SwiftVets.com

[phoenix22]

This is a little known series out of the Toledo blade.........

I'll provide the links.......you can reach your own conclusions.....but I think it should remove some of the atrocity stigma from the Swifties.

Tiger Force Series:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE


Tiger Force is the group of vets Kerry is trying to align himself with.....when you hear of him speak of the atrocities in the Detroit investigation... junior grade lt..... 1/3rd of tour ....... audie murphy and paratrooper wannabe.....had this to say:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73181440230968&Avis=TO&Dato=20040226&Kategori=NEWS09&Lopenr=102260127&Ref=AR

VIETNAM WAR ATROCITIES
Candidate backs investigation of unit’s brutalities

By JOE MAHR
BLADE STAFF WRITER


Three decades after testifying to Congress about Vietnam war crimes, Sen. John Kerry voiced support yesterday for an investigation of the longest-known series of atrocities by a U.S. fighting unit in Vietnam and what led the Army to conceal the case for decades.

"I think the truth ought to [come] out," the Democratic Party presidential front-runner said after a speech at the University of Toledo.

Senator Kerry (D., Mass.), a decorated Vietnam War veteran, became the second Democratic candidate to push for answers in the wake of The Blade’s October series "Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths."

In its investigation, the newspaper documented how a special Army platoon called Tiger Force brutalized civilians and enemy prisoners during a sweep of 40 villages in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1967 - with an estimated death toll in the hundreds.

Since publication of the series, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has asked acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee to investigate what happened to the case.



Prologue:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73181437004343&Avis=TO&Dato=20031022&Kategori=SRTIGERFORCE&Lopenr=110190166&Ref=AR

Experts: Earlier Tiger Force probe could have averted My Lai carnage

By MICHAEL D. SALLAH and MITCH WEISS
BLADE STAFF WRITERS
c THE BLADE, 2003


MY LAI, Vietnam - Just before dawn, the ritual begins.

People gather around stone statues, some whispering prayers, others crying.

Every year, hundreds of Vietnamese travel to the memorial that marks the day the soldiers swept into the tiny village before sunrise expecting to meet enemy soldiers.

Instead, the soldiers found a thriving hamlet.

In just 41/2 hours, the U.S. Army's 11th Brigade went on a rampage that shook the American military to its core.
When it was over, about 500 people lay dead - unarmed men, women, and children - some herded into a ditch and sprayed with bullets, their bloodied bodies stacked on top of one another.

Much has been written about the slaughter on March 16, 1968, that helped turn the American public against the war. The assaults spawned books and magazine articles - with stark images of women and babies in a mass grave.

Thirty-five years later, the My Lai massacre shares powerful parallels with the Tiger Force war-crime case.

Both Army units patrolled the same province. Both set up their camps in the same military base. Both carried out the same missions: search and destroy - just 10 miles apart.

But there was a key difference. Tiger Force arrived in the province six months before the 11th Brigade.

Shortly after their arrival, the Tigers began mutilating bodies, killing civilians, and executing prisoners, the soldiers later told investigators.

The atrocities, brought to the Army's attention in 1967, now raise a critical question: If the Army had reacted to those complaints, could safeguards have been in place to avert the rampage at My Lai?

Military experts say the massacre was merely the culmination of the Army's failure to take steps to stop the violence that had been growing against the people of Quang Ngai province.

Day1:

DAY 1: Rogue GIs unleashed wave of terror in Central Highlands

By MICHAEL D. SALLAH and MITCH WEISS
BLADE STAFF WRITERS c THE BLADE, 2003


QUANG NGAI, Vietnam - For the 10 elderly farmers in the rice paddy, there was nowhere to hide.

The river stretched along one side, mountains on the other.

Approaching quickly in between were the soldiers - an elite U.S. Army unit known as Tiger Force.

Though the farmers were not carrying weapons, it didn't matter: No one was safe when the special force arrived on July 28, 1967.

No one.
With bullets flying, the farmers - slowed by the thick, green plants and muck - dropped one by one to the ground.

Within minutes, it was over. Four were dead, others wounded. Some survived by lying motionless in the mud.

Four soldiers later recalled the assault.

"We knew the farmers were not armed to begin with," one said, "but we shot them anyway."

The unprovoked attack was one of many carried out by the decorated unit in the Vietnam War, an eight-month investigation by The Blade shows.

The platoon - a small, highly trained unit of 45 paratroopers created to spy on enemy forces - violently lost control between May and November, 1967.

For seven months, Tiger Force soldiers moved across the Central Highlands, killing scores of unarmed civilians - in some cases torturing and mutilating them - in a spate of violence never revealed to the American public.

They dropped grenades into underground bunkers where women and children were hiding - creating mass graves - and shot unarmed civilians, in some cases as they begged for their lives.

They frequently tortured and shot prisoners, severing ears and scalps for souvenirs.

A review of thousands of classified Army documents, National Archives records, and radio logs reveals a fighting unit that carried out the longest series of atrocities in the Vietnam War - and commanders who looked the other way.

For 41/2 years, the Army investigated the platoon, finding numerous eyewitnesses and substantiating war crimes. But in the end, no one was prosecuted, the case buried in the archives for three decades.

No one knows how many unarmed men, women, and children were killed by platoon members 36 years ago.

At least 81 were fatally shot or stabbed, records show, but many others were killed in what were clear violations of U.S. military law and the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Based on more than 100 interviews with The Blade of former Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, the platoon is estimated to have killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in those seven months.

"We weren't keeping count," said former Pvt. Ken Kerney, a California firefighter. "I knew it was wrong, but it was an acceptable practice."

Many details of the period in question are unknown: Records are missing from the National Archives, and several suspects and witnesses have died.

In many cases, the soldiers remember the atrocities and general locations, but not the precise dates.

What's clear is that nearly four decades later, many Vietnamese villagers and former Tiger Force soldiers are deeply troubled by the brutal killing of villagers.

"It was out of control," said Rion Causey, 55, a former platoon medic and now a nuclear engineer. "I still wonder how some people can sleep 30 years later."

Among the newspaper's findings:


Commanders knew about the platoon's atrocities in 1967, and in some cases, encouraged the soldiers to continue the violence.


Two soldiers who tried to stop the atrocities were warned by their commanders to remain quiet before transferring to other units.


The Army investigated 30 war-crime allegations against Tiger Force between February, 1971, and June, 1975, finding a total of 18 soldiers committed crimes, including murder and assault. But no one was ever charged.


Six platoon soldiers suspected of war crimes - including an officer - were allowed to resign during the investigation, escaping military prosecution.


The findings of the investigation were sent to the offices of the secretary of the Army and the secretary of defense, records show, but no action was taken.


Top White House officials, including John Dean, former chief counsel to President Richard Nixon, repeatedly were sent reports on the progress of the investigation.

To this day, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command refuses to release thousands of records that could explain what happened and why the case was dropped. Army spokesman Joe Burlas said last week it may have been difficult to press charges, but he couldn't explain flaws in the investigation.

The Army interviewed 137 witnesses and tracked down former Tiger Force members in more than 60 cities around the world.

But for the past three decades, the case has not even been a footnote in the annals of one of the nation's most divisive wars.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73181440230968&Avis=TO&Dato=20031022&Kategori=SRTIGERFORCE&Lopenr=110190168&Ref=AR

there are many, many pages to this series and if you are a vet.....you owe it to yourself to peruse these articles.

Also, if you type specifically (101st airborne 1967) into the keyword search box at the blade ( http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/search?Category=ARCHIVES ) .........even more stories of magnitude will list themselves.....

As a veteran of the 101 Abn Ambl Asslt Helo gang I was astonished a year ago to find this ......during a routine search of the div. (Camp Evans 69-70 APO SF 96383)

btw, from the air..........I never saw one swift boat in the central highlands
_________________
"De Oppresso Liber" (We Liberate the Oppressed) Holy Shinola Bat Babe! ....for Buddy...who lived it!

[carpro]

Anybody want to make any guesses why Kerry is interested in talking about Tiger Force at this particular time?
_________________
"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."

[neverforget]

Another day of reverting to type?

[phoenix22]

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

The "Tiger Force" story broke a lonnnng time ago.

There are still many questions among historians as to its veracity and the scholarship, reseach and fact-checking behind it.

It's really off-topic for this forum (especially since it's been called so far into question) so I'm moving it to the geedunk in just a bit.

I don't have any question at all as to why the Kerry campaign would want to steer the conversation back to this series of stories.

The fact that he's going down the tubes has his campaign on the ropes.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Bostonian]

How incredibly stupid it is of Kerry to go this route.

Disclaimer: This is the first I've heard of this incident, and I'm not saying it's impossible. There are cooler heads now in in the 1970s and this should be investigated in a bi-partisan manner.

But for Kerry to use this as some sort of defense for his 1971 Senate appearance... he's asking every vet in the country to hate him. He's spent 30 years trying to ingratiate himself with the vets, and (understatement coming) this would really not help.

[SteamSnipe]

I was wondering what John Hurley was referring to this morning when he kept referring to the "Pulitizer Prize Toledo Blade" when Wallace backed him into a corner about whether Kerry stands behind his Senate testimony. Looks like they are shifting directions again.

[phoenix22]