incident on hill 192 where are they now

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. On one occasion that he knew of, Eriksson said, American troops, attracted by the familiar odor of decomposing bodies, had found a pit piled high with Vietnamese men and women who had been machine-gunned by the V.C. Incident 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. 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. Arrested by military policemen at scattered points, the four soldiers passed through Vorsts area in the late afternoon and saw the Captain briefly. Despite Vorsts generally negative tone, Eriksson said, he believed that the company commander would eventually take steps to bring Meserve and the others to justice. 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. They hadnt ever heard Maos voice or seen her carrying Manuels pack.. It was just that he was less than average as far as being one of the guys, should we say? The C.I.D. He does remember, though, that she had a prominent gold tooth, and that her eyes, which were dark brown, could be particularly expressive. The two have no children. The girl was dressed and her hands had been freed. Q: You think your fear was apparent to anyone else? As the court transcript shows, Reilly didnt let matters rest there. She had lain moldering there for three weeks and her body was badly decayed. Loc was spared, but Mao was seized by the two soldiers, who bound her hands behind her back with a length of coconut rope. Daniel Lang's "Incident on Hill 192" - YouTube 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. 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. Just seeing an Asian country, for instance, was an adventure, Eriksson says, its landscape so different from the frozen plains of his corner of Minnesota; he had never before splashed through paddy fields, he told me, or stood blinking in the sudden sunlessness of lush, entangled jungle, or wandered uncertainly through imprisoning fields of towering elephant grass. That word handle! Eriksson said reminiscently. 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.. Confirming Erikssons ruminations on this subject, Manuel testified that at a special ten-day camp in Vietnam where G.I.s were trained intensively to cope with combat situations it had been knocked into our heads, practically, to obey orders and. Twenty minutes later, they knew what it was. 2023 Cond Nast. Deciding to close in on the three Vietnamese, Meserve dispatched Eriksson and Rafe to the hootch to pick up a supply of smoke grenades. At times, Eriksson displayed a certain poise on the stand. As in all armies, he believed, it pervaded every facet of military life, embracing officers and enlisted men, volunteers and draftees, and, for that matter, men with college degrees, like Vorst and Reilly, and men with meagre educations, like Meserve and him. Then, of course, after rehabilitationI think theres a difference, sir. That was the thing about the chain of commandyou couldnt tell who was to blame for what. Q : Well, you feel you are not involved in any way? One M.P., I remember, told me he could have understood it if Id gone to bat for a G.I. The mother, Eriksson told me, was waving a scarf and laboriously propelling herself forward. 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. Plot At first, the chain of command, including the company commander, took no action. "Jesus, we're supposed to be here to help these people!" Here, the C.O. It was rustling. Eriksson had never laid eyes on the chaplain before. 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. 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. Eriksson stated in court, Captain Vorst said that the men would get off with hardly any or no sentence at all, then myself and my family would really have something to worry about., In the weeks immediately following Maos death, Erikssons home continued to be the platoon area, and his routine consisted of patrolssearch-and-destroy by day, ambush by night. In a sample encomium, Lieutenant Reilly declared that the Sergeants character and reputation are the best I have seen, and [he is] one of the best combat soldiers I have known. Reilly also called him a fine soldier, and went on to say, He never failed to accomplish the mission. 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. In turn, the sergeant passed the news on to Lieutenant Reilly, who sent for Eriksson. 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. . They send you reeling from the theatre. The only thing you could count on out there was that the unexpected would happen. Usually, Eriksson said, it took time for the unexpected to develop, but nowmore than half a day before the patrol was to leave platoon headquartersit happened with stunning abruptness. Undeterred by Erikssons denial, the lawyer persevered with his line of questioning. He was upset and frustratedit was in all his letters. 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. Things will get sorted out, he said. The four soldiers with whom he was on patrol raped and killed her, abandoning her body in mountain brush. 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 done the same for Rafe at his trial in Vietnam.) Looking back, Eriksson thinks that the small band of V.C. Mrs. Eriksson, who was once more plying her husband and me with coffee and cake, put in, Sven and I are Lutherans. 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. Eriksson was confident, though, he told me, that the older he grew, the more accepting he would be of his memory. 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. 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. 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. Yes or no? No such thing happened. 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. 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. But they werent as sure about it as the guys in the platoon had been, he said. And wasnt it just possible that the victim might not necessarily be Eriksson himself but, rather, his new bride? I had to give one small child mouth-to-mouth respiration and bring her back to life. It will even he possible for them to join the Army again., Sven had to do what he did, Mrs. Eriksson said. In our part of Minnesota, just about everyone is., It was ten at night when Eriksson sat down to talk with Kirk, and he found he was able to speak more freely than he had even to Curly Rowan. 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. Meserve, he noticed, paid scarcely any attention to her. Gervase was found guilty on the count of premeditated murder. Eriksson was not called upon to testify this time, and this was a vast relief, he told me, not only because he was eager to get on with his civilian life but because it looked to him as though Rafes rehearing would be a duplication of Manuels second trial; that is, with Rafes tainted admissions thrown out, the governments arguments would be undermined and a verdict of acquittal brought in. The atrocity that Eriksson had reported was too big for that. His reaction interested me, Eriksson said. 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. 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. I couldnt tell who was supposed to have the hard feelingsManuel or myself, Eriksson told me. Meserve and the others returned an hour later, toward noon, and had a hearty snack, eating it outdoors, near the entrance to the hut. Before Eriksson was through, even his possession of a sense of humor became an issue. Eriksson replied that he wouldnt mind a changenot that it would deter him from pressing charges. That occurred in February, 1968, when Manuel was granted a retrial on the ground that although his C.I.D. Coming to me, the way he did, he might have been trying to save his neck by turning states evidence, so to speak. Kirk therefore interrupted Eriksson frequently, challenging him to tie together details that at first seemed contradictory. 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. This is how it is with Casualties of War, Brian DePalma's tale of an atrocity . Thats where she is, he said with certainty. 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. Instead, to Erikssons astonishment, Reilly chose that moment to offer a reminiscence. She had no idea the kind of place she was helping to prepare, Eriksson said. 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. All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. It was Manuel, Eriksson told me. The G.I. Manuel admitted to C.I.D. They put a hold on my transfer forms. 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. Through an interpreter, Loc related that after the patrol finished with their hamlet, she and her mother had searched desperately for Mao. 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. He has no idea to what extent that may operate, however; nor is he prepared, he said, to bank on anything so abstract. 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. She ate, standing, and it was whimper, then eat, whimper, then eat. 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?. 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. 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. Since the patrol would be going out again, Eriksson said, he knew he had to act fast, but that seemed no big deal. Besides, what if the four were court-martialled and found guilty? 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. It was the way I felt, he said. 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. To do so, he believed, might only invite their censure, enforcers of the law though they were. The novel was published in 1969. The four courts-martial took place in the winter of 1967, within a period of about ten days in the middle of March. Conscience was one thing that crossed over from civilian life to war, he said. [11], Likewise, Gervase's initial sentence of ten years with hard labor was reduced to eight. 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. The Sergeant seemed more attracted by the possibility of military action, to judge by the speed with which he had his charges break camp. Eriksson remembers Rafe as a tall, swarthy, round-faced man with a disposition that was naturally sunny and amiable. 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. Eriksson did not have sexual intercourse or harm her in any way.) Meserve and Clark denied any wrongdoing, and the leader of the misbegotten patrol insisted that his motives had been misconstrued. I just wanted to feel quiet, he said. 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. Category. Mao wasnt there, and Eriksson, rejoining the waiting group, pointed to the other rock. 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. 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. stockport council wards map; 0 comments. 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. It was the hardest decision Ive ever had to make, and it couldnt have been the best possible one, or Mao wouldnt be gone today., In the time that elapsed before the patrols return, Eriksson said, Maos condition worsened noticeably. When Eriksson replied that he was prepared to take his chances on that, Vorst asked whether Eriksson might not care to transfer out of the companyor, for that matter, out of the infantry altogether. incident on hill 192 where are they now - acting-jobs.net They were just doing their job. Once the pair had assessed the gravity of the crimes being charged, they moved swiftly. But you could tell. When he opened his eyes, a new passenger was sitting directly opposite hima young Oriental woman. It turned out to be a letter of commendation. The only thing these women had to do on their way to the stream was breathe pure mountain air.. He was ten when his father suddenly died. Among them, Eriksson said, these sizable elements, advancing toward the cave complex, succeeded in killing one V.C. fellows knew about law, Eriksson said. Sven wasnt raised churchy, Mrs. Eriksson remarked. 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. Events happened fast that day, Eriksson said. I give him max rating as a soldier. In other connections, it was brought out that the Sergeant had not waited to be drafted, that he was currently in line for the Bronze Star, and that in the course of his overseas duty he had been awarded five medals, of varying importance, and had a conduct rating of Excellent. His interest in religion still strong, Eriksson took part in church activities, he told me; he had recently supervised a group of high-school-age boys and girls making a two-week retreat on an island in a lake between Minnesota and Canada. Her fever and coughing had increased overnight, he said, and that didnt do her cause any good. Vorsts executive officer, by contrast, could not countenance the thought of Meserves being cashiered. Deciding that he was looking at a V.C., Rafe let fly with a couple of rounds from his M-16 rifle. Flying back to Carson, I thought to myself, So Manuels out. 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. The Sergeant had made his announcement with a straight face, leaving his men to interpret it as they would. It was a consciousness he could have done without, he remarked, for its effect was to remind him of Mao, and, following the trials, he was in a mood to try to forget her. see review David rated it liked it Nov 11, 2021 Glen rated it liked it Jan 29, 2014 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. This time, he said, it would be Clark who would stay behind to guard Mao and the weapons in the hootch. [1], On November 17, 1966, Sergeant David Edward Gervase (aged 20) and Private First Class Steven Cabbot Thomas (21)both members of C Company, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Divisiontalked to three other squad members (Privates First Class Robert M. Storeby, 22; cousins Cipriano S. Garcia, 21, and Joseph C. Garcia, 20)[3] about plans to kidnap a "pretty girl" during their reconnaissance mission planned for the next day,[6] and "at the end of five days we would kill her." His farewell to them was succinct. I had had enough of watching beatings and stranglings with ponchos, he told me. 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. *The Incident on Hill 192 is what the U.S army calls the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao. Both Thomas and Loeb were leaders of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator. All that many of us could think at such times was that we were fools to be ready to die for people who defecated in public, whose food was dirtier than anything in our garbage cans back home. They had known each other since childhood, their fathers having been neighboring farmers, who both had difficulty making ends meet. he could control his aggressions in the future, like a professional prizefighter. In Clarks case, the commanding general, who was responsible for deciding whether the evidence supported Clarks conviction and whether Clarks sentence should be lowered, was informed by a staff lawyer who had interviewed Clark that the soldier in the Disciplinary Barracks was articulate and above average in intelligence, and that, if given a chance to renter society, he hoped to earn a college degree in either English or philosophy. 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. However, he acknowledged that the prosecutor did warn him, as Vorst and Kirk had previously, of the possible consequences to him and his wife of his testifying for the government. 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. 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. We just tell them to dee deemeaning to go away. I figured somebody would have to be out there for security, because there were V.C. At one point, Eriksson recalled, the Captain warned him that if the incident did result in courts-martial, he might face rough going on the witness stand. 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. Casualties of War (1989) - User Reviews - IMDb Shitstink McLanahan. Rafes case, I learned, had taken a fresh turn in recent weeks. Explaining his choice of the patrol, Reilly testified, These people, I felt, knew what they were doing, and a second reason was because the company commanding officer asked for good people. On the following afternoon, November 17th, the members of the newly formed patrol met in a corner of the platoons headquarters area, near the village of My Tho, where, relaxed as they stood or sat on the ground, they listened to a briefing from their leader, who was seated on a low stool.
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