Wed had to support each other in a new way after she was killed. 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. It was the way I felt, he said. A: Well, yes, sir, I think if someone has been found guilty of murder, they should be punished, but, knowing Meserve as an individual, I would accept him back in the unit, yes, sir. 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. When he stopped asking me questions, he started talking about Meserve and the others, sort of thinking aloud what it was that came over fellows in wartime. Asked why, he answered, O.K., lets say you are on a patrol. ? an Oklahoma rifleman asked one night as he and Eriksson were settling down to sleep in their foxholes. I was afraid of being ridiculed, sir, he told the prosecutor. 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. entered the caves, he said, the patrol had long ago left the vicinity of the curiously shaped rock formation, and had descended so deep into the valley that the men were practically able to touch the thick, rough outer walls of the caves. The only thing these women had to do on their way to the stream was breathe pure mountain air.. Meserve said nothing to Rafe; nor did he say anything to any of the others when, as the mission unfolded, they committed similar derelictions. Theyd say there had never been a girl with the patrol, and Id be left looking crazy., Shifting uneasily on the sofa, Eriksson went on, When I stepped back into the hootch, I saw that Mao had made up her mind that I wasnt going to harm her. She had stopped whimpering, and there was even a little look of trust in her eyes. 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. At times, Eriksson displayed a certain poise on the stand. She might have helped me know what to do, instead of my having to figure it out aloneit was her life that was at stake. [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. Erikssons patrol leader delivered a tongue-lashing to his counterpart, who apologized. She was real goodpretty clean, he said. 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. 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. 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. It happened when the Sergeant, having delivered his instructions, concluded the briefing by telling the assembled men that they were going to have a good time on the mission, because he was going to see to it that they found themselves a girl and took her along for the morale of the squad. For five days, the Sergeant said, they would avail themselves of her body, finally disposing of it, to keep the girl from ever accusing them of abduction and rapeboth listed as capital crimes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. (Asked by a C.I.D. When Eriksson was able to state that he had put in for door gunner aboard helicopters, which could hardly be considered safe duty, the lawyer persisted in reminding him that you testified you wanted to get out of the platoon., Eriksson agreed. Addeddate 2021-04-03 19:38:39 Identifier turner_video_1757 Scanner Internet Archive Python library 2.0.0.dev3 Thomas took Mao into a brushy area, and although he stabbed her three times with his hunting knife, he failed to kill her. . 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 fought well that day. He might turn out to be dumb or brave or to have a wonderful stock of jokes. He is a short man of fair complexion, blond and blue-eyed, and he is not voluble. 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. And then there was Vorsts invitation to Eriksson to transfer out of the company. 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. He was uncertain how he would act with her, he said, even though, oddly, he felt he knew her well; her cries, he said, had thrown him into a turmoil he had never before experienced. After several minutes, the moan turned to a steady sobbing, and this did not cease until, after a half hour, Meserve reappeared in the open. On November 22nd, Meserve, Clark, and Manuel, weary from their five-day stint (Rafe was still hospitalized), had scarcely dropped into their foxholes back in the platoon area when they were ordered to appear at Captain Vorsts command posta hootch somewhat larger than Reillys but equally bare. That occurred in February, 1968, when Manuel was granted a retrial on the ground that although his C.I.D. A: Well, in general, sir, [but] in this specific case. I had a feeling she had been injured in some waynot that I could tell. 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. This was true of many farmers in the area, Mrs. Eriksson told me, adding that most of its inhabitants were of Scandinavian background. 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. 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 much a part of us as our legs and arms.. The mother, Eriksson told me, was waving a scarf and laboriously propelling herself forward. That was how my hunch went, and I didnt dare change it in any way. Eriksson moved cautiously. the bunker in the hootch. . Then, of course, after rehabilitationI think theres a difference, sir. The Vietcong, Loc said, had abducted her, accusing her of having led South Vietnamese forces to a V.C. A few rare films stun the senses. . The land was very changeable. When Eriksson reaffirmed that he was, Kirk picked up his phone and called the Criminal Investigation Division office at Camp Radcliff. His persistence in reporting the crime to higher authorities eventually resulted in general courts-martial against his four fellow squad mates. The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman,[1] on November 19, 1966[2] by an American squad during the Vietnam War. He had no impulse to talk about Maocertainly not with his fellow-policemen. Q: As a matter of fact, you have complained [from the stockade] that your promotion is being held up? He told me that beatings were commonrandom, routine kicks and cuffings that he saw G.I.s administer to the Vietnamese. Incident on Hill 192 - Wikipedia. Meserve, he noticed, paid scarcely any attention to her. . A: Better to go into the hootch, sir, and keep contentment in the squad, and keep a betterwell, how can I explain it?keep the thing running smooth. He didnt laugh and joke as much as the other guys did; he was much quieter, the sergeant said. Can you add one ? I needed more of an impression of Boyd than I had, Eriksson said. 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. Eriksson never exchanged a word with her; neither spoke the others language. 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. Pretty soon, youre going to be an outcast from the platoon. But here was this Marine, who had put in much more combat service than Meserve or Clark or anyone else Id met, and he felt exactly as I did about the crime., Eriksson now fell into one of his silences, and I imagined he was contemplating the mystery of human character. now had to do with law enforcement, for he was reassigned to the 545th Military Police Company at Camp Radcliff, in which outfit he guarded high-ranking officers, pulled gate duty, made periodic sweeps of the base area for signs of infiltrating V.C., and, every day at 4 P.M., climbed into the drunk wagon, which was an M.P. After the others fell in behind him, he walked silently to the second rock, seventy-five metres away. Yes or no? whose ammunition pouch, girding his midriff, had exploded as the result of a hit. And it had to be Boyd Greenacre who would introduce me. [1] He felt that way, he explained, because out in the field, in territory that could turn hostile at any moment, the men in the patrol would be very much on their own, and this would be so even if a high-ranking officer were in charge. Their eyes were terrified, Eriksson remembers. Manuel showed no initiative in that regard, Eriksson told me, his attitude toward authority being simple and automatic: he heeded it devoutly. 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. 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. 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. Meserve, however, counselled patience. 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. Just as long as he stayed in line, just as long as he kept the setup going, he could do whatever he wanted., Perhaps the most jarring of all the discoveries he made during this unhappy period, Eriksson told me, was that his fellow-G.I.s took a dim view of his efforts in behalf of Mao. If it didnt, then coming back from that patrol meant nothing., Recalling her husbands arrival, Mrs. Eriksson said that when she went out to the airport to meet him, she could tell at once that there was a stronger kindness in him than when he had left. 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. Clark could knife the girl from the front, the Sergeant said, while he bayoneted her from behind; the body would then be tossed over a cliff from the summit of Hill 192, where the patrol had reconnoitred the previous day.
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