Eriksson tries to rescue the girl, but the squad . To Erikssons surprise, the trial, which occurred in June, 1969, resulted in Rafes second conviction, an inevitable finding, in view of the fact that Rafe pleaded guilty to the charge of unpremeditated murder. 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. He himself, he imagines, must have looked glum. Listening to the fellows, I had the feeling there might be any number of Meserves and Clarks around me, he said. Q: Did he endeavor to actively join in with the free-time activity of the rest of the people, or did he have to be coaxed. All of us had come back scared and upset, but Clark, I thought, showed it the most. Once Clark had left them, Eriksson continued with his story, feeling an immense relief when he had finished telling it. Three Vietnamese were spotted walking along the edge of the water, and though they wore no uniforms, Meserve assumed they were V.C., and he and his men, including Eriksson, opened fire on them. Flying back to Carson, I thought to myself, So Manuels out. Unless Eriksson went along with the others, Meserve warned, he would run the risk of being reported a friendly casualty. Clark seconded this vociferously, and both Diazes concentrated puzzled stares on the difficult member of the patrol. He was at his wits end for a way to circumvent the system, Eriksson told me, because he was convinced that it was this system that lay at the heart of his difficulties. I mean, if I let you go, do you think you can make it home? I wish Mao and I could have talked, Eriksson said, his voice tightening. 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 . Q : You feel that the government has done you a grave injustice in bringing you here today for trial? Eriksson replied that he wouldnt mind a changenot that it would deter him from pressing charges. The girl was very much with us when Sven came home that day, and maybe she always will be, Mrs. Eriksson said. Asked why, he answered, O.K., lets say you are on a patrol. whose ammunition pouch, girding his midriff, had exploded as the result of a hit. The five men and Mao kept up a steady pace. Q: You would suggest some minor form of punishment, in other words? I heard that argument over and over again, and I could never buy it. 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. 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. Twenty minutes later, they knew what it was. Its obey the man over you, follow the chain of command, or into the stockade you go. Something that added to his feeling of frustration in those trying weeks was that he could not find it within himself to single out Vorst as the arch-villain, from whom all evil flowed. Asked by the prosecutor why he thought Eriksson had stayed out of the hootch, Manuel answered, Eriksson was different. 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. Based on the notorious Hill 192 Incident during the Vietnam War in 1966, De Palma's Casualties of War takes on a much more serious and difficult subject than any of his other efforts and as far as I can tell seems to be his most mature work to date. After half an hour, their watch on the stream paid off, producing a more interesting sight than Rafes water buffalo. . The pro-forma proceedings at Leavenworth took two days, at the conclusion of which the jury came in with a verdict of acquittal. 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. The film stars Michael J. Both refused, Eriksson said. Going about their tasks with unrelieved efficiency, the men staked out an area thirty feet square in which to conduct their operations, soon gathering a harvest of clues, among them lead fragments of spent bullets, for the ballistics and firearms men, and parts of Maos remains, for the pathologists. Of course, I was a foot soldier all this time. 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? They were alone this time, Eriksson told me, and when Eriksson inquired what progress there had been in the murder case, the Captain seemed not to hear but posed a series of questions. I knew the rendezvous spot, and if Mao and I could show up there at the right time, there was no question in my mind but that the fellows in the resupply squad would help us both. Using the upper one as a vantage point, they spied the small band of V.C. bus that collected G.I.s who had fallen on hard times in Sin City, a section of bars and bordellos in An Khe, two miles away. 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. Conscience was one thing that crossed over from civilian life to war, he said. 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. Whatever I could do about her depended on finding someone with both the rank and the conscience to help me, he told me. I couldnt tell whether it was Charlie or the girl, Rafe testified. I listened to Svens story with a cops ear, the chaplain said. Sitting by himself on a sofa, Eriksson smiled somewhat ruefully, a deep dimple forming in one cheek. Naturally, Erikssons experiences in Vietnam were varied, and many of them impressed themselves vividly on his mind. 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. A small, pretty blonde with an alert, intelligent manner, she offered me coffee and cake the instant I set foot in the apartment. 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. These varying decisions, it seemed, were attributable to a variety of factors, among them considerations of the defendants character and background. Their testimony indicates that they were so inured to the epidemic, occupational violence of war that they found it hard to recognize their judicial plight as a type of retribution. about Mao, and three times he used itIll handle everything, Ill handle everything, Ill handle everything. Maybe he did, but not in a way that had anything to do with anyones making amends. At his meeting with Vorst the day of the Captains return, he went on, he noticed thatlike Reilly, who was presentthe company commander failed to deplore the murder, and instead stressed its potentialities as a scandal. As he was leaving, he told me, the Captain called out reassuringly, Ill handle everything!, When Eriksson heard nothing from Vorst for four days, he sought an interview, which was granted. A: No, sir, Ive got nothing against the government. The two sisters looked at each other. 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. or did he just refuse at all times? Meserve was now an ally, he and his second-in-command apparently having arrived at a meeting of minds while the others were filling the patrols canteens. 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. In 1966 in Vietnam, a squad of five American soldiers, lead by Sgt. 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. Besides, what if the four were court-martialled and found guilty? Invariably, Eriksson said, he found himself reproved for the deed. Storeby also recalled that Gervase claimed it would be "good for the morale of the squad. . . The weather had turned hot and dry, Eriksson remembers, and the interior of the courtroom throbbed with the whirr of electric fans. Speaking evenly, Eriksson said, They were among the onesamong the fewwho did what everyone around them wanted to do. Nor was he himself free of blame, he went on, without pausingonce again referring to the limitations within himself that he had glimpsed in Asia. The lawyers were playing a game, he said. A good nights rest might do wonders for Maos health, he pointed out, in which case he, for one, wouldnt mind revisiting her in the morning. Just as the prosecutor had foreseen, the defense attorneys did try to make Eriksson look odd, but that was among the milder of their insinuations. 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. But, as Eriksson pointed out, he could not give me many such first-hand accounts of V.C. [10] At the trial of Thomas, who committed the actual stabbing and shooting, the prosecutor asked the jury to impose a death sentence. The structure was in a state of extreme disrepair, and had a number of large holes in its mud walls. Only Manuel would remain anywhere near Eriksson; he was being reassigned to a different squad in the same platoon. Plot Of those who were asked the question, only Captain Vorst, lifer though he was, stated that if Meserve was guilty of rape and murder, then he did not care to have the Sergeant in his command. The later actions of the convicted including murder of us naval serving enlisted members from the Saratoga in 92, don't assuage their guilt. In court, Rafe said that he found Mao naked, lying on the table, her hands bound behind her back. Besides, she was in no condition to reach home or anywhere else. Clark, who was several metres in front of Rafe, yelled back to him that it was the girl. You traded the girls life for your well-being, he was told. He said it would be good for the morale of the squad.. They scare that discipline into you in basic training, Eriksson told me. You never knew whose turn it was to die, and that isnt how it was in rear areas. 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. Incident on Hill 192 View source 19 November 1967. 1970. It could keep them from believing that life was so valuableanyones life, I mean, even their own. It was adduced that even before Meserve left for Vietnam he was regarded as an exemplary soldier, since he had been selected to march in President Johnsons inaugural paradean honor limited to two hundred men with unblemished records. Q : Well, you feel you are not involved in any way? 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. A: I wrote my senator. It would be open for a while, and then thered be sections so thick with thorny vines tearing at our clothes that we couldnt see each other, even though we were spaced no farther apart than you and I are, right here in this room. Around eight oclock, Meserve permitted his squad a half hours break for chow. We made up something to get him to go away, Eriksson told me. Then he proceeded to tell us that if anything happened to Eriksson, our souls would belong to him. Possibly to help them retain their souls, Vorst announced that he was breaking up the patrol. Thinking like thatwell, as I say, it could change some fellows. 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.
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