Word of Honor (74 page)

Farley's thin voice barely carried, even with the aid of the microphone.

"Richard Farley ... unemployed, and I live on Bergen Street in Newark, New Jersey."

"Could you also please state your former grade and organization?"

"Yes . . . I was a pfc with Alpha, Fifth of the Seventh, First Air Cav."

"What were your duties in this unit?"

Farley thought awhile, then replied, "I was a soldier."

"A rifleman?" prompted Pierce.

"Yes. I I

Tyson looked at Farley and said to Corva, "This is pathetic. -

Corva nodded.

Pierce asked, "Do you know the accused?"

"You mean Lieutenant Tyson?"

Pierce bid his annoyance and said patiently, "Yes, do you know him?"

"I did."

"Will you, Mr. Farley, point to the accused and state his name?"

Farley looked at Tyson, pointed, and said, "Lieutenant Tyson. "

Tyson and Farley looked at each other for a moment, then Farley dropped his hand and turned away.

Corva stood. "Your honor, now that the dramatics are over, I wish to object. Pointing and naming are not necessary unless the question of identification is an issue."

Colonel Sproule said, "Objection sustained. Colonel Pierce, you can omit that if you call additional witnesses."

WORD OF HONOR e 575

Tyson thought that Pierce had the chagrined look of a man who had tried to pull a fast one and got caught.

Pierce asked Farley a series of preliminary questions, and Farley seemed to be responding better as he got used to the format. Pierce said to Farley,

"On the morning of the incident in question, before you reached the village of An Ninh Ha, did you see any Vietnamese civilians?"

Farley nodded before the question was finished, and Tyson knew they were into the rehearsed part of the testimony, though he didn't know why Pierce would ask that question.

Farley said, "There was 'bout ten civilians on a burial mound. "

"What were they doing?" asked Pierce.

"Burying gooks."

Pierce looked at Farley sharply, and nearly everyone guessed that Pierce had instructed Farley not to use this pejorative term. But, thought Tyson, a gook was a gook was a gook. He began to feel sorry for Farley.

Pierce said to Farley, "Did you approach these Vietnamese civilians?"

"Yes, sir. "

"Who approached them?"

"Me, the lieutenant, the lieutenant's RTO, Kelly, and Simcox. "

"You, Lieutenant Tyson, Daniel Kelly, and Harold SimCox. "

I I Right.

"Can you tell us in your own words, Mr. Farley, what happened as you made contact with these ten Vietnamese civilians?"

"We never made contact with them. They were civilians. "

Pierce looked confused and tried to rephrase the question, then realized the problem was one of semantics and not the witness's memory. "I meant contact in the sense of ... you met them."

"Yes, sir. "

"In your own words, Mr. Farley, tell us what happened.

Tyson wondered whose words Farley would use if not his own. As Farley related the story of the burial mound, Corva whispered to Tyson, "What's this all about?"

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Tyson shrugged. "Beats me."

Corva said, "Neither Farley nor Pierce mentioned this in our pretrial conference."

"I barely recall the incident. I'm surprised Farley can."

Farley continued his story, and Tyson leaned toward Corva. "I think I know what he's getting at."

Pierce said to Farley, "And it was Lieutenant Tyson who ordered these people to remove their clothes?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Was this common practice?"

"Well . . . sometimes. Not like this though. Usually it would happen in a hootch. The medic, maybe an officer. Maybe an older guy. A sergeant. One at a time. In a hootch.

"But Lieutenant Tyson ordered them to strip there?"

"Yes, Sir. "

"People of different sexes9"

"Yes, Sir."

"What happened next?"

"He told us to make them lay in the graves, then shoot 'them. "

Pierce straightened up, as though shocked and surprised. He looked briefly around the silent court, then turned back to Farley. "And did you?"

"No, Sir. They hadn't done nothing wrong except burying the . . . the NVA bodies."

"No one complied ... no one followed this order?"

"No, Sir.

"But you clearly heard Lieutenant Tyson give the order?"

"Yes, Sir. He said something like 'Make them lay in the graves and shoot them.' The peasants got the idea of what was going on, and they got real frightened and started begging. I I

Pierce delved further into this, then said, "So, after no one responded to the order, what happened?"

"Lieutenant Tyson told us to get going, and we went back toward the platoon."

"Where were you headingg"

"I'm not real sure. But somewhere around Hue."

"What was your mission?"

Farley shrugged. "Just get on to Hue. Marines were in heavy contact there."

WORD OF HONOR * 577

Pierce said, "Did you have as an intermediary objective the village of An Ninh Ha and/or the hospital there?"

"Yes, sir. The gooks at the grave told us about a hospital. Lieutenant Tyson passed the word that this was an intermediate objective. He told one of the men ... I think Simcox, that there'd be broads there."

"Women. At the hospital."

"Right. And showers and hot chow. Everyone got real anxious to get there."

"Did you have the impression that Lieutenant Tyson meant to commandeer this hospital?"

"Well, I guess so. We usually took what we wanted."

"And you're quite sure that Lieutenant Tyson and everyone knew they were headed toward a hospital?"

"Yes, sir. Like I said, we couldn't wait to get there. But once we got there we wished we never went."

Pierce let that sink in a few moments, then said, "Mr. Farley, in your own words, please tell what happened as you reached the village of An Ninh Ha.

Spare no details, no matter how unimportant they may seem to you."

"Okay." Farley began a long disjointed narrative. He seemed confused and unsure, but Pierce never once interrupted, though he prodded often with "Go on" and "What happened next?" Tyson thought Pierce was quite clever to let an inarticulate witness tell it his own way.

As Farley began relating his story of the massacre, Tyson glanced around the court and looked into the pews. People were actually bent forward, listening with the sort of rapt attention that no minister, rabbi, or priest was ever able to elicit in this place.

Farley stumbled through it, groped for words, forgot names, contradicted himself a dozen times, showed no remorse, and even inadvertently made points for the defense. But the overall effect of this, the first testimony, was damaging. More than that, Tyson thought, when Farley finished, there probably wasn't a person in the chapel who didn't conclude that the first platoon of Alpha Company massacred an entire hospital full of people.

An hour and fifteen minutes after he began, Farley said, "By dawn, we all got it straight. 'Men one of the guys-I think it was Louis Kalane-made everyone put their hands

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in a circle . . . you know ... we put our hands in the middle and swore we would all stick up for each other. They were good guys like that. We always stuck up for each other. " Farley wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand.

Pierce looked at his witness, torn between inquiring about his present mental and physical state and inquiring about more important matters at hand. Finally Pierce said, "And did the accused join hands with you and the others and swear to cover up the facts of the massacre?"

"Yes, Sir. He's the one who straightened our story out. He had a lot on the ball."

"Really?" Pierce allowed himself a smile. Feeling good, he asked, "Do you want a drink of water?"

Farley's mind was not yet in the present, and his brows knit in concentration at the question.

Pierce said, "Do you want to take a rest?"

Farley nodded.

Pierce said to Sproule, "Your honor, we don't need a formal recess. Perhaps five minutes right in place."

Sproule replied, "Take what you need."

Pierce motioned to Captain Longo, who brought Farley a glass of water.

Corva leaned toward Tyson. "Do you have an explanation for the incident at the burial mound?"

Tyson thought Corva's tone was a bit sharp. He replied, "Yes. Vietnam."

"That won't do. Did you order those peasants to be shot?"

"Yes.-

Corva unconsciously drew away from him.

Tyson said, "Look, Vince, I'll tell you what happened, then you can decide if you're defending a monster or not. Okay?"

Corva nodded. "Tell me before I cross-examine him.9' He added, "I'm . . .

I'm sure there's an explanation. You see what Pierce is doing?"

"Yes. Suggesting that I was prone to ordering massacres that day." Tyson thought a moment, then said, "Farley is believable, isn't he?"

Corva replied, "Inarticulate witnesses frighten me. But WORD OF HONOR * 579

on the cross, they always fall apart. I'll take Mr. Farley apart piece by piece."

Tyson looked at Farley. "I'm not enjoying that man's discomfort. -

"Don't worry about him. He might put you in jail." Corva asked, "If I had to assign a motive to him, I'd say that Brandt has some sort of hold on the wretch. Maybe drugs. But I don't think we'll ever know."

Tyson replied, "I remembered something after you asked me about motive.

I never knew too much about the interpersonal relationships of my platoon-an officer doesn't. But I do recall now that Farley and Cane were best buddies. Funny thing was that after the incident, I never put two and two together. But now it's making sense. Yet Farley never said a word to me afterward. Probably brooded about it, then forgot it. Then perhaps Brandt put the bug in his ear again. Farley looks and sounds like a guy who hasn't had a close friend since the day the shrapnel severed his spine. He may romanticize the past, though God knows there's not a thing to romanticize."

"There is if you were able to walk on your own two legs in the past."

Corva thought awhile then said, "We'll keep this motive in mind.

Meanwhile, I want enough information from you during the lunch recess to completely demolish him. I want him so demolished that Pierce will not call him back on a redirect exam to try to, as they say, rehabilitate the witness. Capice?"

" Right. -

Pierce said to Colonel Sproule, "I think we're ready, your honor." Pierce turned to Farley. "Mr. Farley, you stated that you were in the operating room of this hospital when Lieutenant Tyson got into an argument with a Frenchspeaking Caucasian whom you took to be a doctor. The argument concerned the doctor's apparent refusal to treat one of your wounded, Arthur Peterson. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir. -

"And you personally observed Lieutenant Tyson strike this doctor in the face?"

"Yes, sir. -

"And you stated that you then struck the doctor with your rifle. "

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Farley hesitated, then said, "Yes, Sir.

"Why did you strike the doctor with your rifle?"

"I . . . thought maybe he was going to swing at Lieutenant Tyson. The lieutenant didn't put him out, only pissed him off. So I hit the guy with my rifle."

"Where did you hit him?"

"In the stomach."

"With your M-16 rifle? You were carrying an M-16?"

"Yes, Sir. It's real light. It has a plastic stock. I only gave the guy a tap really. Doubled him up a little."

"Did you knock him down?"

"No, Sir. He was on his feet and chattering again a few minutes later.

"

"You thought Lieutenant Tyson might be assaulted by this man."

"Yes, Sir. The guy was really hot. So I cooled him down a little. "

Farley seemed to be remembering a time when he could do such a thing.

Pierce asked, "Did you think it was wrong to hit this man with your rifle?"

"You should never have to hit anybody without a reason. But I figured there was a good reason, because the lieutenant belted him first."

Pierce nodded, then said to Farley slowly and distinctly, "After this incident, you say that Lieutenant Tyson ordered Hernando Beltran to pull a patient off one of the operating tables-4here were six or so in this large operating theaterand put Arthur Peterson on it."

"Yes, Sir. The lieutenant was looking out for his man, but this led to a big argument with the other doctors there. Then this one doctor who spoke English goes after one of our guys, and the guy just reacted and pulled the trigger, and this doctor goes down."

"Did Lieutenant Tyson say or do anything at that point?"

"No, Sir. "

"He didn't say anything to the man who shot the Englishspeaking doctor?"

"No, Sir. "

"Then, you say someone shot the French-speaking doctor. 9 9

"Yes, Sir.

WORD OF HONOR 0 581

"And you don't remember who shot these doctors, except that you think it was the same man?"

Farley licked his lips. "Well ... I hate to say a guy shot someone if he didn't, but I think it was Simcox.-

"Harold Simcox."

Corva stood. "If it please the court, I would like the record to show that Harold Simcox is deceased and can obviously not defend himself against this allegation."

Colonel Sproule said, "Let the record reflect this. Continue, Colonel Pierce."

"Why do you think the man who shot the first doctor then shot the second?"

"Don't know. The first one sort of had it coming. The second one was the French guy who wouldn't help Peterson. "

"The doctor whom Lieutenant Tyson struck."

"Yes, sir. "

"What did Lieutenant Tyson do or say upon the shooting of the second doctor?"

"Nothing.

Pierce asked, "Did he approve? Did he say 'Stop that'? Did he make any statement?"

"No, sir. He didn't seem to care. You see, Brandt had yelled out that Peterson was dead. And I don't think Lieutenant Tyson cared about the doctors anymore. I think he was very angry."