“I plead not guilty to the charge and not guilty to the specification, Your Honor,” the Lieutenant said without hesitation.
The judge nodded, and Lieutenant Blue and Captain Morriss took their seats.
“The prosecution and the defense may now make opening statements,” said the judge. “Whether they choose to make statements or not, no conclusions will be drawn from their choice. Is that clear?”
The members of the court nodded in unison.
“Does the prosecution have an opening statement?”
“We do, Your Honor,” said Dupuy, rising with a sheaf of papers in hand. He approached the lectern and spread the papers on its tilted surface.
“This ought to be good,” Morriss whispered to the Lieutenant.
“Gentlemen, the charges in this court-martial are indeed profound, but the facts of the case are not.” Dupuy faced the seven officers of the court and spoke slowly, seeming to choose his words one by one.
“They are very simple facts because what the defendant did was very simple. He was given a direct order to engage the enemy, to place fire on an enemy position, in this case with the four-point-two mortars of his weapons platoon, and he refused this order, thus deserting the field of battle in the face of the enemy. The prosecution will present witnesses testifying to these facts as I have briefly outlined them to you. When the prosecution is finished, these profound charges against this Lieutenant in the United States Army will be proven without a shadow of doubt. Of this you can be sure.”
Dupuy gathered his papers and sat down.
“Is that all?” the Lieutenant whispered.
“I guess so,” Morriss whispered back.
“Then why did he bring all those papers with him to the lectern?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. He wanted some company up there. Who knows?”
“Does the defense have an opening statement?” the judge asked.
Captain Morriss stood.
“The defense will reserve its opening statement until it begins to present its case, Your Honor.”
“The prosecution may call its first witness,” said the judge.
Dupuy stood up.
“The prosecution calls Lieutenant Colonel Henson W. Halleck.”
The MP opened the door behind the judge, and Lieutenant Colonel Halleck entered and took the witness chair.
“The witness will be sworn,” said Colonel Kelly.
Dupuy swore him in and stood at the lectern, facing the witness. The surface of the lectern was covered with three-by-five cards, and more of them were banded together with a rubber band and held in Dupuy's left hand.
“State your name please, sir.”
“Henson W. Halleck.”
“And your rank and the rest, please, sir,” said Dupuy, glancing at the lectern.
“Henson W. Halleck, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army, Infantry, 25th Division, Second of the 22nd.”
“Do you know the accused?”
“Yes. I'm the man who brought the charge against him.”
“How long have you known the accused?”
“Let me see . . . for two months at Fort Benning, and for approximately a month here. Three months.”
“You served with the accused at Fort Benning?” Dupuy seemed unprepared for this news.
“I taught him tactics. He was my student.”
“So you had knowledge of the accused before taking command of the Second of the 22nd.”
“Yes, I did.”
“What kind of student did you find him?”
“Your Honor, I object,” said Captain Morriss, rising from his chair. “This line of questioning is going nowhere fast. Let's get on with the facts of the case.”
“Where are you going with this line of questioning?” the judge asked Dupuy.
“Your Honor, I'm simply establishing Lieutenant Colonel Halleck's familiarity with—”
“Colonel Halleck does not have to have been familiar with the defendant previously in order to have knowledge of the facts of the case. I'll uphold the objection. Ask your next question.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Halleck, where were you on the night of October 13, 1969?”
“I was in command of my Battalion, the Triple Deuce.”
“By the Triple Deuce, you mean the Second of the 22nd.”
“Yes.”
“And where was the Battalion located on that night?”
“The Battalion was making a sweep of enemy territory in the vicinity of Dak Sut in II Corps. We were the strike Battalion on Operation Iron Fist One.”
“The Battalion was engaged in combat, in other words.”
“When you're making a sweep, you're engaged in combat. The answer is yes.”
“And how long had the Battalion been on the sweep, sir?”
“October 13 was the second night of Iron Fist One.”
“Two days, then.”
“Two days. Yes.”
“And during the course of the first day of the sweep, did you have occasion to personally issue any orders to Lieutenant Blue?”
“Not the first day, no,” said Lieutenant Colonel Halleck. He paused to take a sip of water from a glass on the table next to him.
“Hey, what's going on here?” the Lieutenant whispered to Captain Morriss. “I thought he'd call some other witnesses before Halleck. Captain Gardner, maybe. The XO. Somebody who was standing there in his bunker when he was talking to me on the radio.”
“Dupuy is pretty confident he's got you cold,” Morriss whispered back. “He's not wasting any time. He's going with his number-one boy. He's going right for the jugular.”
“I'll say he is.”
“Correction,” Lieutenant Colonel Halleck continued. “I issued orders through his company commander, Captain Gardner, that would have involved Lieutenant Blue.”
“So you issued no direct orders personally the first day. Did you issue any direct orders the second day?”
“Not during the day, no.”
“But you issued orders to Captain Gardner that would have been passed on to Lieutenant Blue?”
“Yes. The second day of Iron Fist One was just like the first.”
“I'll fucking say it was,” whispered the Lieutenant to Captain Morriss. He shushed the Lieutenant under his breath.
“When did you issue your first direct order to Lieutenant Blue, Colonel?”
“When I gave him the order he refused.”
“So the first verbal order you issued to this Lieutenant on that combat mission was the order he is charged with having refused, thus deserting his mission in the face of the enemy?”
“Yes. The first order. He disobeyed the first order I gave him and deserted the field of battle.”
“Have many of the orders you have issued in combat have been disobeyed, Lieutenant Colonel Halleck?”
“None.”
“Other than by Lieutenant Blue?”
“Other than by Lieutenant Blue.”
“To the best of your knowledge, has anyone else under your command deserted his mission in the face of the enemy?”
“No. No one.”
“Objection,” said Morriss in a loud voice.
“What could he possibly object to, Your Honor?” asked the prosecutor.
“We're here to try Lieutenant Blue, not to hear about Lieutenant Colonel Halleck's illustrious career of giving orders to others.”
“I am simply trying to establish the Colonel's experience as a battalion commander, Your Honor.”
“A little less sarcasm from you, Captain Morriss. And a little more attention to facts bearing directly on this case from you, Captain Dupuy.” The judge squinted over his spectacles at both men.
“Yes, sir,” said Morriss. He sat down.
“Yes, sir,” said Dupuy, glancing at the three-by-five cards on the lectern. He unwrapped the rubber band around the cards in his hand and shuffled through them. Then he looked up at the witness.
“Lieutenant Colonel Halleck, I want you
to set the stage for the events which transpired on the night of October 13 of this year. I want you to tell the court the nature of your mission in conducting the sweep known as Iron Fist One.”
“Intelligence had made the division aware of a large enemy force operating to the west of us as a screen for shipments down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. An NVA Battalion—reinforced—was suspected to be in the area. Our mission was to sweep the area, to find and engage the enemy unit if possible. If that was not possible, our mission was to deny him access to the territory in which he had been operating pretty much with impunity. Our mission was considered vital to the United States mission in Vietnam, in that shipments down the Ho Chi Minh Trail had picked up in recent months, and another offensive of the Tet Offensive variety was suspected to be in the offing.”
“Thus, when your unit engaged in such a sweep of this territory, its mission was not merely protective of itself or of its parent unit, but in fact protective of our nation's overall objective in Vietnam. Was that the case, Lieutenant Colonel Halleck?”
“Yes, that was the case. I personally considered Operation Iron Fist One the most important mission I had ever had the privilege to be associated with.”
“Would you say that the morale of the men in undertaking this mission was good?”
“The men's morale was excellent. The Triple Deuce is known as a Communist-hating bunch of street fighters, and we were ready to take the fight to the enemy's streets.”
“Oh, Jesus,” muttered the Lieutenant, looking down at the table.
Captain Morriss touched his hand and he shut up.
“Lieutenant Colonel Halleck, tell us the circumstances that preceded the order you issued to Lieutenant Blue.”
“The Triple Deuce was well established in a night defensive perimeter west of Dak Sut, directly in the middle of the enemy area of operation. This was our second night in the perimeter, and the enemy had had time to pinpoint our location and we were beginning to experience some enemy feelers.”
“Feelers?”
“The enemy was testing our resolve, Captain Dupuy. The enemy was hitting us and pulling back, hitting us and pulling back. It is a common enemy tactic, one they use to test our readiness and to discourage us from further operations and to lower morale among the troops. I was determined that the enemy's goals not be realized. I was determined that these enemy feelers would be repelled with great dispatch, in order to discourage him from mounting a larger strike against our NDP.”
“How would you characterize these enemy ... er ... feelers, sir?”
“Very disciplined. Very determined. Well planned. Well executed. I took them very seriously.”
“And what combat intensity would you say the enemy employed, sir?”
“They were hitting us with several small units, with everything those units had. We were hitting them back, of course, but they were employing a typical enemy pattern. Hit. Move. Hit again. Move again. Hit harder. Move. Hit harder still.”
“Were you concerned for the safety of your Battalion, sir?”
“Not for its overall safety, no sir. We were well established, expertly dug in. There was nothing on God's green earth that could have dislodged us from that NDP. Nothing human, that is.”
A few titters could be heard at the back of the room, and the judge gaveled them down and gave the offenders a stern look over his spectacles.
“You were determined, at any rate, to deal the enemy a punishing blow for this hit-and-run behavior, were you not, Lieutenant Colonel Halleck?”
“Yes, I was.”
“And in order to deal the enemy this crushing blow, you decided to employ the firepower of Lieutenant Blue's weapons platoon.”
“Yes, I did.”
“You had employed the weapons platoon in combat previous to October 13, is that not correct, sir?”
“Yes, I had.”
“And so when you gave Captain Gardner an order to contact his weapons platoon and direct fire on the enemy, you expected that fire to be forthcoming immediately, did you not, sir?”
“I did.”
“And what happened?”
“Captain Gardner reported to me that Lieutenant Blue was refusing to fire his weapons as ordered.”
“And what did you do?”
“I got on the radio and ordered Lieutenant Blue to fire his weapons on the target specified, and he refused.”
“He refused several times, did he not?”
“Several times.”
“And the last time he refused he implied that if you wanted fire from his mortars you would have to come to his platoon and fire them yourself?”
“He didn't imply it. He said it to me directly. I have a very distinct memory of his challenge.”
“And you threatened him?”
“I told him to fire the weapons or there would be hell to pay. Yes.”
“And he refused to fire the weapons?”
“Yes.”
“And your Battalion continued to draw periodic but intense fire from the enemy?”
“It did.”
“And what did you do?”
“I got on the horn to Div Arty . . .”
“Div Arty, sir?”
“Division Artillery. I called them on the radio and ordered 155 howitzer fire on the objective.”
“And you received such fire from . . . Div Arty, sir?”
“Immediately.”
“And this fire silenced the enemy?”
“Eventually. Yes, it did.”
“So if Lieutenant Blue had fired his four-point-two-inch mortars as ordered, you would have been able to silence the enemy much earlier than you were able to, making use of ... Div Arty?”
“That is so.”
“Would you say that Lieutenant Blue's refusal of your order constituted desertion in the face of the enemy, sir?”
“Objection,” Captain Morriss interrupted. “Asking for a legal opinion the Colonel is not expertly qualified to give.”
“Sustained,” said Colonel Kelly.
“I will rephrase the question,” Dupuy said. “When Lieutenant Blue refused your order, it had the effect of withdrawing the weapons platoon from your use in a combat situation, or, as it were, in the face of the enemy, sir?”
“It did.”
“That is all I have. Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Halleck. You have been very forthcoming.”
“Your witness, Captain Morriss,” said the judge.
“The defense has no questions at this time, but reserves the right to call Lieutenant Colonel Halleck at a later time.”
“Granted. Next witness.”
Dupuy started shuffling through his papers, looking for something.
“What are you doing?” the Lieutenant asked Captain Morriss in a voice that was not quite a whisper.
“Ssshh. I want to see what else he's got. I think he just shot his wad. I'm thinking our boy Dupuy is so confident of the facts as Halleck gave them that all he's going to do now is a lot of backing and filling.”
“So it's okay, the way you're doing it?”
“It's a tactic. There are risks. The court might think we don't have anything to ask, but they won't think that for long. I'll eat Halleck for lunch when the time comes.”
The Lieutenant turned to look at his father and grandfather. The Colonel looked worried. The General had a look on his face the Lieutenant had never seen before. It was a look of such utter hatred and contempt that the Lieutenant was surprised paint wasn't peeling from the walls.
“Don't worry,” the Lieutenant whispered.
The General didn't even flicker an eye.
“The prosecution calls Captain Henry G. Gardner to the stand.”
The MP opened the door and Goose Gardner emerged and took the witness chair. Dupuy swore him in and got his particulars.
“Captain Gardner, you are—were—Lieutenant Blue's company commander. Is that correct?”
“Yes. I commanded headquarters and headquarters company, Second of the 22nd.”
“You were present in the command bunker on the night of October 13. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Your presence was requested when?”
“After I had contacted Lieutenant Blue by radio.”
“After Lieutenant Blue had refused your order, is that more accurate?”
“After he had refused the order, yes.”
“And you heard the conversation Lieutenant Colonel Halleck had with Lieutenant Blue on the radio?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Was his recollection of that conversation accurate?”
“As far as it went.”
“What do you mean, Captain?”
“I mean exactly that. As far as it went.”
“Elaborate, please.”
“His recollection was accurate as to his end of the conversation. I did not hear Lieutenant Blue's end, so I cannot testify as to the accuracy of his recollection of what Lieutenant Blue said.”
“All right, Goose!” the Lieutenant whispered.
“Shut up,” whispered Captain Morriss.
“Was your company taking enemy fire on the night of October 13, Captain?”
“Yes.”
“Did your company continue to take fire from the enemy after Lieutenant Blue refused to place mortar fire on the objective you gave him?”
“Yes, but—”
“A simple yes or no will suffice, Captain.”
“Objection,” said Captain Morriss. “He's treating Captain Gardner like a hostile witness when the witness has not been declared hostile.”
“Overruled.”
“Your Honor, Captain Gardner wanted to answer the last question in his own way, and the prosecution cut him off. I respectfully submit that the witness is a witness for the prosecution, and he should be allowed to answer the questions as Lieutenant Colonel Halleck did, at whatever length he desires.”
“The prosecution can elicit from its witness what it wants to elicit, Captain Morriss. You'll have your chance to let the witness run off at the mouth if that's what you want him to do. Go ahead, Captain Dupuy.”
Morriss sat down.
“What was that all about?” asked the Lieutenant.
“I just wanted to plant the notion in the minds of the court that the prosecution is afraid of its own witness.”
Army Blue Page 35
