksson told me, he encountered a small group of American military men reconnoitring the vicinity of the cave complex. Q: You think your fear was apparent to anyone else? already had more prison time than that to his credit, so the force of the generals ruling was to bring about Rafes immediate release from confinement. For the film, all names and some details of the true story were altered. Here is the interchange between the executive officer and the prosecutor: Q: Do you feel there is a place in the United States Army for any murderers? All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. Lets kill her and get it over with, he said, according to the court record. The novel was published in 1969. 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..
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