incident on hill 192 where are they now

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. He does remember, though, that she had a prominent gold tooth, and that her eyes, which were dark brown, could be particularly expressive. Eriksson said, He told Meserve her coughing was going to give away our position, but I didnt think it was Charlie he had on his mind. Manuel showed no initiative in that regard, Eriksson told me, his attitude toward authority being simple and automatic: he heeded it devoutly. I had this picture that when we did, theyd fire at us, or, at least, Meserve would have me up on charges of desertion. 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. Eriksson was determined to meet the Arizonans friend, he told me, for he had a feeling that the long-nosed chaplain was the man who would help him bring Maos case to light. may have rescued him from Meserve. 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. But they werent as sure about it as the guys in the platoon had been, he said. Accordingly, at nine the group struck out for the cliff. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. To counter any such strategy, the prosecutor wanted to have on hand a statement attesting to his chief witnesss mental stability. The ideas that came to him, he said, had less to do with jobs than they had to do with life, and he attributed this to the incident on Hill 192. There, corpsmen deposited him on a bed alongside that of a battalion officer he knew and liked. Q: Isnt it true you were so afraid you could hardly move? Invariably, Eriksson said, he found himself reproved for the deed. 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. The structure was in a state of extreme disrepair, and had a number of large holes in its mud walls. 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. . Q: You think your fear was apparent to anyone else? The film was based on the real-life incident on Hill 192, and on Daniel Lang's book of the same title, but all names and some details of the story were altered. None of the four hit anything, and the Sergeant radioed the platoon command for artillery support, which was quickly granted; the coperation, Eriksson recalled, pleased Meserve no end, since it implicitly conferred an importance on the skirmish. [11], Likewise, Gervase's initial sentence of ten years with hard labor was reduced to eight. 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. Thats where she is, he said with certainty. 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. All rights reserved. A: I wrote my senator. The Sergeant had made his announcement with a straight face, leaving his men to interpret it as they would. 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. He sounded genuinely concerned. Something else the prosecutor did was to advise him to see a psychiatrist before the trials started. The two sisters looked at each other. Before long, Eriksson told me, his sleuthing established that Greenacre was well thought of, and one evening, after the carpenters had finished eating, he invited Greenacre to take a walk with him. 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. In warat least, the war we were init was nothing unusual to hear shots that were unexplained, to find a body that might or might not have been shot in combat. However, Maos sister, Phan Thi Loc, who was present, has done this at one of the trials. In disbelief and confusion, his heart palpitating, Eriksson saw that Meserve was losing no time in carrying out his plan, for, with Clark at his heels, the Sergeant had embarked on a systematic search of the hamlets hootches. 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. I wanted to say, I apologize to you for whats happened, but dont ever accept my apology or anyone elses for that. For as long as she lived, Eriksson did not know her name. 1970. Vorsts executive officer, by contrast, could not countenance the thought of Meserves being cashiered. in the area.. Meserve asked him if he had finished the girl. Clark had just replied yes when Mao, like a wounded apparition, was seen crawling rapidly downhill and then disappearing into the thick foliage. He had no impulse to talk about Maocertainly not with his fellow-policemen. Perhaps because Meserve had been the leader of the four accused, he came in for particularly heavy praise. And, in fact, Eriksson told me, a C.I.D. Gervase was found guilty on the count of premeditated murder. It was the final talk between the two men. He wouldnt mind being a door gunner aboard a helicopter, he told Vorst, citing as his qualifications for such a post that he had been trained as a machine gunner and that he was fond of flying. I called him back and commended him on the job that he did and reported it, in turn, to the company headquarters.. 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. Who says we dont get along with Charlie? (who escaped the following morning) wounded five Americans, and Meserve displayed considerable courage in rescuing the most seriously injured of them, a G.I. We all looked at the paper, and he asked us what this was all about. When Meserve had been convicted but not yet sentenced, he was asked by the law officer, Is there any particular thing that you would like to tell the court? Standing before the bench, Meserve replied, Well, sir, Ive seen a lot of killing, which it is our duty to do, because its kill or be killed. I wanted to get out of the platoon, he stated. 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 told him I was being wrongly brought to trial. For a number of months, though, he found it less than exhilarating to pick up where he had left off. Tony Meserve (Sean Penn), kidnap a young Vietnamese woman named Oanh (Thuy Thu Le) from her village and take her on a patrol, making her their sex slave. It was an abandoned hootch, eight feet square and eight feet high, with a window on the east side, a door on the west, and two slits facing north and south; there was a stream a few metres away, giving the patrol a ready source of water. . 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. Can you add one ? 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. Leave it to me. Eriksson remembers Rafe as a tall, swarthy, round-faced man with a disposition that was naturally sunny and amiable. 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. 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. interrogators had apprised him of various rights he had, among them the right to remain silent and to have a lawyer, the interrogators had neglected to mention that he was entitled to have an appointed lawyer, meaning one whose services would be free of charge. The only thing that could stop me was if I became a friendly casualty.. 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. At any rate, he felt that he was on the right track, since chaplains were professionally concerned with conscience. 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. At the time the fifth V.C. It had to be on one of the two rocks that the girl lay, Eriksson knew, and to spare the others in the party unnecessary exertion he screened out the nearer rock by himself, doggedly plunging through formidable brush to reach it. "Casualties of War" is Brian De Palma's entry into the Vietnam War movies competition. It turned out to be a letter of commendation. 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. Yes or no? From the minute I got to Radcliff, I was on the lookout for him, whoever he might turn out to be, Eriksson said. He said for me to think that over again very carefully, Eriksson recalled. Eriksson was now with them, and he saw that Mao had retreated to a corner of the hut, frightened, watchful, her eyes glistening with tears, her presence made known chiefly by a cough that had grown more pronounced since morning. It did not occur in the United States. 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?. 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. Perhaps, Eriksson said, he remembered that idea just then because of his recent stewing about Vorst and conscience. She began to weep, and backed away, cringing. There is going to be four people on that patrol and an individual., Once Meserve had delivered his estimate of Erikssons virility, the ill-fated bacchanal got under way. After that, wed have to stay out of sight until the third day of the patrols missionthat was the day the patrol was supposed to rendezvous with another unit for fresh supplies. This morning, Manuel carried his own. Acting on this, he enrolled in a non-credit course at the University of Minnesota designed to teach adults with an inadequate education how to study. The four soldiers visitation lasted nearly an hour and a half, and two minutes after it was terminated the men, to conceal themselves from any Vietcong who might be in the vicinity, rentered the hootch together. With Greenacre there, it meant that Sven was waiving his right to my silence, he said. 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. Conscience was one thing that crossed over from civilian life to war, he said. Professor Furue and Colonel Finck also appeared as witnesses, to offer information based on clinical studies they had made of Maos skeletal parts in Saigon. 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. He thought of her as his plane, full of singing soldiers, took off from Cam Ranh Bay and he held his last look at the unhappy land below. They set you brooding about them for days. 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. It was ten inches long, and its handle was wrapped with tape that bore a pattern of tiny diamonds. 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. Eriksson now believes he should have foreseen that sooner or later one of these incidents was bound to strike him with special, climactic force. Plot Day after day, out on patrol, wed come to a narrow dirt path leading through some shabby village, and the elders would welcome us and the children come running with smiles on their faces, waiting for the candy wed give them. Evacuated by a medical helicopter, he was flown to a hospital at Qui Nhon. 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.. 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. We just looked at each other, without saying hello. He was shirtless; his face wore an expression of swaggering irresistibility. The four courts-martial took place in the winter of 1967, within a period of about ten days in the middle of March. Thirty metres down, they came to a curiously shaped rock formation composed of two jutting ledges. 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. 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. I discovered its not difficult to kill a human beingin combat its as instinctive as ducking bullets. Apocalypse Now 1979. . Rafe received a punishment of four years imprisonment, plus a monthly forfeiture of fifty dollars in pay. The trial records make it clear that the question left the witnesses uncomfortable, for their responses were reluctant and tortured. When he spoke, however, it was about his friendship with the Marine. Acting fast, he sent Manuel backtracking to the summit to tell Eriksson and Rafe to report to him with Mao. 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?. While Eriksson, Manuel, and the now wretched Rafe hovered outside, Meserve and Clark entered the hutMaos home. I can assure you I wasnt being paranoid in thinking he might be shot in the back for seeing me. The men were familiar with the knife; it had recently been given to Clark by a close friend in the platoon who had been wounded. And wasnt it just possible that the victim might not necessarily be Eriksson himself but, rather, his new bride? So now its only the father whos leftor is he? making slow progress toward the refuge of the cave complex, which was three hundred metres away, almost at the bottom of the ravine. [6] It was during those proceedings that the victim was identified by her sister as Phan Thi Mao. Their eyes were terrified, Eriksson remembers. That was the thing about the chain of commandyou couldnt tell who was to blame for what. In ten minutes, a pair of agents entered the chaplains quarters, and Eriksson, as his affidavit shows, told them, in a signal example of understatement, This [the rape and murder] has been bothering me since it happened, and I went to the chaplain tonight and told him what had happened. The agents interrogated him with a cool, neutral competence. They put a hold on my transfer forms. The young woman was abducted, not a prostitute. He said it would be good for the morale of the squad.. It was just that he was less than average as far as being one of the guys, should we say? That this weak, coughing girl had overpowered me? The men were to be gone five days, the Sergeant revealeda fairly long time for a reconnaissance missionand on hearing this Eriksson experienced a sense of exhilaration, just as he had at the prospect of far shorter patrols in which he had taken part. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Locs mother was now missing. All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. It was just like when you stick a deer with a knifesort of a thudor something like this, sir.. Id been there a month or three weeks longer., When he went on to imply that Eriksson might be chicken, the prosecutor asked, How come he stood up to Meserve? Echoing the instructions that a battalion officer had given him earlier, the Sergeant informed the four men of the duties that each was expected to carry out, of the chain of command in the field, and of radio-communication arrangements with the platoon command, and then, consulting the grid cordinates of a map he was holding, the Sergeant described a precise westerly route that the patrol was to follow. What conclusions may be drawn from "The Incident on Hill 192," as the war crime was known at the time of the courts-martial? Though 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 . Wed had to support each other in a new way after she was killed. The "farm" houses and outbuildings have the polished look of some wealthy Parisian's country retreat rather than the more rugged appearance of a working farm. Listening to the fellows, I had the feeling there might be any number of Meserves and Clarks around me, he said. But, as Eriksson pointed out, he could not give me many such first-hand accounts of V.C. They had known each other since childhood, their fathers having been neighboring farmers, who both had difficulty making ends meet. 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. 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.

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