I wanted to be very sure that he himself hadnt taken part in the rape. Clark appeared to be beside himself with anticipation, Eriksson told me, and Manuel and Rafe appeared less so. This is how it is with Casualties of War, Brian DePalma's tale of an atrocity . The pro-forma proceedings at Leavenworth took two days, at the conclusion of which the jury came in with a verdict of acquittal. 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. Incident on Hill 192 (1970 edition) | Open Library Lets kill her and get it over with, he said, according to the court record. The thought of them, he said, makes him feel discouraged at times about his future, which, he pointed out, could be a long one. 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. Eriksson was bound for Minnesota, for a month at home before his discharge in the spring, but when his plane put down at Seattle he found that he was ten dollars short for the final leg of his journey. Through an interpreter, Loc related that after the patrol finished with their hamlet, she and her mother had searched desperately for Mao. Cross-examined at Meserves trial as to why he had shifted his position, Eriksson testified, Well, sir, these gentlemen seemed to meoh, I should say kind of enthused about what was going on. I knew I wouldnt rest until something was done about Maos murder. Seeing him made me think at once of two questions I would have liked to ask him or his sergeant. went on, it was mild sentences that were the order of the day, and, what was more, they became even milder when they were up for review; safe and professionally idealistic back home, he said, the legal experts of military appellate bodies invariably looked with suspicion upon the administration of justice in war zones. Bunkers, trenches, trails that were not marked on maps, caches of enemy equipmentthese, too, were to be reconnaissance objectives. No one would ever know what had become of her, he exclaimed. Departing from the hamlet with their prize, the soldiers moved west toward the main trail they should have been on. 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. A small, pretty blonde with an alert, intelligent manner, she offered me coffee and cake the instant I set foot in the apartment. Q: How did you react to this particular ambush, Eriksson? Eriksson remembers Rafe as a tall, swarthy, round-faced man with a disposition that was naturally sunny and amiable. Transitory though their show of character may have been, he said, it encouraged him in reaching a private resolve, for as he kept watch above the cave complex, Eriksson told me, he was suddenly seized with the overwhelming realization that unless he took it upon himself to speak out, the fact of Maos death would remain a secret. A: The Army expects you to do it the Army way, and thats follow orders. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. In one form or another, he said, they took place almost daily, but he was slow, or reluctant, to perceive that they were as much a part of the war as shells and targets were. It repeated itself in waves, broken only, Eriksson assumed, by Maos need to summon fresh breath. Youre hurt, I can see, but how are you? This sentence was first commuted to 20 years, then reduced to eight, which made him eligible for parole after half that time. Time and again, at chow or during a break out in the field, someone would tell him (as Vorst had told him) that it was pointless to throw good lives after bad by having Meserve and the others up on charges, since (as Reilly had said) violence was the language of war, and, naturally, it could not always be controlled. It was the way I felt, he said. 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. In the hootch, Eriksson recalled, Mao, now relieved of Manuels pack, watched him and Rafe heave out junk for a while, and then, unasked, the girl lent the G.I.s a hand. Below was a valley with a winding stream, and along its banks were paddy fields with neat little dikes around them. I wanted to say, I apologize to you for whats happened, but dont ever accept my apology or anyone elses for that. Like Clark, he was given to quick movements, but his behavior had nothing to do with embellishing Meserves thinking. FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL'S LIVE TRAFFIC CRASH AND ROAD CONDITION REPORTClick Here For Additional Information | Click Here for FDOT Emergency Real Time Traffic4/30/2023, 3:20:59 AM. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. The two other G.I.s in the combat team were a year younger than Eriksson, who was then twenty-two. Among them, Eriksson said, these sizable elements, advancing toward the cave complex, succeeded in killing one V.C. Eriksson replied that he wouldnt mind a changenot that it would deter him from pressing charges. Incident on Hill 192 ~ Murder & Rape Details with Photos | Videos Eriksson was confident, though, he told me, that the older he grew, the more accepting he would be of his memory. 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. 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. The hamlet was barely out of sight when Manuel, perhaps competing with Clark, untied Maos hands, then slipped his pack from his shoulders and loaded it onto the girls. As far as he was concerned, Eriksson said, it had all seemed a morass of cleverness, but then, he conceded, he may well have entered the military courtroom in the Central Highlands, where the four trials were held, with unwarranted expectations, for it had been his hope that the trials would help him unravel his reactions to Maos fate. In any event, Eriksson went on, he lost little time in seeking out his friend Curly Rowan to tell him the story of Mao. I simply asked, do you think a murderer should be retained in the United States Army? 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. While Eriksson, Manuel, and the now wretched Rafe hovered outside, Meserve and Clark entered the hutMaos home. Greenacre was present throughout the talk, at Erikssons insistence. or did he just refuse at all times? . Eriksson shook his head. 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? Related period. Much as he loved it, he told me, it was what he had been working at before he was drafted, and, as is often true of new war veterans, he felt restless and in need of a change. 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. 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. [11] In 1968, Joseph Garcia was acquitted on the appeal of his initial 15-year sentence and his dishonorable discharge was reversed after it was determined that his Fifth Amendment rights were violated, and his confession was ruled as inadmissible. That occurred in February, 1968, when Manuel was granted a retrial on the ground that although his C.I.D. In recalling it for investigators later on, Manuel stated, He told us he had attempted to keep the incident quiet but that now he couldnt give us any further advice or help. The M.P.s took the enlisted men to the Provost Marshals office at An Khe, where they were given an initial interrogation before being remanded to the stockade at Long Binh. It is going to be yourself. I wanted to find out first what Meserve and Clark might do. The fire fight in the ravine lasted several hours, the attackers finally breaking off after dark. Vorst was in the group, and Eriksson, detaching himself from his unit, went up to the Captain and told him about Mao. She was dead, Im sure., Immediately after the murder, Eriksson told me, the men appeared to assume a self-protective air of disbelief at what had taken place. Incident on Hill 192 by Daniel Lang - Goodreads [11], Likewise, Gervase's initial sentence of ten years with hard labor was reduced to eight. As it happened, the Captain heard about it from a second source as wellfrom Eriksson himself. It had to be him, and no other chaplain, he recalled, smiling. Things will get sorted out, he said. Sometimes you have your disagreements, and sometimes you dont voice them, you keep them to yourself.. As the others clustered around it, Eriksson withdrew to the fringes of the circle, made uncomfortable by everyones purposeful curiosity. 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. The groups second-in-command was Ralph Clark, a corporal who came from a town near Philadelphia. Enacting the role of chief government witness was not an edifying experience, Eriksson went on. Incident on Hill 192 - Wikipedia. Incident on Hill 192 explained I just wanted to feel quiet, he said. 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. He had a wild mannerhe couldnt stand still, and his eyes looked every which way. Needless to say, the question was not examined philosophically in the Camp Radcliff courthouse; instead, it was employed narrowly as a government gambit for stumping a witness. All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. As for himself, Eriksson told me, Meserve had ordered him to a ledge from which he could overlook the complex as he trained his grenade launcher on two cave mouths in particular, either one of which, the Sergeant thought, could afford the entombed V.C. Q: I didnt ask you for a long elaboration. They put a hold on my transfer forms. The incident on Hill 192 is the name the United States Army called 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. This time, he said, it would be Clark who would stay behind to guard Mao and the weapons in the hootch. Unfortunately they do nothing but settle for him to be relocated in order to not be killed by his fellow squad members. Subjects Manuel showed no initiative in that regard, Eriksson told me, his attitude toward authority being simple and automatic: he heeded it devoutly. 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. Learn more about Incident On Hill 192 Where Are They Now Meserve, however, counselled patience. 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. We just looked at each other, without saying hello. Incident on Hill 192 - The New York Times He is a short man of fair complexion, blond and blue-eyed, and he is not voluble. 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. But. 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. [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." 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. I listened to Svens story with a cops ear, the chaplain said. 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. Eriksson now believes he should have foreseen that sooner or later one of these incidents was bound to strike him with special, climactic force. 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. 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. His farewell to them was succinct. gcdc on Twitter To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories, Like their predecessors in all wars, American veterans of the Vietnamese campaign who are coming home to civilian life have their heads filled with memories that may last the rest of their days, for, no matter how far from the front a man may have spent his time as a soldier, he will remember it as a special time, when, fleetingly, his daily existence appeared to approach the heroic. Before Meserve could devise any next step, Clark took hold of Maos arm. The two have no children. Only one piece of military action occurred that morning, and it could have been dispensed with. 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. The day continued eventful. 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.. It was six in morning and dark. The father was away in Phu My market, the interpreter went on. Rafes case, I learned, had taken a fresh turn in recent weeks. She had her black pajamas on. Clark came back to where we were. In addition, Rafe flatly said, Eriksson could not see the girl, despite which, Rafe also testified, Eriksson stated, Oh, no, like he regretted that he had fired. Rafe himself let go with a burst from his M-16, which, inexplicably, caused his rifle to jam. 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. At first, we all denied any knowledge about it. To listen to them, and to the testimony that the guys in the patrol gave, Mao was probably living happily in her hamlet. As early as the opening day of Rafes trial, which was the first one held, he realized that it was idle to consider whether the G.I.s punishment would, or could, fit the crime. 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. 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. . 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 told me that he felt weary at the mere prospect of reappearing as a witness a year after the Radcliff trials. She had the spark of life., The Oddballs and Odysseys of Charles Portis. [6], Storeby initially reported the crime. But the assertion was a hard one to prove, for Rafe was on hand to testify that Eriksson was so situated in that feverish moment that Mao wasnt even in his line of vision. Late in July, Eriksson was handed a communication from the commanding officer of his division, the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile). He has yet to come to terms with the incident on Hill 192, Eriksson told me. As far as he could make out, the company C.O. incident on hill 192 where are they now. 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. [1] Although news of the incident reached the U.S. shortly after the soldiers' trials,[3] the story gained widespread notoriety through Daniel Lang's 1969 article for The New Yorker[4] and his subsequent book. I had had enough of watching beatings and stranglings with ponchos, he told me. As Manuel was going into the hootch, Maos sounds could he heard, weak and conquered. When he opened his eyes, a new passenger was sitting directly opposite hima young Oriental woman. 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. munitions cache on Hill 192. . We had to answer to something, to someonemaybe just to ourselves., Before Eriksson saw the last of Fort Carson, he again acted as a witness for the government. incident on hill 192 where are they now - pamelahudson.net In his affidavit for Army investigators, Manuel gave what is probably a comprehensive account of the confrontation that took place in the Captains quarters. Asked whether Meserve might not have been searching the hootches of Maos hamlet for the strictly military purpose of finding strange faces, he answered, I wouldnt say this, sir. 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. 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. Thinking along these lines, Eriksson said, he arrived at a kind of strategy in regard to Mao. I couldnt even guess at the answersnot without knowing what kind of jam Manuel thought he was in.. Both Thomas and Loeb were leaders of the white supremacist World Church of the Creator. Besides, as the defense could not dispute, the jacket containing the explosive charge of a grenade launcher is made not of lead but of copper, and the search parties experts had found only the lead of numerous bullets from an M-16 rifle littering the immediate vicinity of Maos body. They were married four years ago, shortly after Eriksson was drafted. Nor could the concern that the C.O. In the end, the four juries sitting at Camp Radcliff found the defendants guilty of one crime or another. When I got up to the girl, I saw that her head was partially blown away, he testified. She was the big thing that had happened in the war for me, he told me. Once this was done, the patrol filed out of the camp in the faintly humid darkness, the men still uncertain of their leaders intent. When she finished eating, she mumbled something in Vietnamese; maybe it was Thank youI wouldnt know. who was murdered, but how could I do it for a Vietnamese? One M.P., I remember, told me he could have understood it if Id gone to bat for a G.I. Esri, HERE, Garmin, NGA, USGS, NPS. Well, during this Operation Thayer II, which started [last October], we ran into a hootch that was burned down. incident on hill 192 where are they now - jbgetfit.com He was paroled on June 18, 1970. Thomas remained free on bond during the trial, and court records showed that in exchange for his testimony he would only serve one year's probation. They werent shocked, or anything like that, Eriksson recalls. I didnt know Eriksson brought it up. A. Oh, no, sir, it was not that he was disliked in any way. 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. 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. His reaction interested me, Eriksson said. And, in fact, Eriksson told me, a C.I.D. He was upset and frustratedit was in all his letters. 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. The whole thing made me sick to my stomach. He felt even wearier on arriving in Kansas, when he learned that there was little point to his presence. 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. It makes for an easier mission and no problems. . 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. During his first hour back in camp, he recalls, no one could have persuaded him otherwise. He was asked, Couldnt you have thought up a story [for Meserve] to the effect that you heard some noises or heard some V.C. I can assure you I wasnt being paranoid in thinking he might be shot in the back for seeing me. Another defense attorney repeatedly taxed Eriksson with having fabricated his charges against Meserve and the others in order to escape further assignments to hazardous infantry missions. Ill handle everything, Vorst said. Eriksson was delighted with this duty, since he had had a passion for carpentry all his life. 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. Q : Well, you feel you are not involved in any way? Almost before he was awake, M.P.s escorted him from his cell to the Provost Marshals office, where he underwent a further interrogation. No such thing happened. The 1966 incident at hill 192, and the courage shown by p f c storeby is not in doubt. As a disciplined soldier, I knew I wouldnt abandon the weapons in the hootch to the enemy, but, just the same, I was dizzy with thinking how to save Mao. But, as Eriksson pointed out, he could not give me many such first-hand accounts of V.C. depredations. Acting fast, he sent Manuel backtracking to the summit to tell Eriksson and Rafe to report to him with Mao. Twenty minutes later, they knew what it was. I saw that Clark had his hunting knife hidden in one of his hands. It was in the next seconds that deer-gutting sounds issued from the bushes. All of us in the patrol had long ago stopped pretending nothing horrible had happened. These were always demanding and hazardous, yet they could not distract him from the intense feeling of frustration that now beset him. Mao was ungagged but was given no food; noticing that she was flushed and coughing slightly, Meserve handed her an aspirin. 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. Clark, who was several metres in front of Rafe, yelled back to him that it was the girl. He was Sergeant Tony Meserve, a slim, black-haired man of medium height who was twenty years old and came from a town in upstate New York, near the Canadian border. 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. I told him I was being wrongly brought to trial. Thus, defense lawyers raised no objections when the prosecutor asked the defendants and the defense witnesses whether a soldier who was condemned for having committed civilian homicide, such as the killing of Mao, should be kept on as a member of the armed forcesthat is, should be permitted to go on committing military homicide. Apocalypse Now 1979. And wasnt it just possible that the victim might not necessarily be Eriksson himself but, rather, his new bride? This arose when a defense witness, a sergeant in the platoon, said that Eriksson had none. Speaking matter-of-factly, Mrs. Eriksson said, Out in the boonies, where we come from, you get an A if you dont throw erasers.. The decision was not easily arrived at, for two days before Clarks trial was to begin, and when Rafe had already been convicted, Clark approached Rafe in the stockade at Long Binh, where both were jailed, and, appealing to Rafes conscience, told him that if he gave unfriendly testimony against his comrades, he would have it on his mind the rest of his life. Troubled by this, Rafe sought, and heeded, the counsel of a Catholic chaplain at Camp Radcliff in resolving the dilemma of choosing between his moral obligation, as Rafe put it to the chaplain, and loyalty to the patrol. Summoned to the stand by Clarks lawyer, the priest said he had advised Rafe that, as opposed to defending Clarks interest, he had a greater obligation to his wife and his child and the young woman who, supposedly, I assume, was killed, and to justice and society. The priest also said he was asking a Franciscan brother in Texas to break the news of Rafes conviction to his wife, to help her absorb the initial shock., By contrast, the general demeanor of the other defendants was that of incredulity at being tried; the impression they gave was that they thought only the sheerest, most improbable sort of accident could explain their being haled before a tribunal. 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. His spirits on the upswing, Eriksson set about trying to meet the chaplain. . The girl was dressed and her hands had been freed. 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. At the very outset, Eriksson told me that the last thing he wished to do was discuss Maos murder in any legalistic vein. 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. 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. incident on hill 192 where are they now | Posted on May 31, 2022 | exemple de mise en situation professionnelle fonction publique distribution sacs poubelles la rochelle 2021 Posted on May 31, 2022 | exemple de mise en situation professionnelle fonction publique distribution sacs poubelles la rochelle 2021