As the men had raced to get there, clambering and sliding, Rafe had slipped and fallen from a ledge, dislocating an elbow and a shoulder. I give him max rating as a soldier. In other connections, it was brought out that the Sergeant had not waited to be drafted, that he was currently in line for the Bronze Star, and that in the course of his overseas duty he had been awarded five medals, of varying importance, and had a conduct rating of Excellent. Through an interpreter, Loc related that after the patrol finished with their hamlet, she and her mother had searched desperately for Mao. Nor could the concern that the C.O. This time, he said, it would be Clark who would stay behind to guard Mao and the weapons in the hootch. Lang's article for The New Yorker described the so-called "Incident on Hill 192" that involved the kidnapping, . Eriksson expects that such steps as he has taken will be succeeded in time by others, though he has no idea at the moment what these may be. 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. Plot But at the other end of the path, just as we were leaving the village behind, the enemy would open up on us, and there was bitterness among us that the villagers hadnt given us warning. He was just more serious-minded. His reaction interested me, Eriksson said. For the film, all names and some details of the true story were altered. or did he just refuse at all times? Eriksson had no occasion to fire his grenade launcher, and that was just as well, he told me, since his mind was on Maoon the part of the war that, as he put it, had got to me. Perched on the mountainside, listening to the gunfire and the helicopters, he found his thoughts returning repeatedly to the fact that Rafe and Manuel had refused to kill the girl. Eriksson shook his head again. He displayed a hunting knife. Launching into his unlegalistic account, Eriksson told me that it seemed clear to him in retrospect that he should have been prepared for Maos death. Occasionally, official orders were used for justifying gratuitous acts of violence. Then I thought of taking off together with her. 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 . He sounded as though the war would have to come to an end before his work could make much sense.. Incident on Hill 192 ~ Murder & Rape Details with Photos | Videos Recalling the interview, Eriksson said, Id answer a question, then hed wait and Id have to wait along with him, then hed ask another question, real fast, and in Id come with my next answer. Just seeing an Asian country, for instance, was an adventure, Eriksson says, its landscape so different from the frozen plains of his corner of Minnesota; he had never before splashed through paddy fields, he told me, or stood blinking in the sudden sunlessness of lush, entangled jungle, or wandered uncertainly through imprisoning fields of towering elephant grass. He said, We all figured we might be dead in the next minute, so what difference did it make what we did? Eriksson replied that he wouldnt mind a changenot that it would deter him from pressing charges. The corpse itself was placed in an Army casualty baga rubberized olive-drab shroud, originally designed for fallen soldiers. When Eriksson replied that he was prepared to take his chances on that, Vorst asked whether Eriksson might not care to transfer out of the companyor, for that matter, out of the infantry altogether. His discontent abated when he managed to remind himself of the plan he had made during his leave to reach out beyond his jobs, whatever they might be. He had only been fooling, he testified, when he talked of having fun on the reconnaissance mission. 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. Unlike their civilian counterparts, Vorst said, the law officers (the term by which military judges were known) and members of the court (as jurors were known) had a sympathetic understanding of the pressures a combat man faced in risking his life daily; military jurists didnt expect foot soldiers to be on their best behavior in a war zone. 1970. It will even he possible for them to join the Army again., Sven had to do what he did, Mrs. Eriksson said. Apocalypse Now 1979. Thats where she is, he said with certainty. Manuel later told agents of the Armys Criminal Investigation Division, Meserve said to Eriksson that inasmuch as he did not do anything to the girl [the day before], Eriksson would have to kill the girl, but Eriksson said that he would not have anything to do with that. Meserve, however, didnt follow through on his threat. Meserve, Clark, and Manuel, together with members of the other squads, were shooting away at the solitary V.C., who was behind an aperture that measured perhaps six inches wide and a couple of inches high. Film rights were bought by David Susskind who was to produce the film for Warner Bros. Pete Hamill wrote a script and Jack Clayton was to direct. Using the upper one as a vantage point, they spied the small band of V.C. 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.