Tiger Force
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Bilton, Michael, and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
Fall, Bernard. Street Without Joy. Rev. ed. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole, 1994.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking Press, 1983.
Schell, Jonathan. The Military Half. New York: Knopf, 1968.
Topmiller, Robert J. The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam 1964-1966. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972.
CHAPTER 8
Main Sources
Interviews with numerous Tiger Force members who participated in the Song Ve Valley campaign, including William Carpenter, Barry Bowman, and Ken Kerney. We also interviewed friends and family members of Donald Wood. We talked at length with Vietnamese villagers, including Tam Hau and Bui Quang Truong.
For information about James Hawkins, we drew on an interview with the former Tiger Force platoon leader, as well as with childhood friends. We also interviewed Tiger Force soldiers who served with Hawkins during his stint as platoon commander. In addition, we examined Hawkins’s military personnel records. Other information about Hawkins came from CID records related to the Tiger Force investigation.
For information about the Tiger Force mission in the Song Ve Valley, we depended on extensive Army records and numerous interviews with soldiers. Some of the information was included in the unit history of the 1st Battalion/327th Infantry—documents detailing the battalion’s operations in Quang Ngai province.
For the section about the death of Dao Hue, we drew on numerous conversations with Tiger Force members and witness statements from the Coy Allegation. We also used Army grid maps to track the platoon’s daily movements through the Song Ve Valley.
Army Records
The sworn witness statement of Stephen Naughton on January 17, 1974. The document was Exhibit 123 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following:
QUESTION: Did you accompany Hawkins on any Tiger Force missions either prior or after his assuming the position of commander?
NAUGHTON: No, I did not. I only gave him a briefing and then I departed on 2 July 67, when Hawkins assumed duties as the commander of the Tiger Force platoon.
The sworn witness statement of Leo Heaney on February 13, 1973. The document was Exhibit 25 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following about the death of Dao Hue:
HEANEY: Prior to this incident, we had occupied a small village along the west bank of the Song Ve River. On the evening of the night move, we received a supply of beer and soda in two duffel bags. The beer and soda was consumed by and I recall Hawkins, SSG Trout, the platoon sergeant, and an SSG Miller, who was a medic, getting loud and I believe boisterous, as a result of the beer consumption.
After Tiger Force crossed the river on the night patrol:
HEANEY: About that time, an old Vietnamese male carrying a pole with two baskets over his shoulder bumped into me. He had come down the trail from the direction the firing had come from. I grabbed hold of him. He was terrified and folded his hands and started what appeared to me as praying for mercy in a loud, high-pitched tone of voice. About this time, we also detected movement on the trail further down from the direction this old man came from. I then released the old man to the CP element further up the trail. There the old man continued his screaming, and Trout struck him on the head with the barrel of his M16 rifle. I left him with Trout and returned to my position because I was concerned about the movement we had heard behind the old man. About two minutes later, I heard a couple of rounds fired from the CP location where I had left the old man with Trout. I assumed that the prisoner had been shot because he stopped screaming. I walked back to the CP element and asked somebody there what had happened and someone answered that the old man had tried to escape. I saw the body on the ground and figured that he was dead. I mentioned the fact that he was a harmless old man and Hawkins said something to the effect “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”
The sworn witness statement of Barry Bowman on May 31, 1973. The document was Exhibit 41 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following exchange:
QUESTION: Did Hawkins have any justification to kill that old man?
BOWMAN: No.
The sworn witness statement of Bill Carpenter on January 18, 1973. The document was Exhibit 23 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following about the events leading up to the death of Dao Hue:
CARPENTER: Just after we crossed (waded) the river we came upon a footpath, very near the river. As soon as we got to this path, there was an old Vietnamese farmer about 60 years old. I believe he was carrying two chickens in a wire cage. Lt. Hawkins confronted this Vietnamese and started shaking the old man, yelling at him, telling him he was a son-of-a-bitch and generally cussing him. While Hawkins was talking to this Vietnamese farmer, SSG Trout struck him over the head with the barrel of his M16. I saw the old man fall to the ground and at that time his head was covered with blood. I was standing on Hawkins’s left side by that time. I told Hawkins that the old man was just a farmer and was unarmed, right then Hawkins pushed me away with his left hand saying, “You chicken-shit son-of-a-bitch, if you don’t shut up I’ll shoot you.” With that statement, Hawkins pulled the old man up from where he was kneeling and shot him in the face with a CAR-15 that he (Hawkins) was carrying. The old man fell backwards onto the ground, then Hawkins shot him again.
The sworn witness statement of Tiger Force Sergeant Ervin Lee on January 31, 1973. The document was Exhibit 40 of the Coy Allegation.
The sworn witness statement of Forrest Lee Miller on January 18, 1974. The document was Exhibit 54 of the Coy Allegation. It included the following about the night of Dao Hue’s death:
MILLER: I was at the rear of the element, and as I came up over a small bank, I observed an elderly Vietnamese who was dead and appeared, by the way he was lying, to have been thrown into the bushes.
Earlier that night:
MILLER: We had faced resistance prior to this night in this same area and everyone, including myself, were pretty well uptight. As we moved along the trail, we stopped about 100 meters from where the Vietnamese was, and as I remember, there was a disagreement between Trout and Hawkins, and words were spoken about the dead Vietnamese on the trail. I don’t remember what it was about, but as I remember, there was an unpleasant atmosphere in the air. As I think back, Hawkins was pretty high at the time, we had received beer on the afternoon, and Hawkins got a few beers in him and decided to make a night move.
QUESTION: You mentioned earlier that you felt that Hawkins was high on this patrol. Can you tell me more about this, and why you feel that he was high?
MILLER: This was our first night move. We had never made a night move before. He was acting funny, more brave than he actually was, and we had received beer on that afternoon. We learned later that Hawkins could not hold his beer.
The sworn witness statement of Manuel Sanchez Jr. on January 28, 1974. The document was Exhibit 57 of the Coy Allegation. It included the following about Dao Hue’s execution:
SANCHEZ: As far as I could see he had no weapons and offered no resistance. I looked back, after I passed him back, and I saw a group cluster around him. The old man was making quite a bit of noise at this time. It was dark, so I couldn’t see who was doing what, but about five minutes later, I saw a rifle come up, point at the man’s body, fired, then drop from sight again. Then the old man fell to the ground.
The sworn witness statement of Donald Wood on January 22, 1974. The document was Exhibit 45 of the Coy Allegation.
Books
Schell, Jonathan. The Military Half. New York: Knopf, 1968.
Topmiller, Robert J. The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam 1964-1966. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
CHAPTER 9
Main Sources
We talked at length with numerous Tiger Force soldiers, including Barry Bow
man, William Carpenter, William Doyle, Ken Kerney, and Douglas Teeters. We interviewed Donald Wood’s friends and family members.
For the section about Tiger Force shooting two elderly women as they approached a perimeter, we drew on interviews with platoon members and CID documents related to the Tiger Force investigation.
For the section about Tiger Force members rounding up and executing villagers, we drew on extensive interviews with Dennis Stout, an Army journalist, and others. In an interview, William Doyle refused to comment about Stout’s allegations. “I’m not going to say whether it happened. I’d be an idiot,” Doyle told us. “But if I gave the order to kill those people, it was to keep my men alive. You don’t have to worry about the dead. You know what I mean. Those damn people were farmers by day and VC at night.”
Our account of Sergeant Harold Trout executing a wounded Vietnamese male was based on interviews with Barry Bowman and William Carpenter, along with CID documents related to the Tiger Force case.
Army Records
The sworn witness statement of Donald Wood on January 22, 1974. The document was Exhibit 45 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following about two Vietnamese women shot by Tiger Force soldiers:
WOOD: About two weeks after the first incident, we were in a perimeter on the edge of the same small village west of Duc Pho. A perimeter guard whom I cannot identify saw two persons approaching the village from our front. As I arrived at the edge of the perimeter, Hawkins arrived at the same time and ordered the perimeter guards to open fire. I countered Hawkins’s order, stating that the two individuals were approaching our location directly. Hawkins overruled my order and opened fire himself and was then joined by the guards on that side of the perimeter. Both of the individuals fired on were old women. One was wounded and they were both evacuated to battalion.
The sworn witness statement of Barry Bowman on May 31, 1973. The document was Exhibit 41 of the Coy Allegation.
The sworn witness statement of William Carpenter on January 18, 1973. The document was Exhibit 23 of the Coy Allegation. It included the following:
CARPENTER: I had just fallen asleep when I heard several shots. I woke up and could hear someone calling for a medic, a Vietnamese civilian male had approached the village where we were and some of the positions fired at him. The man was wounded in the leg and needed help. Just after someone yelled for a medic, Sgt. Trout hollered that he would administer first aid. Trout took Bowman’s .45 pistol and walked about 50 feet to the wounded Vietnamese and shot him twice in the chest and once in the head. Trout then drug [sic] the dead man to a fairly large hole in the ground a few feet away and rolled the dead Vietnamese into it.
Books
Bilton, Michael, and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
Schell, Jonathan. The Military Half. New York: Knopf, 1968.
The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972.
CHAPTER 10
Main Sources
We talked at length with numerous Vietnamese who refused to go to Nghia Hanh. We conducted extensive interviews with Tiger Force members, including William Carpenter, Barry Bowman, and Ken Kerney, about the Song Ve campaign in late July 1967. We interviewed friends and family members of both Manuel Sanchez Jr. and Donald Wood. We also obtained maps Wood saved from his tour of duty.
For the section about the attacks on Tiger Force in the Song Ve Valley, including the death of Sergeant Domingo Munoz, we relied on extensive interviews with platoon members. We also drew on Army documents, including the unit history of the 1st Battalion/327th Infantry and radio logs—documents showing Tiger Force’s daily movements in the Song Ve.
For the section about Lieutenant James Hawkins’s leadership, we drew on extensive interviews with Tiger Force members. Most of the soldiers claimed Hawkins constantly led them into dangerous situations because of his inability to read Army grid maps.
Our account of the death of the two visually impaired men in the Song Ve and the execution of two brothers by unknown Tiger Force members was based on lengthy interviews with platoon members and CID documents related to the Tiger Force investigation.
For the section on Tiger Force members discussing atrocities, we drew on numerous interviews with platoon members who served in the Song Ve. Many told us there was a point where soldiers openly began talking—and even joking—about killing prisoners and civilians. During the CID investigation—which took place between 1971 and 1975—agents substantiated several of the war crimes mentioned in the chapter. They included Terrence Kerrigan following Trout’s order to execute a prisoner, Green torturing and stabbing a prisoner with a knife, and Sergeant Robin Varney killing a detainee after he lost a bet with a fellow Tiger about knocking the man out with one punch.
Army Records
First Battalion/327th Infantry radio logs, which show Tiger Force’s daily movements in the Song Ve Valley. The unit had to radio battalion headquarters after contact with enemy soldiers. The logs also showed the platoon’s location—known as “grid coordinates”—at the time of contact. The radio log on the day Sergeant Domingo Munoz died contained the following: “At BS704568 Tiger Force was probed by 5 VC resulting in 4 VC KIA, fired M-79 rounds, resulting in US KIA and 2 US WIA.”
The unit history of the 1st Battalion/327th Infantry contained information about the battalion’s mission and contact with the enemy. The following was related to Munoz’s death: “The following night the Tiger position was probed. This time, the Force retaliated with swift and deadly accuracy. Of the 5 VC probing the position, 4 were killed and 2 M-1 carbines and 1 MAT-49 were captured.”
The sworn witness statement of Tiger Force medic Forrest Miller on January 18, 1974. The document was Exhibit 54 of the Coy Allegation. It included the following:
MILLER: Early that same morning, a young boy about 12 years old was found in the area, leading his two blind brothers around by the hand. The two blind boys were killed, and the boy was dusted off in a helicopter to the rear. I did not see who killed the two blind boys, but I did see the helicopter leave with only the young boy on it.
QUESTION: Do you know who killed the two blind boys?
MILLER: I do not know who did the actual shooting, but the order would have come from Hawkins or Doyle.
QUESTION: Do you feel that these personnel were doing anything that would have warranted their death rather than their removal to a rear area?
MILLER: Other than the fact that they were there, no.
The sworn statement of Manuel Sanchez Jr. on January 28, 1974. The document was Exhibit 57 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following:
SANCHEZ: We saw two Vietnamese males running across a rice paddy, away from us. We yelled for them to stop, but they didn’t. So I told our people not to fire and we started chasing them. There were several of us that chased them down and caught them. We brought them back to this knoll where we had stopped and turned them over to our Vietnamese interpreter. The prisoners were a man about 25 years old and a boy about 13-14. They both had regular village dress on.
Sanchez said he called battalion headquarters about the prisoners:
SANCHEZ: The response came back: “What do you do with a horse with a broken leg?” I didn’t actually hear the transmission but a few minutes after the interpreter was done, someone, I don’t know who, came over to me and, in a joking manner, told me about the transmission that was received. Also, this same individual told me that this same Lt. or Capt. I mentioned earlier had told him and someone else to take the prisoners down the hill and take care of them. I went with the guy and several others down the hill, with the prisoners, and after we got to the bottom, the prisoners were stood side by side. Then, two of the guys shot the prisoners with their M16s. At the time of the shooting, the prisoners were not tied and the men who did the shooting were about five or six feet away from them. I then turned around and walked back up the hill.
QUESTION: Would you describe the terra
in where this took place?
SANCHEZ: I believe this was the Song Ve Valley. It’s the valley where everything happened to us.
Books
Bilton, Michael, and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.
The Pentagon Papers. New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
Schell, Jonathan. The Military Half. New York: Knopf, 1968.
The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972.
CHAPTER 11
Main Sources
We interviewed Lu Thuan; Nyugen Dam; Kieu Trak and his wife, Mai Thi Tai; and dozens of villagers who lived in the Song Ve Valley during the summer of 1967. We talked at length with numerous Tiger Force members, including William Carpenter, Barry Bowman, Ken Kerney, and Douglas Teeters.
For the section about the shooting of the farmers, we drew on extensive interviews with numerous Tiger Force members and Vietnamese witnesses, and CID documents from the Tiger Force case. Kieu Trak said soldiers opened fire without warning. Tiger Force members told us they were frustrated and “out for revenge” after weeks of being hit by snipers in the Song Ve Valley.
Army Records
The sworn witness statement of Tiger Force medic Forrest Miller on January 18, 1974. The document was Exhibit 54 of the Coy Allegation. It included the following:
QUESTION: In June/July 1967, do you remember entering a hamlet where several Vietnamese working in a field were shot just outside the hamlet?
MILLER: Yes, this was near Duc Pho to the west, in the Song Ve Valley. We had received no incoming fire from the village, and the people in the field, about 10 persons both male and female, were shot. We never went out to the field to see if they were armed. Also killed were several water buffalo. I remember this well because we were held over in that area an extra week and the odor was unbearable.
QUESTION: Who gave the order to shoot the people in the field?
MILLER: It would have been either Hawkins or Trout who initiated the order, but the persons were shot by mutual agreement of the element.
The sworn witness statement of William Carpenter on January 18, 1973. The document was Exhibit 23 of the Coy Allegation. It contained the following: