Hundreds of Vietnamese villagers killed by soldiers, paper reports 
10/19/ 03, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Associated Press

Toledo - An elite unit of American soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of 
unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, 
and an Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, The Blade 
reported today. 

Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the Army's 101st Airborne Division 
dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers hid and shot farmers 
without warning, the newspaper reported. Soldiers told The Blade that 
they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear 
around their necks. 

The Army's 4½-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated 
by a soldier outraged at the killings. The inquiry substantiated 20 war 
crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before 
it was closed in 1975, The Blade said. 

William Doyle, a former Tiger Force sergeant now living in Willow Springs, 
Mo., said he killed so many civilians in 1967 he lost count. 
"We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to 
live," he told the newspaper. "The way to live is to kill because you don't 
have to worry about anybody who's dead." 

Tiger Force, a unit of 45 volunteers, was created to spy on forces of North 
Vietnam in South Vietnam's central highlands. 

The Blade said it is not known how many Vietnamese civilians were killed. 
Records show at least 78 were shot or stabbed, the newspaper said. 
Army spokesman Joe Burlas told the newspaper last week that it might 
have been difficult to press charges in some of the cases because the 
statute of limitations expired by the time the final investigative report was 
filed in 1975. 

He also cited a lack of evidence and access to the crime scene, since a 
number of years had passed. He would not comment on why the military 
did not seek out the evidence sooner. 

According to The Blade, the rampage began in May 1967. Sgt. Forrest 
Miller told Army investigators the killing of prisoners was "an unwritten 
law." 

Other soldiers said they sought revenge in the villages after unit members 
were killed and injured during sniper and grenade attacks. 

"Everybody was bloodthirsty at the time, saying, 'We're going to get them 
back,' " former medic Rion Causey of Livermore, Calif., told The Blade. 
Soldiers often cited conflicting views of commanders as a reason they 
killed unarmed people. Some commanders told investigators that civilians 
could be targeted in certain circumstances; others said they could never 
be attacked. 

During the Army's investigation, 27 soldiers said severing ears from dead 
Vietnamese became routine. 

"There was a period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," 
former platoon medic Larry Cottingham told investigators. 

The newspaper found that commanders knew about the platoon's 
atrocities and in some cases encouraged the soldiers to continue the 
violence. Two soldiers who tried to stop the attacks were warned by their 
commanders to remain quiet before transferring to other units, according 
to military records. 

Of the 43 former platoon members interviewed by The Blade, a dozen 
expressed remorse for either committing or failing to stop the atrocities, 
and 10 have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 
 
© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.