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. Given this confusion of values, the legalistic consideration of Maos death sometimes bordered on the incongruous. Throughout each trial, Eriksson said, the exponents of military law strove diligently to apply judicial rules largely borrowed from civilian law, as though they were seeking to re-create a semblance of civilian life. As it happened, the Captain heard about it from a second source as wellfrom Eriksson himself. Incident On Hill 192 - amazon.com But he was very tolerant about it. The prosecutor, it appeared, counted it a safe bet that the defense attorneys would attempt to portray Eriksson as some kind of repressed nut for having failed to join in the festivities on Hill 192. That had to have some purpose. [1] [8] After finding Phan Thi Mao (21), they bound her wrists with rope, gagged her, and took her on the mission. And wasnt it just possible that the victim might not necessarily be Eriksson himself but, rather, his new bride? 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. Thomas caught her and shot her in the head with his M16 rifle. He had stopped the shooting as soon as he heard an American voice yell Hit it! Still fuming as the two patrols stood facing each other awkwardly, Erikssons sergeant declared that in all the time he had spent in Vietnam he had never before experienced any such mistake. As Eriksson waited for his sergeant to cool off, he idly scanned the men in the other squad, his eyes stopping abruptly when they met the expressionless gaze of a familiar face. It repeated itself in waves, broken only, Eriksson assumed, by Maos need to summon fresh breath. 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: Why did you want other members of the squad to think you were a rapist? De Palma handles this unsettling & disturbing fare with ruthlessness, making it an experience to remember. Besides, what if the four were court-martialled and found guilty? 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. Recurrently, the court records show, witnesses found it deplorable that the defendants should have to fight for their survival in a prisoners dock when they might be far better employed doing that on the battlefield; in their every utterance these witnesses reflected the view that losing soldiers of Meserves calibre could result only in gaining a stronger enemy. A: Well, in general, sir, [but] in this specific case. At the time the fifth V.C. 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. Returning to the patrols briefing, Eriksson told me that Meserve was all business as he plunged into his talk. At Rafes court-martial, it was disclosed that for several days the two patients in the hospital ward seemingly talked about whatever came into their heads but that Rafe never mentioned Mao. The 1966 incident at hill 192, and the courage shown by p f c storeby is not in doubt. Casualties of War is based on Daniel Lang's news report on the Incident on Hill 192 in 1966 during the Vietnam War. agent, poking through leaves with a bayonet, found teeth, finger bones, and yet more bullet fragments, all of which he deposited in a plastic bag. 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. Greenacre was present throughout the talk, at Erikssons insistence. 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 where are they now. [9], Thomas, Cipriano Garcia, and Joseph Garcia were each convicted of unpremeditated murder in March and April 1967. From the minute I got to Radcliff, I was on the lookout for him, whoever he might turn out to be, Eriksson said. Below was a valley with a winding stream, and along its banks were paddy fields with neat little dikes around them. The idea that came most easily to his mind was to continue in police work, in which he had been engaged since his days at Camp Radcliff, but on applying to the State Highway Patrol for a post as motorcycle cop he discovered that this was impracticable. In April, Eriksson received his honorable discharge from the Army, and in April, too, he heard of further judicial developments. Agreeing, the Lieutenant said that he would order another squad, operating at the base of the mountain, to cordinate its movements with those of Meserves patrol, and that he would also dispatch two other squads to the area. Its time for some fun, he said. "Casualties of War" is Brian De Palma's entry into the Vietnam War movies competition. Category. 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. . We made up something to get him to go away, Eriksson told me. Everything around him, he said, impressed him as pointless and aridhis fellow-workers, the monotony of clock punching, and even, at times, his beloved carpentry. When he spoke, however, it was about his friendship with the Marine. 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. It could keep them from believing that life was so valuableanyones life, I mean, even their own. agents, lawyers, and ballistics and firearms specialists. But the Sergeant did nothing about the escaping V.C., for he was now powerfully distracted from the enemy; in the distance, still inaudible and looking miniaturized, were four approaching gunships. In the Army, he had discovered, that kind of action depended entirely on the discretion of ones superiorunless it was possible to figure out some way of bypassing him. It had built up sharply. In court, Rafe said that he found Mao naked, lying on the table, her hands bound behind her back. It was based on an actual incident known as "the incident on Hill 192" which occurred in 1966. We just looked at each other, without saying hello. Actually, Eriksson told me, he had once asked Reilly for permission to discuss Maos murder with a chaplain, but the Lieutenant had discouraged the idea. These were always demanding and hazardous, yet they could not distract him from the intense feeling of frustration that now beset him. Eriksson had considered the jutting and twisted rock a highly unusual one, but now, refamiliarizing himself with his surroundings, he saw, to his surprise, that it had a practically identical twin close by. who was murdered, but how could I do it for a Vietnamese? Incident Hill 192 by Daniel Lang - AbeBooks And then there was Vorsts invitation to Eriksson to transfer out of the company. He does remember, though, that she had a prominent gold tooth, and that her eyes, which were dark brown, could be particularly expressive. As a result, Eriksson left Colorado for Fort Leavenworth, where Manuel, serving his time in the Disciplinary Barracks, was to be retried. As far as he knew, he said, no legal developments were brewing in their behalfnot that it made much difference, he added, since he had learned just a few weeks earlier that Meserve and Clark stood to be declared eligible for parole before they had served even half their time at Fort Leavenworth. He was shirtless; his face wore an expression of swaggering irresistibility. Based on the actual events of the incident on Hill 192 in 1966 during the Vietnam War, 'Casualties of War', directed by legendary filmmaker Brian De Palma, is An Effective Film, that talks about Human-Cruelty & Violence. "Jesus, we're supposed to be here to help these people!" Meserve said nothing to Rafe; nor did he say anything to any of the others when, as the mission unfolded, they committed similar derelictions. 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. And, in practice, neither Manuel nor any of the other defendants (nor Eriksson, for that matter) paid a cent for legal services. . munitions cache on Hill 192. That occurred in February, 1968, when Manuel was granted a retrial on the ground that although his C.I.D. Eriksson replied that he wouldnt mind a changenot that it would deter him from pressing charges. She had her black pajamas on. 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. Storeby also recalled that Gervase claimed it would be "good for the morale of the squad. All soldiers (excluding Storeby) were dishonorably discharged from the Army. Its a part of the country where we pride ourselves on not being demonstrative, she said. In the late spring, for instance, he learned that a change of sentence might be in the making for Clark, whose lawyer, it appeared, had asked the jurors who convicted him to approve a petition urging clemency; all but two of them had agreed, and Eriksson was given to understand that this augured an almost certain reduction in sentence. He sounded as though the war would have to come to an end before his work could make much sense.. Rafes case, I learned, had taken a fresh turn in recent weeks. Grinning, Manuel approached Eriksson, stuck out his hand, and said, No hard feelings. Before Eriksson could say anything, Manuel turned and left the courtroom, a free man. Under cross-examination at his court-martial concerning this disregard of his commanding officers instructions, the Sergeant stated, Sir, most of the time everybody agrees with his C.O.

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