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MARK LENIX: Going along with what Scott said, they
didn't care what you were doing, or how you were getting it, they wanted
bodies, and that's where civilians came in also.
In November of '68 in an area called
"The Wagon Wheel," which is northwest of Saigon, while on a routine
search and destroy mission, gunships who were to be providing security
and cover for us in case we had any contact, were circling overhead.
Well, no contact was made and the gunships got bored. So they made
a gunrun on a hootch with many guns and rockets.
When they left the area, we found one
dead baby which was a young child, very young, in its mother's arms.
And we found a baby girl about three years old that were dead, because
these people were bored and they were just sick of flying around doing
nothing. Then, when it was reported to battalion, the only
reprimand was to put the two bodies on the body count board and just add
them up with the rest of the dead people. There was no reprimand,
there was nothing. We tried to call the gunship off, and there was
nothing you could do. You know, he just made his run, dropped his
ordinance, and left, and there they were, man. And the mother was
of course hysterical.
How would you like it if someone came
in and shot your baby? And there was nothing we could do, man.
We just watched it and nothing happened. I have no idea what
happened to the helicopter pilot, or to anyone in the gunship. It
was gone. And things like this happen, I'm sure, more than once.
Because if I saw it, I'm sure there are a lot of veterans who aren't
here who saw it, and this is why we have to stop the war. Because
not only are we killing our brothers in the armed forces, and brothers
on the other side, but we're killing innocent people, man.
Innocent civilians who are just standing by and happen to be at that
place at that time, and for no other reason than that wind up dead.
I've been in there listening to this
whole thing, the whole thing tonight, man. You know, it's
relevant, man, but you know what, even this whole thing you're doing now
is only relevant to you, man.
It ain't relevant to me. You know
how come? Because you fail to realize what the reason is, man.
How come, you know, dig, you go in
there and you're getting all these reports, man, on atrocities.
Yeah, man! They was splitting this cat's skull, and splitting his
skull, but you know what, the real issue is, man, that the thing is
racism. It's racist. It's racist, man.
They over after the Vietnamese, you
know, the resources, they are also after the Vietnamese because they are
racist, man. I had all the hell I had because of racism. You
know like dig man.
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