Shoot Those Women
I don’t believe anyone can understand how hard it is to be in combat or what it does to you unless you have been there. The deeper you are into combat and the longer you are there the worse it gets. I have seen those who were the “grunts” (soldiers on the ground – the infantry primarily) after they had been in combat for weeks and they are in tough shape. Being under pressure from attack, booby traps, snipers and the risk of dying at any time is rough. Then compound that with seeing some of your friends killed and wounded and it doesn’t take long until you are a basket case. It is easy to lose feelings and perspective on what is right and wrong. I have witnessed those times when good soldiers have lost what is right and wrong and it is easy to do.
While flying as a scout pilot my first tour I was sent out one morning to scout around a small Fire Support Base that had been under attack the night before. When I called the guys at the fire support base to let them know that I was going to be scouting around their position and request they not shoot me I learned they had a tough battle the night before. Actually they had been under some degree of attack for the past three days and had lost quite a few men.
I started scouting around their location focusing my search on the side they said most of the attack had come from. True to good procedure, the attackers had taken all of their wounded and dead and disappeared. There was not much there except the scene of what had been attacked or hit.
A little further from the fire support base in the same direction were two South Vietnamese hooches. I hovered around them and looked the situation over. There was some damage, which had probably been caused by the Americans firing back in that direction. Outside of the hooches were two women probably about thirty years of age. They were busy picking up the mess around their homes. They didn’t look too suspicious or act too nervous about my checking them out. It appeared to me that they were probably innocent bystanders to the battle. It is hard to tell who is on which side and there is the possibility that the night before they had been involved in the fight. There is no way to tell.
I reported to the fire support base that I had not found much, just two women near their hooches that were cleaning up the mess around their homes. They responded by telling me to kill the women. So I explained again that there was no way of knowing that they had been involved in the fight and they may well be innocent bystanders. Again they responded with, “Kill them”, and this time the person on the radio identified himself as the commander of the fire support base. Again I refused to do it. He responded with the same instructions and told me it was an order.
There are legal orders and illegal orders. This was an illegal order and I did not have to follow it. Intentionally shooting prisoners of war or civilians is illegal. I told that to the commander. And after I concluded my radio call another voice came on the air and said he had overheard the entire conversation and also said that he would be a witness. He identified himself as “Issue 01”. “Issue” was the call sign of Air Force Forward Air Controllers that we worked with and “01” was their commander. There was silence after his call. I called again and told the ground commander that I would be leaving station at that time because I couldn’t help him anymore.
I believe we all have said things we shouldn’t have said. Sometimes it has been pressure that has caused us to engage our mouths without engaging the brain first. If anyone in the world has the right to ask forgiveness because they were under pressure it is those who are in combat. It was good that day that there were two people there who had not been under so much pressure that they had lost their perspective. When someone around us is under tremendous pressure and says something that is not good it is always wise to just let it go and forgive and forget. ‘Be the person that has not lost perspective. Don’t let the situation get worse by over reacting. Some day the roles may be reversed!
While flying as a scout pilot my first tour I was sent out one morning to scout around a small Fire Support Base that had been under attack the night before. When I called the guys at the fire support base to let them know that I was going to be scouting around their position and request they not shoot me I learned they had a tough battle the night before. Actually they had been under some degree of attack for the past three days and had lost quite a few men.
I started scouting around their location focusing my search on the side they said most of the attack had come from. True to good procedure, the attackers had taken all of their wounded and dead and disappeared. There was not much there except the scene of what had been attacked or hit.
A little further from the fire support base in the same direction were two South Vietnamese hooches. I hovered around them and looked the situation over. There was some damage, which had probably been caused by the Americans firing back in that direction. Outside of the hooches were two women probably about thirty years of age. They were busy picking up the mess around their homes. They didn’t look too suspicious or act too nervous about my checking them out. It appeared to me that they were probably innocent bystanders to the battle. It is hard to tell who is on which side and there is the possibility that the night before they had been involved in the fight. There is no way to tell.
I reported to the fire support base that I had not found much, just two women near their hooches that were cleaning up the mess around their homes. They responded by telling me to kill the women. So I explained again that there was no way of knowing that they had been involved in the fight and they may well be innocent bystanders. Again they responded with, “Kill them”, and this time the person on the radio identified himself as the commander of the fire support base. Again I refused to do it. He responded with the same instructions and told me it was an order.
There are legal orders and illegal orders. This was an illegal order and I did not have to follow it. Intentionally shooting prisoners of war or civilians is illegal. I told that to the commander. And after I concluded my radio call another voice came on the air and said he had overheard the entire conversation and also said that he would be a witness. He identified himself as “Issue 01”. “Issue” was the call sign of Air Force Forward Air Controllers that we worked with and “01” was their commander. There was silence after his call. I called again and told the ground commander that I would be leaving station at that time because I couldn’t help him anymore.
I believe we all have said things we shouldn’t have said. Sometimes it has been pressure that has caused us to engage our mouths without engaging the brain first. If anyone in the world has the right to ask forgiveness because they were under pressure it is those who are in combat. It was good that day that there were two people there who had not been under so much pressure that they had lost their perspective. When someone around us is under tremendous pressure and says something that is not good it is always wise to just let it go and forgive and forget. ‘Be the person that has not lost perspective. Don’t let the situation get worse by over reacting. Some day the roles may be reversed!
posted by Bruce | 1:28 PM
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