incident on hill 192 where are they now

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. Exploring the mountain further, often making their way through shoulder-high vegetation, Eriksson, Meserve, Manuel, and Rafe pushed on toward the summit. and wounding another. 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. Greenacre was present throughout the talk, at Erikssons insistence. [8] After finding Phan Thi Mao (21), they bound her wrists with rope, gagged her, and took her on the mission. Incident on Hill 192 Daniel Lang Published by Secker & Warburg, London, Great Britain, 1970 Seller: Secondhand Books 'n' Things, Ross Creek, Australia Seller Rating: Contact seller Book First Edition Used - Hardcover Condition: Good 44.51 Convert currency 9.15 Shipping From Australia to United Kingdom Quantity: 1 Add to Basket Hardcover. 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?. 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. agents, lawyers, and ballistics and firearms specialists. Given this confusion of values, the legalistic consideration of Maos death sometimes bordered on the incongruous. A. Oh, no, sir, it was not that he was disliked in any way. It was like claiming that just because a drunken driver hit your friend, you had a right to get in your car and aim it at some pedestrian. Inasmuch as the board may only affirm or reduce Rafes sentence, any changes that it makes will necessarily fall under the heading of good news for him; for example, the board may decide that Rafe served too long a sentence by five or six months, in which event it will be incumbent upon the Army to restore back pay for that period; it is also within the boards power to reverse Rafes dishonorable discharge. In a matter of seconds, the shooting broke off, and another patrol, consisting of another squad in Reillys platoon, emerged from behind the hedgerow. But he was very tolerant about it. I said, Probably the firing squad, sir. He then said something to the effect, I could send you all back to the States for courts-martial, or he could court-martial us out here and still have a firing squad. Maos sister, Phan Thi Loc, appeared as a prosecution witness, her very presence irrefutable evidence that Mao was not in fact living happily in her hamlet. Meserve, however, counselled patience. 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. 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. 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. 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. It took an hour to negotiate the climb, and the group had barely attained the ridge when Rafe, his eyes sweeping the vista below, saw five Vietnamese in peasant dress making their way along a mountain trail toward the paddy fields near the stream. They were hard workers, those Vietnamese women picking little bananas, shinnying up palm trees for coconuts. [14], In 1992, former PFC Thomas gained further notoriety when he was charged with being an accessory after the fact in the murder trial of George Loeb, who was charged with the 17 May 1991 shooting death of an African-American USS Saratoga sailor named Harold J. Mansfield. Why else had Vorst seen fit to reshuffle the patrol, leaving only Manuel within shooting distance, so to speak? It was the final talk between the two men. He was confident, he told me, that he stood a better chance of finding help there than in the confines of the platoon area. He was merely asking, Vorst said, but had Eriksson really thought through what he was doing in pushing his charges? He had scarcely landed in Vietnam, in October, 1966, when he was made aware of these occurrences, each of them apparently impulsive and unrelated to military strategy. In any event, Eriksson went on, he lost little time in seeking out his friend Curly Rowan to tell him the story of Mao. 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. As the others clustered around it, Eriksson withdrew to the fringes of the circle, made uncomfortable by everyones purposeful curiosity. A: Well, in general, sir, [but] in this specific case. Listening to the fellows, I had the feeling there might be any number of Meserves and Clarks around me, he said. You never knew whose turn it was to die, and that isnt how it was in rear areas. His break came after just a weekby accident, which was the only way it could come. Are you afraid of Sergeant Meserve? Eriksson was asked at one point, and he replied, Thats affirmative, sir. But I couldnt think any of my brainstorms through. Out on a search-and-destroy mission the morning after leaving Meserves command, Eriksson told me, he encountered a small group of American military men reconnoitring the vicinity of the cave complex. The five-man squad, led by a 20-year-old sergeant, Tony Meserve, had been sent on patrol. 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. Ill never know. Evacuated by a medical helicopter, he was flown to a hospital at Qui Nhon. 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. 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. Q: Isnt it true you were so afraid you could hardly move? 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. Thus, Vorst concluded, coming to the last of his questions, if the men in the patrol were actually convicted, Eriksson could anticipate their being freed in short order, and when that happened Eriksson himself might not feel so freefor was it really inconceivable that one or more of the ex-convicts would seek revenge? It was another case of people doing their job, he told me. Accordingly, at nine the group struck out for the cliff. 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. He might turn out to be dumb or brave or to have a wonderful stock of jokes. It was a six-hour trek, over difficult terrain, and when the men finally stood just below the summit, several of them, who were unaccustomed to tramping so long, were near exhaustion. The groups second-in-command was Ralph Clark, a corporal who came from a town near Philadelphia. [15], "David E Gervase (1946-1981) - Find a Grave", "Report:Sailor-trial witness was in Vietnam rape-murder", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Incident_on_Hill_192&oldid=1147907196, This page was last edited on 2 April 2023, at 23:16. They constantly reported rapes and kidnappings by the Vietcong; in fact, the Vietcong committed these crimes so indiscriminately that the victims were sometimes their own sympathizers. All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. 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. Did you fire your weapon? It was six in morning and dark. The father was away in Phu My market, the interpreter went on. 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. It excited me. Impatiently, Clark volunteered his services, but Meserve wouldnt have that, insisting that they collaborate. The outmanned, outgunned enemy put up so strong a fight, he said, that the Sergeant, Clark, and Manuel ran out of ammunition, and the patrol had to interrupt its five-day mission long enough to go back for fresh supplies of bullets and grenades. He was paroled on June 18, 1970. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. We couldnt have gone very far, I realized, but it was going to be dark soon and we might find a hideout somewhere in the brush. At about the same time, other boards of review had dealt with Rafes and Meserves convictions. His last order before they left was to send Eriksson, Rafe, and Manuel to fetch the days supply of water from the stream. As the court transcript shows, Reilly didnt let matters rest there. Glancing at the girl with distaste, the Sergeant ordered Eriksson and Rafe to stay with her on the ridge, whereupon he, Clark, and Manuel began a cautious descent of the mountain, their purpose to stalk the Vietcong. Besides, she was in no condition to reach home or anywhere else. I was operating in a forward area and probably seeing the war at its ugliest. In the first place, he wanted to act fast, and, besides, he had no doubt that once he did act, there would be fast results. The poor guys guts were out, Eriksson said. 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. In turn, the sergeant passed the news on to Lieutenant Reilly, who sent for Eriksson. Sure, there were always advance plans to do this or that, but they didnt often stand up in the field. All he need do, he believed, was report that they had committed rape and murder, and the military authorities would investigate with the same alacrity that civilian authorities are expected to show in such situations. 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. 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. The men found her feverish and coughing, and Clark was all for rescheduling her death hour to that evening. 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. She ate, standing, and it was whimper, then eat, whimper, then eat. 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. Mrs. Eriksson, who was once more plying her husband and me with coffee and cake, put in, Sven and I are Lutherans. Before Meserve could devise any next step, Clark took hold of Maos arm. Its a part of the country where we pride ourselves on not being demonstrative, she said. I was afraid of being ridiculed, sir, he told the prosecutor. His persistence in reporting the crime to higher authorities eventually resulted in general courts-martial against his four fellow squad mates. be ambushed. . depredations. It turned out to be a letter of commendation. Q: You would suggest some minor form of punishment, in other words? Eriksson had no occasion to fire his grenade launcher, and that was just as well, he told me, since his mind was on Maoon the part of the war that, as he put it, had got to me. Perched on the mountainside, listening to the gunfire and the helicopters, he found his thoughts returning repeatedly to the fact that Rafe and Manuel had refused to kill the girl. Once this was done, the patrol filed out of the camp in the faintly humid darkness, the men still uncertain of their leaders intent. Meserve saw to that, for a brilliant sun had come up, its glare exposing the bizarre party as clearly as it did the landscape. 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. Storeby also recalled that Gervase claimed it would be "good for the morale of the squad. You want her gold tooth? Clark called over his shoulder to Rafe, who was then, he testified, a foot away and was staring, aghast, at Mao. It was Manuel, Eriksson told me. Now, watching the chaplain depart, Eriksson decided that Greenacre was very much worth cultivating. The Vietnamese proved to be V.C., for the moment they were aware that they had been seen they fired at the patrol with small arms, then changed their direction and passed temporarily out of sight. 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. down a trail between two hedgerows when the patrol was suddenly fired upon from one side. Thats where she is, he said with certainty. They had known each other since childhood, their fathers having been neighboring farmers, who both had difficulty making ends meet. Eriksson remembers having a deep feeling of ease and calm, as though he were at long last ceasing to be a fugitive from injustice. If there werent any, Eriksson asked himself, why hadnt the C.O. They werent shocked, or anything like that, Eriksson recalls. For Eriksson, the trials were totally unlike anything he had anticipated. Manuel showed no initiative in that regard, Eriksson told me, his attitude toward authority being simple and automatic: he heeded it devoutly. 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. They were cousins named DiazRafael, known as Rafe, whose home was near Amarillo, Texas, and Manuel, who came from a town some distance north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Interested in "Incident On Hill 192 Where Are They Now" find IP Addresses, Websites, IP Tools, Articles, and other useful resources on IPAddress.com. At times, Eriksson displayed a certain poise on the stand. 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. Rafe received a punishment of four years imprisonment, plus a monthly forfeiture of fifty dollars in pay. But, as Eriksson pointed out, he could not give me many such first-hand accounts of V.C. Please dont ask me to explain why they did it. 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. It is going to be yourself. Speaking matter-of-factly, Mrs. Eriksson said, Out in the boonies, where we come from, you get an A if you dont throw erasers.. 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. It was the same sentence he had been serving, but now, having been transformed into a new verdict, it was subject to another review, the effects of which soon worked to Rafes advantage, for in August, 1969, the commanding general at Fort Leavenworth shortened his term to twenty-two months. 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..

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incident on hill 192 where are they now

incident on hill 192 where are they now