The incident on Hill 192 is the name the United States Army called [1] the kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman [2] on November 19, 1966 [1] by an American squad during the Vietnam War. I told him I was being wrongly brought to trial. . It had been preceded by any number of similar occurrences. Whatever the answers, Captain Vorst saw to it that Eriksson left his command early the following morning, sending the enlisted man seventy miles away to Camp Radcliff, the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) Division base, near the small city of An Khe. Ending the first of his brooding silences, Eriksson said, From one day to the next, you could see for yourself changes coming over guys on our sidedecent fellows, who wouldnt dream of calling an Oriental a gook or a slopehead back home. And wasnt it just possible that the victim might not necessarily be Eriksson himself but, rather, his new bride? . 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. 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. In that season, Eriksson told me, when the M.P.s yakked the hours away together in their quarters, one or another of his fellow-cops would periodically recall what Eriksson had chosen to do. As Manuel was going into the hootch, Maos sounds could he heard, weak and conquered. They were married four years ago, shortly after Eriksson was drafted. He didnt laugh and joke as much as the other guys did; he was much quieter, the sergeant said. As he recalled his briefing, he had told the men, Itd be nice if we could pick up five women for the five days up there and have an orgy, and then, he said, everybody had made comments and laughed. As for going to Maos hamlet, the Sergeant said that he had led the patrol there to look for V.C., and that he had captured the girl because she had behaved suspiciously inside her hootch. I simply asked, do you think a murderer should be retained in the United States Army? Eriksson remembers Rafe as a tall, swarthy, round-faced man with a disposition that was naturally sunny and amiable. The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnap, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman on November 19, 1966 by an American squad during the Vietnam War. Based on the actual events of an incident on Hill 192 in November, 1966. Just before it did, Eriksson moved away from the entrance to the hootch, where he had been standing, and sat down alone on the grassy turf to one side of the structure; periodically, he raised his field glasses to gaze at distant points. [12] He was paroled on August 9, 1969. The next thing I knew, I was in jail, Eriksson told me. Even the prosecutor predicted defeat, Eriksson told me, and during a short break Eriksson heard the judge remark to the court reporter that the trial was a waste of the taxpayers money. 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. Throughout, he told me, the single belief that sustained him was that in serving as the defendants principal accuser he was carrying out the resolve he had made as he trained his grenade launcher on the cave complex; namely, to let the world know of Maos fate. 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. Q: How did you react to this particular ambush, Eriksson? 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. investigators before the trial started that he had committed rape, but when the subject came up in the courtroom, it appeared to be Manuels judgment that he had taken part in a reasonable enterprise, and the justification that he gave for doing so was military discipline. Mrs. Eriksson fetched it for me from a bureau drawer, and I read: 1: You are to be commended for the important role you played in seeing that justice was done in the recent court-martial cases involving four soldiers charged with the rape and murder of a young Vietnamese woman. Only minor infractions came his way, but even such a routine chore as driving the drunk wagon down to Sin City could make him conscious of the sense of justice in himself that had been so tumultuously aroused the preceding November. 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. 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. see review David rated it liked it Nov 11, 2021 Glen rated it liked it Jan 29, 2014 Among them, Eriksson said, these sizable elements, advancing toward the cave complex, succeeded in killing one V.C. 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. On the way, Greenacre told Eriksson that the chaplain, Captain Gerald Kirk, came from Ogden, Utah; he was a Mormon, Eriksson learned, and so was Greenacre. It could keep them from believing that life was so valuableanyones life, I mean, even their own. It was the final talk between the two men. Incident on Hill 192 explained 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?. The two have no children. Clark came back to where we were. A: Well, in general, sir, [but] in this specific case. Eriksson told me he has no qualms about Rafes being at large, because Rafes remorse over the criminal episode had been evident to everybody in the Radcliff courtroom. In his cell, Reilly went on, he had made plans to shoot various officials at the hospital, but when he was finally released he gave up the idea of vengeance. 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. HISTORY or HOLLYWOOD: Casualties of War | History Forum The image is that of a Vietnamese peasant girl, two or three years younger than he was, whom he met, so to speak, on November 18, 1966, in a remote hamlet in the Central Highlands, a few miles west of the South China Sea. He displayed a hunting knife. He had only been fooling, he testified, when he talked of having fun on the reconnaissance mission. 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. That was the thing about the chain of commandyou couldnt tell who was to blame for what. Moving in on the bush, Clark blazed away with his M-16, and at once the rustling foliage grew still. 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. This is how it is with Casualties of War, Brian DePalma's tale of an atrocity . His target turned out to be the rump of a wallowing water buffalo, the animal raising itself from the shallow stream in clumsy panic and lumbering out of view. He had a wild mannerhe couldnt stand still, and his eyes looked every which way. 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. The hootch contained a table, a low bench built against a wall, and tattered remnants of a straw mat strewn in a dark corner, and the dirt floor was littered with scrap metal, rocks, and cans. Eriksson and four other enlisted men were then on a reconnaissance patrol in the vicinity of the girls home. 7 years ago. Incident on Hill 192 by Vanessa Pantoja - Prezi The 1966 incident at hill 192, and the courage shown by p f c storeby is not in doubt. 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. As the others clustered around it, Eriksson withdrew to the fringes of the circle, made uncomfortable by everyones purposeful curiosity. 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. 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. Eriksson remembers having a deep feeling of ease and calm, as though he were at long last ceasing to be a fugitive from injustice. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Your prompt reporting of this serious incident to your superiors and subsequent testimony in court were essential elements in the apprehension and trials of the men responsible for this brutal crime. But, as Eriksson pointed out, he could not give me many such first-hand accounts of V.C. . . 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 court record attests that it was in the midst of this encircling racket that Meserve chose to initiate radio contact with Lieutenant Reilly, the burden of the Sergeants message being that he wanted to report one V.C., K.I.A. Under cross-examination at Meserves court-martial, Reilly, appearing as a defense witness, testified, Sergeant Meserve called me up and informed me in the middle of the fire fight that a girl was fleeing up the side of the mountain, and I informed him to get the girl. This arose when a defense witness, a sergeant in the platoon, said that Eriksson had none. . Eriksson was to remain there until his reassignment as a door gunner came through, Vorst having sent his transfer papers on for official approval by the helicopter command. Pointing to the hootch, he signalled to Rafe to be his successor, and Rafe, sparing himself ridicule, walked in. Q: I didnt ask you for a long elaboration. held a clear, uncomplicated view of the crime, and that view was that its repercussions should be kept to a minimum. In his affidavit for Army investigators, Manuel gave what is probably a comprehensive account of the confrontation that took place in the Captains quarters. Late one afternoon, when he and about twenty other G.I.s putting up a barracks were about to knock off for the day, he saw a fellow-carpenter, Boyd Greenacre, detach himself from the crew to have a talk with a passing chaplain, a blond, long-nosed six-footer wearing a captains bars; the two men, Eriksson could see, were on cordial terms. 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. Translating the testimony of Loc, who was two years younger than Mao, an interpreter informed the court, She said they come in, use flashlight and shone around the house and saw her mothers face and her sisters face and all of them wake up at the same time. Besides, Eriksson said, none of the M.P.s at Fort Carson asked him about Maovery likely, he assumed, because they didnt connect him with her. 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. It was going to be a big outlay, considering the few men we were up against, Eriksson said. . Journalist Daniel Lang brought this to further public attention with a 1969 article in The New Yorker entitled Casualties of War . In charge of the group were a colonel, a major, and, after they reached the airstrip, Captain Vorst himself, who maintained silence toward Eriksson. Meserve at once radioed the platoon command, reaching Lieutenant Reilly, to whom he suggested that the V.C. Incident Hill 192 by Daniel Lang - AbeBooks Exploring the mountain further, often making their way through shoulder-high vegetation, Eriksson, Meserve, Manuel, and Rafe pushed on toward the summit. Because of the C.I.D.s slipup, it appeared, practically all the pretrial information obtained by the investigators could be successfully challenged in court by the defensewhich meant that Manuels confession of guilt would be inadmissible as evidence, and without that the governments case was as good as emasculated. However, a board of review in Washington, made up of three senior officers, had noticed the C.I.D.s oversight, and it had resulted in a second chance for Manuel. These varying decisions, it seemed, were attributable to a variety of factors, among them considerations of the defendants character and background. 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. Accompanied by troops of the South Vietnamese government, the two women had eventually come to the hootch on Hill 192, where they had found Maos brassiere, flecked with blood; the troops had burned down the hootch. The girl was dressed and her hands had been freed. Eriksson wouldnt be going along, though; the Lieutenant had assigned another G.I. As for the defendants themselves, only Rafe showed contrition, the most striking manifestation of which was his decision to testify against Clark. Clark at once greeted it with enthusiasm. Possibly because of his coperative attitude at the trials, Rafe was given the lightest termeight years, for the crimes of rape and unpremeditated murder. Had he taken into account the amount of suffering that Americans had already undergone in behalf of the Vietnamese? He was all of seven when he was driving a tractor on the farm. 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.
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