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. When he opened his eyes, a new passenger was sitting directly opposite hima young Oriental woman. Deciding to close in on the three Vietnamese, Meserve dispatched Eriksson and Rafe to the hootch to pick up a supply of smoke grenades. The guys would back him up, of course. 971 Words4 Pages. The true story in question is what's commonly referred to as Incident on Hill 192: in 1966, an American army squad in the Vietnam War kidnapped a young village girl, then subsequently gang-raped and murdered her. The atrocity that Eriksson had reported was too big for that. He had yet to exonerate himself from the self-imposed charge of having failed to save Maos life. 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. Incident on Hill 192 (1970 edition) | Open Library The soldiers set up a night watch, each man pulling guard duty outside in the moonlight, alert for any lurking enemy. Rafe later testified at his court-martial, Meserve stated we would leave an hour ahead of time so that we would have time to find a woman to take with us on the mission. With Mao out of the way, he was able to concentrate on the action at hand, managing his patrol, working in concert with the other squads, and helping to guide the diving gunships, whose presence he now welcomed. 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. Initially, however, Eriksson discerned no signs of inner conflict in Vorst. It will even he possible for them to join the Army again., Sven had to do what he did, Mrs. Eriksson said. 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. Meserve and the others returned an hour later, toward noon, and had a hearty snack, eating it outdoors, near the entrance to the hut. . Now, six months later, Clarks case, forwarded from Vietnam, had been gone over in the United States by a board of review, which had reduced his term to eight years. Casualties of War (1989) - User Reviews - IMDb Mostly to my lawyer.. The girl was very much with us when Sven came home that day, and maybe she always will be, Mrs. Eriksson said. Yours was not an easy task, but you did your duty as an American soldier. He felt that way, he explained, because out in the field, in territory that could turn hostile at any moment, the men in the patrol would be very much on their own, and this would be so even if a high-ranking officer were in charge. Sure, there were always advance plans to do this or that, but they didnt often stand up in the field. 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. the bunker in the hootch. [10] At the trial of Thomas, who committed the actual stabbing and shooting, the prosecutor asked the jury to impose a death sentence. The man was never captured, Eriksson said, despite the fact that he became the single target of the gunships rockets and the infantrys bullets and grenades. In April, Eriksson received his honorable discharge from the Army, and in April, too, he heard of further judicial developments. Nor could the concern that the C.O. To Erikssons astonishment and deep relief, the Sergeant abruptly shifted his attention to the Diazes, asking first Rafe and then Manuel to carry out the murder. I made sure I wrote to him every day, and in each letter I put a packet of Kool-Aid, so that at least his water would be tasty. She had no idea the kind of place she was helping to prepare, Eriksson said. The later actions of the convicted including murder of us naval serving enlisted members from the Saratoga in 92, don't assuage their guilt. She had stopped whimpering, and there was even a little look of trust in her eyes. She looked weary and ill, and she seemed to be getting more so by the minute. There shouldnt have been, because I had decided, outside, that there wasnt a thing in the world I could do for her. . Hit it! the patrol leader shouted, and his men hit the ground, the bullets from the still invisible attackers raising columns of dust all around the flattened G.I.s. She had her black pajamas on. Casualties of War | The New Yorker In the movie, a five-man squad led by Sergeant Meserve kidnaps and rapes a Vietnamese girl named Than, regardless of the protagonist, Eriksson's objection. He said for me to think that over again very carefully, Eriksson recalled. I heard that argument over and over again, and I could never buy it. "Casualties of War" is Brian De Palma's entry into the Vietnam War movies competition. Erikssons patrol leader delivered a tongue-lashing to his counterpart, who apologized. Like Clark, he was given to quick movements, but his behavior had nothing to do with embellishing Meserves thinking. Returning to the patrols briefing, Eriksson told me that Meserve was all business as he plunged into his talk. They were married four years ago, shortly after Eriksson was drafted. Eriksson remembers Rafe as a tall, swarthy, round-faced man with a disposition that was naturally sunny and amiable. 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. 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. 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. If there werent any, Eriksson asked himself, why hadnt the C.O. Meserve was now an ally, he and his second-in-command apparently having arrived at a meeting of minds while the others were filling the patrols canteens. Daylight was coming on fast, and he wanted the girl in the light as little as possible, Eriksson told me. Released from jail in a few hours, he found himself no longer a lone, underground accuser but, instead, a cog in an elaborate law-enforcement machine, whose purpose was to gather evidence, question suspects, and generally determine whether a case existed. Storeby also recalled that Gervase claimed it would be "good for the morale of the squad. It was going to be a big outlay, considering the few men we were up against, Eriksson said. Vorsts executive officer, by contrast, could not countenance the thought of Meserves being cashiered. By the time I got out of jail, he told Eriksson, I was saying to myself, Whats happened is the way things are, so why try to buck the system? And take it from me, Eriksson, its even more hopeless to try to buck it in the middle of a wartheres more of a system then than ever. Out of the blue, without being asked, hed start defending what hed done maybe hours ago by saying that, after all, it was no worse than what Charlie was doing. He himself, he imagines, must have looked glum. The two Diazes laughed, either out of embarrassment, Eriksson conjectures, or because they thought Meserve was joking, in view of his remark about the morale of the squadan old gag in the platoon. They had gone scarcely twenty metres when a cry of distress halted them. This was about 1400 hours, Manuel stated. I realize that we are over here fighting a war, but to go out and kill an innocent person has nothing to do with the war., Accused of shrewdness in seeking to evade infantry duty, Eriksson found himself also accused of a lack of shrewdness in failing to let Mao escape when he was alone with her in the hootch. The men ate, again without feeding her, and reminisced about their communal feat, comparing Mao with other girls they had known, and talking about how long it had been since they had had a woman. Actually, Eriksson told me, he had once asked Reilly for permission to discuss Maos murder with a chaplain, but the Lieutenant had discouraged the idea. Eriksson considers himself hazy about the girls looks. 1945-1989 (content) Creator. A. Oh, no, sir, it was not that he was disliked in any way. It is going to be yourself. Necessarily, he said, he was in a position to speak only of the behavior of American soldiers, since they were the people he fought and lived with. That was how my hunch went, and I didnt dare change it in any way. Eriksson moved cautiously. Everything around him, he said, impressed him as pointless and aridhis fellow-workers, the monotony of clock punching, and even, at times, his beloved carpentry. 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. By then, moving unhurriedly in the gray dusk, Meserves squad had dutifully followed him two thousand metres to the east, which, as Eriksson and the others realized, was a flagrant deviation from the westward route the Sergeant had described so precisely at the briefing. 2023 Cond Nast. Locs mother was now missing. They may be out in a few months, he said. 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. Navigation - The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School 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. It makes for an easier mission and no problems. For this action, Meserve was nominated for a Bronze Star. 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. Seeing him made me think at once of two questions I would have liked to ask him or his sergeant. The day continued eventful. 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. Whatever I could do about her depended on finding someone with both the rank and the conscience to help me, he told me. If hed kept quiet, he would have been impossible to live with., Regardless of when Meserve and Clark get out, Eriksson thinks, the atmosphere of civilian life may exert a moderating influence on their outlook. 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. It had nothing to do with a mans being responsible for his own behavior. Im not going to say that, sir. [1] 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. When Meserve ended his testimony, the prosecutor inquired how many times and to whom he had told the story you just told on the witness stand., Numerous times, sir, the Sergeant replied. Clark, convicted of rape and premeditated murder, was to serve for life. I gave her crackers and beef stew and water. A smile spreading on his face, he took the scarf and stuffed it into Maos mouth. 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.. Testifying later in court, Lieutenant Reilly characterized the mission as extremely dangerous, and said that to carry it out he had picked members of the best of the four squads in the platoon. incident on hill 192 where are they now - jbgetfit.com 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. But he was very tolerant about it. The five-man squad, led by a 20-year-old sergeant, Tony Meserve, had been sent on patrol. My height, Eriksson said. Eriksson found it impressive that these procedures should be so punctiliously observed within easy artillery range of the enemywhich, he added, was not to say that he was unaware of various shortcomings. Incident on Hill 192 - Wikipedia. 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. Similarly, it was permissible to shoot at any Vietnamese seen running, but, as Eriksson put it, the line between walking and running could be very thin. The day after the one on which his squad was ambushed and half its members were wounded, several enemy prisoners were taken, and, in retaliation, two were summarily killed, to serve as an example. A corporal who was still enraged over the ambush tried to strangle another of the prisoners; he had knotted a poncho, nooselike, around the captives neck and was tightening it when a merciful lieutenant commanded him to desist. Loc was spared, but Mao was seized by the two soldiers, who bound her hands behind her back with a length of coconut rope. 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.. Of course, I was a foot soldier all this time. It did not occur in the United States. or did he just refuse at all times? 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. 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. Commenting on this, Eriksson told me, I realized that nothing definite had happened yet, but I had the feeling it was the first sign that things were going to work out the way Captain Vorst had warned me they wouldI mean, that the sentences would get shorter and shorter, maybe even disappear.. 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? depredations. When he spoke, however, it was about his friendship with the Marine. 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. We were each acting the way we had to, he told me. Unreasonably, he granted, he had come into court with the idea that he and the others on hand would wonder aloud, in a kind of corporate searching, how it was possible for the young girl to meet the end she did. Deciding that he was looking at a V.C., Rafe let fly with a couple of rounds from his M-16 rifle. You Are Here: ross dress for less throw blankets apprentissage des lettres de l'alphabet incident on hill 192 where are they now. INCIDENT ON HILL 192 (from my war diary) I wanted to say, I apologize to you for whats happened, but dont ever accept my apology or anyone elses for that. These were always demanding and hazardous, yet they could not distract him from the intense feeling of frustration that now beset him. Ill never know. You should know that the courage and steadfastness you demonstrated make me proud to have you a member of this division. HISTORY or HOLLYWOOD: Casualties of War | History Forum Captain Vorst handed Meserve a piece of paper with three words printed on itKidnapping, Rape, Murder. Once the investigation of Maos murder had been set in motion, Eriksson was frequently consulted by a variety of experts, among them pathologists, C.I.D. The pair had emerged empty-handed from five or six of the huts when Rafe, ever his amiable, accommodating self, pointed to a white hootch ahead and called out, Theres a pretty girl in there! also kidnapped, raped, murdered. 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. In ten minutes, they were all together again; by then, too, the helicopters had grown larger and their engines were faintly audible. We just looked at each other, without saying hello. But caves werent all that the five men would he looking for. Loc and her father had moved from their native hamlet; they now lived in a village several miles from there. In 1989 Brian De Palma directed the film Casualties of War, which was based on Lang's book. 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. Occasionally, official orders were used for justifying gratuitous acts of violence. It was just that he was less than average as far as being one of the guys, should we say? It was still dark in the area, and no civilians attempted to stop us. Leaving the mother behind, the patrol resumed its march, prodding Mao to match its stride. Who else would tell but myself? You could never tell how a man was going to behave under pressure, Eriksson said. When Meserve and Clark rejoined their comrades, Eriksson told me, they had the bound Mao well in tow. Enacting the role of chief government witness was not an edifying experience, Eriksson went on. It was as much a part of us as our legs and arms.. incident on hill 192 where are they now - espectralvisual.com Eriksson also stated that the entire taking of the girl, the rape, and killing of the girl were pre-planned. incident on hill 192 where are they now. Though news of the incident reached state-side shortly after the soldiers' trials the story gained widespread notoriety through Daniel Lang's 1969 article for The New . Calmly and easily, he told Eriksson about an experience that he had undergone three years earlier, when he drove his wife, also a Negro, to an Alabama hospital to have their first child. Other soldiers, he said, might just as easily have betrayed the weakness that the four men had betrayed on Hill 192, but it had fallen to Meserve and Clark and Rafe and Manuel in particular to act as they had. 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. I didnt know Eriksson brought it up. As Clark and Rafe left, Eriksson told me, he realized that he was about to exchange one kind of excitement for anotherthe encounter with the three Vietnamese, that is, for the quieter, more complicated ordeal of being alone with Mao. sonoma academy calendar; why are my bluetooth headphones connected but not working; incident on hill 192 where are they now; By . 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. It was ten inches long, and its handle was wrapped with tape that bore a pattern of tiny diamonds. Sometimes you hate the enemy so bad. Rowan listened with astonishment as Eriksson apprised him of the Sergeants plan, but when Eriksson asked his friend whether he thought Meserves statements should be reported to an officer before the patrol left camp, Rowan immediately shook his head, replying, as the court record shows, Meserve wouldnt dare do such a fool thing. This incredulity notwithstanding, the news of Meserves briefing left Rowan unhappy. After the young woman was murdered, Pfc. Manuel later told agents of the Armys Criminal Investigation Division, Meserve said to Eriksson that inasmuch as he did not do anything to the girl [the day before], Eriksson would have to kill the girl, but Eriksson said that he would not have anything to do with that. Meserve, however, didnt follow through on his threat. Despite threats against his life by the soldiers who took part in the rape and murder, Storeby was determined to see the soldiers punished. At first, we all denied any knowledge about it. Commanding, Erikssons tour of duty in Vietnam came to an end on November 28, 1967, a year after the patrol paid its visit to Maos hamlet. Casualties Of War Analysis - 971 Words | Internet Public Library Eriksson continued as an M.P., his duties generally less onerous than they had been in Vietnam, and his existence certainly more relaxed, since, as he observed to me, he was waking up every morning not only in his own country but in the presence of the Rockies. No one would ever know what had become of her, he exclaimed. fellows knew about law, Eriksson said. The mother wept and pleaded, and her daughters, clinging to one another, cowered against the wall. Youre hurt, I can see, but how are you? 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. The search party was a smaller one this time, Eriksson said, its assignment to make certain that nothing of any conceivable courtroom value still lay hidden in the area around Maos body; eventually, a C.I.D. They locked me up in a steel box, in solitary. Mao wasnt there, and Eriksson, rejoining the waiting group, pointed to the other rock. I had a feeling she had been injured in some waynot that I could tell. carefully explained that to me, informing me of my legal rights, one of which was to shut up. When the interrogation was over, he was asked to lead a search party to the spot on Hill 192 where he had claimed that Maos body could be found. The participants in the cases, including lawyers, witnesses, law officers, and members of the court, lived in tents near the courthouse, and often at night the vicious thump of artillery shells, enemy-bound, from the edges of the division base disturbed the quiet of the legal encampment. It excited me. Impatiently, Clark volunteered his services, but Meserve wouldnt have that, insisting that they collaborate. Q: For a murder. Incident on Hill 192 | Military Wiki | Fandom The land was very changeable. As if Sven had it so easy! Mrs. Eriksson said to me when she heard of these findings. I was afraid of being ridiculed, sir, he told the prosecutor. We made up something to get him to go away, Eriksson told me. Did Eriksson know that military judges and jurors were notoriously lenient in their sentencing? It had been preceded by any number of similar occurrences. The men found her feverish and coughing, and Clark was all for rescheduling her death hour to that evening. An edition of Incident on Hill 192 (1970) Incident on Hill 192 by Daniel Lang 0 Ratings 0 Want to read 0 Currently reading 0 Have read Overview View 1 Edition Details Reviews Lists Related Books Publish Date 1970 Publisher Pan Books Language English Pages 124 This edition doesn't have a description yet. Rafe received a punishment of four years imprisonment, plus a monthly forfeiture of fifty dollars in pay. He was all of seven when he was driving a tractor on the farm. Subjects We just tell them to dee deemeaning to go away. 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. Among them, Eriksson said, these sizable elements, advancing toward the cave complex, succeeded in killing one V.C. At the very outset, Eriksson told me that the last thing he wished to do was discuss Maos murder in any legalistic vein. Q: I didnt ask you for a long elaboration. He was just more serious-minded. Only one piece of military action occurred that morning, and it could have been dispensed with. [6] It was during those proceedings that the victim was identified by her sister as Phan Thi Mao. 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. Greenacre might react disapprovingly, as the fellows in the platoon hador, for all Eriksson knew, Greenacre might turn out to be Meserves best friend. . had shown for Erikssons safety be explained unless those cracks existed. I was operating in a forward area and probably seeing the war at its ugliest. 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. They were just doing their job. Once the pair had assessed the gravity of the crimes being charged, they moved swiftly. At four-thirty the following morning, Meserve diligently checked his mens gear at the edge of camp, seeing to it that their chow, star clusters, rounds of ammunition, smoke and hand grenades, and other supplies were in order. now had to do with law enforcement, for he was reassigned to the 545th Military Police Company at Camp Radcliff, in which outfit he guarded high-ranking officers, pulled gate duty, made periodic sweeps of the base area for signs of infiltrating V.C., and, every day at 4 P.M., climbed into the drunk wagon, which was an M.P. His spirits on the upswing, Eriksson set about trying to meet the chaplain. Meserve at once radioed the platoon command, reaching Lieutenant Reilly, to whom he suggested that the V.C. Former Private First Class Sven Erikssonas I shall call him, since to use his actual name might add to the danger he may be inhas also come back with his memories, but he has no idea what the future will do to them. Not sitting next to each other anymore, are they now standing opposite each other, with the frightened girl in the middle, separating them visually, just as she is the matter dividing them ideologically.