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It got to be like a game. Like
the object was to see who could kill the most people. And the
different ways you could prove how many people you killed would be like
cutting off ears. If you brought back someone's ears, you know,
it's pretty likely you had to kill him to get them. And then
whoever had the most ears, they would get the most beers, and you'd
trade your ears for beers.
And it got to be like a game. And
when it came time to go home, like I was very close to my friends and I
got to where I knew what I was doing, you know, like I was an expert.
And my job, being a forward observer, is also a scout sergeant and you
have to learn to read maps and know the area. And I got to where I
knew where I was without looking at the maps, and I could call in
artillery just by knowing where I was. And I was really attached
to my friends. And I couldn't see leaving my friends and going home.
And then I thought about the political thing again, and I said well, and
I wrote my mother a letter and I told her, I said I'm not coming home in
April because I really believe what we're doing is right and I think
it's better for me to stay here and help get it cleaned up if I can than
for my brother to have to come over when he gets old enough, and that's
what I wrote, and that's what was put in the newspaper, and they had a
big article, "You know, we need more Americans like this."
Q. What was your rank when you first
went over?
SCOTT CAMILE: A PFC.
Q. And when you left?
SCOTT CAMILE: A sergeant. I made a
corporal and a sergeant. I made very good rank.
Q. So the army thought you were a
very good soldier?
SCOTT CAMILE: I got a good conduct medal, too and I
got the Vietnamese cross of gallantry with silver star and got put up
for the bronze star three times.
And this is something else I'd really
like to rap about. Medals. You know. Medals are a
bunch of shit. Every time I thought I deserved one, no one ever
said anything. And when I didn't think I deserved some, I got one,
you know. And it was like, one time I picked up a grenade that was
thrown at us and I threw it back, and they thought I was really brave.
But it was because that was the easiest thing to do. Like, I
wasn't going to fall on it and save anybody's life because I wasn't that
brave, or stupid, or whatever, and you can't stand there and look at it,
and you can't run from it because you can't get away from it. And
the only chance I figured I had was to pick it up and throw it away.
And they thought I was doing something brave, and I got put up for a
medal, but I was doing the most cowardly thing. And another time I
got a medal, these gooks came out in front of us and I was with the
infantry. But the infantry had to work together. I couldn't
move on my own because I was a forward observer. So we were
eating, we didn't have our boots or clothes on, just our pants, and I
slipped into my boots and I grabbed my ammo, and my rifle, and I didn't
get on my helmet or flak jacket or anything, I went after them, and I
got five of them. So I got a medal for it. But I was running
after them, I was chasing them. They never stopped and turned
around and fired at me. I didn't risk my life for anything.
And they thought it was really brave, and they yelled at me for going
out there and doing that because a forward observer's not supposed to
give away his position, but it was really fun. It wasn't anything
brave at all. You know, I got five commies. Man, wow, now
I'm really happy. Wait till my parents hear this. Then that
night we were on a scorpion, that's where four or five guys go out and
they just hide, and when the enemy come by you open fire and then you
run, you know. And they don't know how many of you there are.
So usually they pull back too. And two of them came walking right
by us, and three of the guys were asleep. And I didn't want to
shoot because I didn't want to give away my position, so I grabbed the
guy in front of me around the mouth, and I stabbed him in the kidney,
and I killed him. And the guy next to me, he opened fire at his
and he missed. So for getting those six kills, I got the medal.
Another time I had a friend who got
killed, and I was very upset, and I asked this Vietnamese for his I.D.
card. And he said "kombiek?," and that means "I don't understand"
in Vietnamese. And it just pissed me off. So I pulled out my
knife and I killed him. And it didn't bother me at all. I
just called in and said, "One VC killed." And they said, "How do
you know he's a VC?" And I said, "because he's dead. And
they laughed and said okay. I'd come in and people would ask me
what's going on out in the front and I would tell them, and they'd keep
it ____, for how many kills you have, and I'd come in and they'd show me
how many I have. And what it is, every time you kill someone, you
have to report it. And you have to search them for papers and
stuff. But this is something else: body count. If ten
of us would go out, and I'd come back with only five men, we lost half
our men and you couldn't say that you didn't see any enemy. So you
could have killed only one enemy, and by the time it would get up to the
high command, you know, you killed 50 of them cause they couldn't say
they lost five men taking one. So the body count's a bunch of
shit. You know, what they say and what they get is different
things. Like you read in the newspaper on Operation Medina 200 of
us went out, and about 47 of us made it back. And they just
ambushed us and wiped the hell out of us. And I didn't see any
gooks, man. They were sitting in trees dropping grenades on us,
and they had machine guns on the front and on the side. And the
newspaper said we had all of these kills, you know. I didn't know
what the hell they were talking about. I never saw any kills.
But they just didn't want to admit that all those men got killed for
nothing.
Q. Do you think that was a
justifiable thing? You knew it was a lie, but did you see a reason
for it at the time?
SCOTT CAMILE: I didn't question it. I
figured well, if the people at home think we're killing them, you know,
that's great, because that's what we're supposed to be doing. And
another thing is the competition between units. Besides
competition between men to kill the most, there is competition between
squads and between companies, and between battalions to see who can kill
the most. So if the newspaper said Charlie company got 200 kills
and we didn't get any, we weren't going to say anything. We wanted
them to think "We're bad guys, man."
And we thought we were so tough we went
around with aces of spades in our helmets. And every time we'd
kill someone, we'd put it in their face so if anyone else came, they
knew that Charlie company did it, you know.
SCOTT MOORE: Vietnam was not a land war. If
you gain land, as in other wars, your efficiency report would go up.
In this war it's based on body count. The more people you kill,
the better efficiency report, officer efficiency report you get.
So what happened here is a case of the
colonels going into competition and making up more bodies than they
really have. And this was, of course, passed down to the company
commanders, platoon leaders and the squad leaders. So hell, we
were reporting water buffalo, in some cases shadows, I remember one time
I called artillery into a woodline where I received sniper fire, and
didn't check the woodline and called in three body count. This
went on all the time. In other fire fights, the count would be 80,
90, and personally I only saw two, three bodies. So it's a totally
inflated system and what's happened is the American public has been lied
to. The army has come out and stated that we've got a kill ratio
of 1 to 13, and yes it's one to 13 because of this inflation, but it's a
lot of bull.
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