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Everyone in our platoon took two
bodies, put them on the back ramp, drove them through a village for
show, and dumped them off at the edge of the village.
MODERATOR: You mentioned the
killing of wounded prisoners. Would you talk about that also?
ROBERT CLARK: On June 13th, on Operation
Cannon Falls, twice during the night we were overrun on our lower lip.
The whole night we only sustained three dead people and ten wounded.
In the morning, when the mist cleared, around 5:30, everybody just got
out of their holes, and we started to sweep down towards the bottom of
the hill to count our body count and see how brave we were. And
there was one NVA soldier who was caught on the wire. He had a bullet
wound through the neck, and numerous shrapnel wounds all through his
body from fragmentation grenades. And this big bad-ass corporal
took out his knife and stuck it in his neck, and just jiggled it until
the man bled to death, because he didn't want to carry him to the top of
the hill.
Another man was laying at the bottom of
the hill on his stomach. He was in pretty bad shape, but I think he
would have made it. And three grunts emptied a full magazine of M-16
fire in his back. Another man was shot at the top of the hill, he
had a bullet wound in his thigh, two in his back, and his elbow was
hanging off by a thread. He was screaming for water, and they just
poured it on the ground. They laughed at him, they kicked him in
the ribs.
One time he just jumped up
spastically, and he sat up on his waist and his arm started to dangle.
And the grunt kicked him in the chest and he died. After all this
happened, we chased what was left of the NVA company out through the
woods.
The following day, elements of Golf
Company claimed they saw 400 MVA walking along the trail. Well, I
informed the major that was there, since I was in the COC bunker on
Radio Watch. He told me I was an asshole. So I called up Golf
Company again and I said, "Repeat this. This guy doesn't believe me." So
he told me again I was an asshole, because Recon said there are no NVA in
this area, even though the previous night we were hit by a company and a
half.
Well, about a day following, Hotel
Company (and Gordon was there at the time) was hit by about half a
regiment, I'm not sure, but they were in contact for nine hours. And
Major _____ was on the net and the Captain from Hotel called up and he
was crying because they were pinned down for nine hours. And he wanted
air support and he wanted to be lifted out of there because they were
pretty well chopped up. They had had hand-to-hand fighting.
They were
running out of ammunition. And Major _____ got on the air and, I quote,
called him a fucking pussy.
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