TOLEDO, Ohio An elite unit of American soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and a U.S. Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, a newspaper here reported Sunday.

Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the army's 101st Airborne Division dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers - including women and children - hid, and shot farmers without warning, the newspaper reported. Soldiers told The Blade that they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks.

The army's four-and-a-half-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings. The probe substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, The Blade said.

William Doyle, a former Tiger Force sergeant now living in Willow Springs, Missouri, said he killed so many civilians in 1967 that he lost count.

"We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live," he told the newspaper. "The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead."

In an eight-month investigation, The Blade reviewed thousands of classified army documents, National Archives records and radio logs and interviewed former members of the unit and relatives of those who died.

Tiger Force, a unit of 45 volunteers, was created to spy on North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam's central highlands.

The Blade said it is not known how many Vietnamese civilians were killed.

Records show that at least 78 were shot or stabbed, the newspaper said. Based on interviews with former Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, it is estimated that the unit killed hundreds of unarmed people, The Blade said.

An army spokesman Joe Burlas, said Sunday that the only way to prosecute the soldiers was under court-martial procedures, which apply only to active military members. Only three Tiger Force members were on active duty during the investigation, he said, and their commanders, acting on the advice of military attorneys, determined that there was not enough evidence for successful prosecution.

In an interview with The Blade, Burlas also cited a lack of physical evidence and access to the crime scene, since a number of years had passed. He would not comment on why the military did not seek out the evidence sooner.

Investigators took 400 sworn statements from witnesses, Burlas said, and some of them contradicted each other.

According to The Blade, the rampage began in May 1967. No one knows what set it off. Less than a week after setting up camp in the central highlands, the newspaper said, soldiers began torturing and killing prisoners in violation of U.S. military law and the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Sergeant Forrest Miller told army investigators that the killing of prisoners was "an unwritten law."

Other soldiers said they sought revenge in the villages after unit members were killed and wounded during sniper and grenade attacks.

"Everybody was bloodthirsty at the time, saying, 'We're going to get them back,'" a former medic, Rion Causey of Livermore, California, told The Blade.

Some commanders told investigators that civilians could be targeted in certain circumstances; others said they could never be attacked.

During the army's investigation, 27 soldiers said severing ears from dead Vietnamese became routine.

"There was a period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," a former platoon medic, Larry Cottingham, told investigators.

The atrocities carried out by the unit came just months before the killing of about 500 Vietnamese civilians by an army unit in 1968 at My Lai.

The Blade found that commanders knew about the platoon's atrocities and in some cases encouraged the soldiers to continue the violence.

The newspaper also said army investigators learned about the atrocities in 1971 but took a year to interview witnesses. Two investigators pretended to look into the allegations while encouraging soldiers to keep quiet, soldiers told The Blade.

Four military legal experts who reviewed the army's final report for The Blade questioned the case's abrupt end.

H. Wayne Elliott, a retired army officer who teaches military law at the University of Virginia, said there should have been a military grand jury investigation. "I just can't believe this wasn't a pretty high-profile thing in the Pentagon." The army could still prosecute or sanction former platoon members, but legal experts say that is unlikely because of the time that has elapsed.

Part of the unit's mission was to force villagers to move to refugee centers so they could not grow rice for the enemy. Many refused to go to the centers, which resembled prison camps and lacked food.

"They wanted to stay on their land. They took no side in the war," recalled Lu Thuan, 67, a farmer, sitting in his home in the Song Ve Valley.

The soldiers began burning villages to force the people to leave, The Blade said.

One night, an elderly carpenter was beaten with a rifle before the unit's field commander, Lieutenant James Hawkins, shot and killed him as he pleaded for his life. Hawkins denied the allegations when questioned by army investigators in 1973. But he told The Blade that he had killed the man because his voice was loud enough to draw enemy attention.
.
"I eliminated that right there," said Hawkins, who retired from the army in 1978 and now lives in Orlando, Florida.
.
Kieu Trac, now 72, recalled watching helplessly as his father fell.
.
"All they were doing was working in the fields," he said.
.
Of the 43 former platoon members interviewed by The Blade, a dozen expressed remorse for either committing or failing to stop the atrocities, and 10 have been diagnosed with a stress disorder. TOLEDO, Ohio An elite unit of American soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and a U.S. Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, a newspaper here reported Sunday.
.
Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the army's 101st Airborne Division dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers - including women and children - hid, and shot farmers without warning, the newspaper reported. Soldiers told The Blade that they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks.
.
The army's four-and-a-half-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings. The probe substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, The Blade said.
.
William Doyle, a former Tiger Force sergeant now living in Willow Springs, Missouri, said he killed so many civilians in 1967 that he lost count.
.
"We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live," he told the newspaper. "The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead."
.
In an eight-month investigation, The Blade reviewed thousands of classified army documents, National Archives records and radio logs and interviewed former members of the unit and relatives of those who died.
.
Tiger Force, a unit of 45 volunteers, was created to spy on North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam's central highlands.
.
The Blade said it is not known how many Vietnamese civilians were killed.
.
Records show that at least 78 were shot or stabbed, the newspaper said. Based on interviews with former Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, it is estimated that the unit killed hundreds of unarmed people, The Blade said.
.
An army spokesman Joe Burlas, said Sunday that the only way to prosecute the soldiers was under court-martial procedures, which apply only to active military members. Only three Tiger Force members were on active duty during the investigation, he said, and their commanders, acting on the advice of military attorneys, determined that there was not enough evidence for successful prosecution.
.
In an interview with The Blade, Burlas also cited a lack of physical evidence and access to the crime scene, since a number of years had passed. He would not comment on why the military did not seek out the evidence sooner.
.
Investigators took 400 sworn statements from witnesses, Burlas said, and some of them contradicted each other.
.
According to The Blade, the rampage began in May 1967. No one knows what set it off. Less than a week after setting up camp in the central highlands, the newspaper said, soldiers began torturing and killing prisoners in violation of U.S. military law and the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
.
Sergeant Forrest Miller told army investigators that the killing of prisoners was "an unwritten law."
.
Other soldiers said they sought revenge in the villages after unit members were killed and wounded during sniper and grenade attacks.
.
"Everybody was bloodthirsty at the time, saying, 'We're going to get them back,'" a former medic, Rion Causey of Livermore, California, told The Blade.
.
Some commanders told investigators that civilians could be targeted in certain circumstances; others said they could never be attacked.
.
During the army's investigation, 27 soldiers said severing ears from dead Vietnamese became routine.
.
"There was a period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," a former platoon medic, Larry Cottingham, told investigators.
.
The atrocities carried out by the unit came just months before the killing of about 500 Vietnamese civilians by an army unit in 1968 at My Lai.
.
The Blade found that commanders knew about the platoon's atrocities and in some cases encouraged the soldiers to continue the violence.
.
The newspaper also said army investigators learned about the atrocities in 1971 but took a year to interview witnesses. Two investigators pretended to look into the allegations while encouraging soldiers to keep quiet, soldiers told The Blade.
.
Four military legal experts who reviewed the army's final report for The Blade questioned the case's abrupt end.
.
H. Wayne Elliott, a retired army officer who teaches military law at the University of Virginia, said there should have been a military grand jury investigation. "I just can't believe this wasn't a pretty high-profile thing in the Pentagon." The army could still prosecute or sanction former platoon members, but legal experts say that is unlikely because of the time that has elapsed.
.
Part of the unit's mission was to force villagers to move to refugee centers so they could not grow rice for the enemy. Many refused to go to the centers, which resembled prison camps and lacked food.
.
"They wanted to stay on their land. They took no side in the war," recalled Lu Thuan, 67, a farmer, sitting in his home in the Song Ve Valley.
.
The soldiers began burning villages to force the people to leave, The Blade said.
.
One night, an elderly carpenter was beaten with a rifle before the unit's field commander, Lieutenant James Hawkins, shot and killed him as he pleaded for his life. Hawkins denied the allegations when questioned by army investigators in 1973. But he told The Blade that he had killed the man because his voice was loud enough to draw enemy attention.
.
"I eliminated that right there," said Hawkins, who retired from the army in 1978 and now lives in Orlando, Florida.
.
Kieu Trac, now 72, recalled watching helplessly as his father fell.
.
"All they were doing was working in the fields," he said.
.
Of the 43 former platoon members interviewed by The Blade, a dozen expressed remorse for either committing or failing to stop the atrocities, and 10 have been diagnosed with a stress disorder. TOLEDO, Ohio An elite unit of American soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers over seven months in 1967 during the Vietnam War, and a U.S. Army investigation was closed with no charges filed, a newspaper here reported Sunday.
.
Soldiers of the Tiger Force unit of the army's 101st Airborne Division dropped grenades into bunkers where villagers - including women and children - hid, and shot farmers without warning, the newspaper reported. Soldiers told The Blade that they severed ears from the dead and strung them on shoelaces to wear around their necks.
.
The army's four-and-a-half-year investigation, never before made public, was initiated by a soldier outraged at the killings. The probe substantiated 20 war crimes by 18 soldiers and reached the Pentagon and White House before it was closed in 1975, The Blade said.
.
William Doyle, a former Tiger Force sergeant now living in Willow Springs, Missouri, said he killed so many civilians in 1967 that he lost count.
.
"We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live," he told the newspaper. "The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead."
.
In an eight-month investigation, The Blade reviewed thousands of classified army documents, National Archives records and radio logs and interviewed former members of the unit and relatives of those who died.
.
Tiger Force, a unit of 45 volunteers, was created to spy on North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam's central highlands.
.
The Blade said it is not known how many Vietnamese civilians were killed.
.
Records show that at least 78 were shot or stabbed, the newspaper said. Based on interviews with former Tiger Force soldiers and Vietnamese civilians, it is estimated that the unit killed hundreds of unarmed people, The Blade said.
.
An army spokesman Joe Burlas, said Sunday that the only way to prosecute the soldiers was under court-martial procedures, which apply only to active military members. Only three Tiger Force members were on active duty during the investigation, he said, and their commanders, acting on the advice of military attorneys, determined that there was not enough evidence for successful prosecution.
.
In an interview with The Blade, Burlas also cited a lack of physical evidence and access to the crime scene, since a number of years had passed. He would not comment on why the military did not seek out the evidence sooner.
.
Investigators took 400 sworn statements from witnesses, Burlas said, and some of them contradicted each other.
.
According to The Blade, the rampage began in May 1967. No one knows what set it off. Less than a week after setting up camp in the central highlands, the newspaper said, soldiers began torturing and killing prisoners in violation of U.S. military law and the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
.
Sergeant Forrest Miller told army investigators that the killing of prisoners was "an unwritten law."
.
Other soldiers said they sought revenge in the villages after unit members were killed and wounded during sniper and grenade attacks.
.
"Everybody was bloodthirsty at the time, saying, 'We're going to get them back,'" a former medic, Rion Causey of Livermore, California, told The Blade.
.
Some commanders told investigators that civilians could be targeted in certain circumstances; others said they could never be attacked.
.
During the army's investigation, 27 soldiers said severing ears from dead Vietnamese became routine.
.
"There was a period when just about everyone had a necklace of ears," a former platoon medic, Larry Cottingham, told investigators.
.
The atrocities carried out by the unit came just months before the killing of about 500 Vietnamese civilians by an army unit in 1968 at My Lai.
.
The Blade found that commanders knew about the platoon's atrocities and in some cases encouraged the soldiers to continue the violence.
.
The newspaper also said army investigators learned about the atrocities in 1971 but took a year to interview witnesses. Two investigators pretended to look into the allegations while encouraging soldiers to keep quiet, soldiers told The Blade.
.
Four military legal experts who reviewed the army's final report for The Blade questioned the case's abrupt end.
.
H. Wayne Elliott, a retired army officer who teaches military law at the University of Virginia, said there should have been a military grand jury investigation. "I just can't believe this wasn't a pretty high-profile thing in the Pentagon." The army could still prosecute or sanction former platoon members, but legal experts say that is unlikely because of the time that has elapsed.
.
Part of the unit's mission was to force villagers to move to refugee centers so they could not grow rice for the enemy. Many refused to go to the centers, which resembled prison camps and lacked food.
.
"They wanted to stay on their land. They took no side in the war," recalled Lu Thuan, 67, a farmer, sitting in his home in the Song Ve Valley.
.
The soldiers began burning villages to force the people to leave, The Blade said.
.
One night, an elderly carpenter was beaten with a rifle before the unit's field commander, Lieutenant James Hawkins, shot and killed him as he pleaded for his life. Hawkins denied the allegations when questioned by army investigators in 1973. But he told The Blade that he had killed the man because his voice was loud enough to draw enemy attention.
.
"I eliminated that right there," said Hawkins, who retired from the army in 1978 and now lives in Orlando, Florida.
.
Kieu Trac, now 72, recalled watching helplessly as his father fell.
.
"All they were doing was working in the fields," he said.
.
Of the 43 former platoon members interviewed by The Blade, a dozen expressed remorse for either committing or failing to stop the atrocities, and 10 have been diagnosed with a stress disorder.


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