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Home WINTER SOLDIER -- ILLUSTRATED SCREENPLAY & SCREENCAP GALLERY |
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There used to be a game we played. We poured garbage, liquid garbage off the end of our truck to make 'em crawl for it.
Mama-sons would come up with half cut 50-gallon drums and they'd try to fill it up. They'd get pork chops and sloppy rice and mystery meat or wop-slop, whatever we'd had for chow, and put it in there, and then we'd let them walk so far and we'd tip it over, spill it on the ground, and watch them scrape the dirt in there.
Anything to dehumanize them.
From the time I was there, nobody ever got hurt in a garbage dump, as far as Americans. But a lot of Vietnamese women and children were hurt. And it was fair game between Kontien?, going through the city of Kamilo?, on the outskirts of Quang Tri? going to Stud? that American troops would stock up on their heavies, their spaghetti and meatballs and ham and lima beans, and any little children who were begging on the side of the road which never numbered less than 50 or 60 were fair game for these full cans of food. They wouldn't throw them to the kids, they'd just bounce them off their heads or try to knock them off their bicycles
These people are aware of what American soldiers do to them so naturally they try to hide the young girls. We found one hiding in a bomb shelter in sort of the basement of her house, she was taken out and raped by six or seven people in front of her family, in front of most of the villagers. This wasn't just one incident, this is just the first one that I can remember. I know of 10 or 15 of such instances at least. The gentleman on my left can collaborate my testimony as we were together the whole time, served in the same squad, in the same company.
At the time most of this happened our platoon leader was a Mormon minister. He's dead now, so he can't really be found out and questioned.
But when he got there, he was pretty well high character man because he was a minister. By the time he left, by the time he got killed, rather, he was condoning everything that was going on because it was a part of policy. If no one tells you that it's wrong, then you do it anyway, and this cell changed him around. |
