Word of Honor (93 page)

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Corva thought about that a moment, then asked, "How about your minister, Reverend Symes? He is most anxious to speak for you."

"Symes is most anxious to speak, period. He'll begin at my baptism."

"Well, how about-?"

"No one. Not my ex-scout leader either. Let Kelly's statement stand by itself."

Corva leaned across the table. "Look, Ben, now that you've established thatjail sucks beyond a reasonable doubt, let's try to make sure you don't go back this afternoon."

Tyson nodded.

Corva continued, "Testimony regarding your character is the last thing that board will hear before they go off to vote on a sentence."

"My character is irrelevant. The board has the facts." Tyson stood and went to the window. The sky was darkening, and a few drops of rain splattered against the glass.

Corva said, "You're not in the best humor this morning. "

Tyson shook his head. "I woke up in jail this morning. "

Corva stood and took a'step toward Tyson. "Talk it out. "

Without turning, Tyson said, "It's all hitting me now. Farley, looking so pathetic. Brandt, being destroyed by Kelly. Sadowski, Scorello, Beltran, Walker, Kalane . . . now they've got to live not only with what they've done and with everyone knowing about it, but also with the fact that they didn't take the stand like men because some wimpy lawyers got to them."

Corva laid his hand tentatively on Tyson's shoulder.

Tyson went on, "And if I go to jail ... what does a man say to his wife when he comes home after some years in jail? Do women wait? What is your experience?"

"Ben, that's enough."

Tyson said, "And David's life would be ruined--

"Enough!" Corva grabbed Tyson's shoulder and with a surprising strength spun him around and shoved him toward the wall. "Enough!"

Tyson clenched his fist and glared down at the smaller man. Corva glared back. Finally Tyson said, "Okay. Had a bad night."

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Corva went to the table and poured more coffee. He said, "Do you still want to take the stand?"

"Yes. ' I

"Do you know what you want to say?"

Tyson nodded.

Still standing, Corva shuffled through some papers on the table. He said,

"The last piece in this Oriental mosaic fell into place last night."

Tyson looked at his lawyer.

Corva picked up a telex message and glanced at it. He said, "At first I thought it was the government who was somehow keeping her under wraps, the way they kept Kelly under wraps. But I should have known.

"She's dead?"

"No, no. She's very much alive and well. It was the church who removed her from the world." Corva added, "I told you Interpol thought she was in Italy, and she is. In a place called Casa Pastor Angelicus. It is a sort of cloister for nuns built on a hill outside of Rome. She is effectively cut od from the outside world." Corva added with a half smile, "I don't think a subpoena would ever reach her."

Tyson stayed silent a few seconds before asking, "How ... how is it that she is there?"

"Well, apparently when the first public stories of this appeared in May or June, someone, perhaps in the Vatican, got wind of it and had her sequestered. I would doubt that she knows anything about your difficulties. "

Tyson nodded. "Well, I suppose it's just as well, isn't it? It's good that there are places left in this world where people can live in absolute peace. So," he said, "that is a closed chapter." He rubbed his brow. "Thank God somebody was spared from all of this."

"But perhaps someday, when this is over and she returns to her hospital work, you might visit her."

Tyson shook his head. "No. I think, as Kelly said, this is the end of the incident. Whoever walked away from that hospital should keep walking, in different directions, and never look back and never reach out to one another. Not ever again. "

Corva replied, "Maybe you're right. No more reunions.

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Though," he said musingly, "I would have liked her to tell the court and everyone that you saved her life. That is a story that should be known."

"Is it? It doesn't fit, Vince. Vietnam means loss. Lost war, lost honor, lost innocence, lost souls. Don't confuse everyone with a story of two people who found something in each other."

"You're too cynical this morning."

"Well, then, let's say it is a private story and it's just as well that it won't be used for any public purpose. I would never have let you call her to the stand anyway.-

"I know that. I just wanted to find her for you."

"Thank you."

"Time to go."

Ben Tyson sat at the defense able, Pierce, Weinroth, and

their table. Tyson said,

Why do they always

beat us here?"

"I once stole

Pierce's water pitcher,

and he's not going to

let it happen again."

54 - . At 10 A.M. sharp,

the sergeant at arms

called out, "All rise!"

Colonel Sproule entered the court and took his place behind the pulpit.

"The court will come to order."

Everyone sat. Tyson saw that the chapel was still filling with people and the MPs didn't seem to be stopping anyone from cramming in. This was going to be a short session.

He looked up into the dark choir and saw, standing at the railing, Chet Brown. Brown waved a cheery greeting, but Tyson did not acknowledge it.

He looked into the front row and saw Marcy, who blew 723

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him a kiss. David was there, as was his mother, as Corva had insisted. Also in the front pew now was Karen Harper, minus her friend. She was sitting a few feet from Marcy, and they occasionally exchanged a word or two.

The chapel smelled of damp clothing and chilly rain. The persistent drizzle ran down the stained-glass windows, giving them a flat lifeless appearance, making the depictions on them look like cartoons.

Tyson looked again at the prosecution table. Pierce, Weinroth, and Longo sat talking in low whispers, and for the first time since Tyson had seen them at the hearing, they looked quite human. In fact, he even credited them with human attributes, such as love, money problems, and family cares.

He noticed, too, that Major Judith Weinroth was very much taken with Colonel Graham Pierce, and he fantasized for them an affair.

Tyson looked at Colonel Sproule, shuffling papers behind the pulpit. The man was a product of another era. He had sat there, day after day, literally and figuratively looking down on the court. And clearly he had been shocked in an old-fashioned sense of the word by what he'd heard.

Tyson looked now across the open space at the board table, which was empty.

Beyond the table, in the wing of the altar area, stood two armed MPs at parade rest. Tyson spoke to Corva while still looking at the two NIPS. "The armed and the unarmed."

Corva nodded.

"That's another way to divide the world."

Again Corva nodded. "That's the way it's always been.

"I have a small sense of how the Viet peasants felt when they had to deal with us. How do you deal with a man carrying an M-16 rifle if you're carrying a basket of vegetables?"

"Very carefully."

"Right. The Aussie doctor didn't understand that."

"Apparently not," replied Corva as he looked through some papers on the table. "Are you ready for your courtroom debut?"

"I ought to be."

"True. I I

Corva noted, "A jury often knows how they're going to WORD OF HONOR 0 725

vote on a verdict. There are only two choices. But sentencing is much more complex. What you say may make a difference. "

"In other words, don't blow it."

Corva didn't respond.

Colonel Sproule caught Colonel Pierce's eye and indicated he was ready.

Colonel Pierce stood and said, "All the parties to the trial who were present when the court closed are now present except the members of the board." Pierce sat.

Colonel Sproule turned to the defense table. "Will the accused please rise?"

Tyson stood.

Sproule said, "Lieutenant Benjamin Tyson, you are advised that you may now present testimony in extenuation or mitigation of the offense of which you stand convicted. You may, if you wish, testify under oath as to these matters, or you may remain silent, in which case the court will not draw any inferences from your silence. In addition, you may, if you wish, make an unsworn statement in mitigation or extenuation of the offense of which you stand convicted. This unsworn statement is not evidence, and you cannot be cross-examined upon it, but the prosecution may offer evidence to rebut anything contained in the statement. The statement may be oral or in writing or both. You may make it yourself, or it may be made by your counsel or by both of you. Consult with your counsel if you need to, and advise this court what you wish to do."

Tyson replied, "I wish to make a sworn statement, your honor. "

Sproule nodded as though in approval. He turned toward the sergeant at arms and said, "Sergeant, call the board to court. "

Tyson felt his heart beating heavily for the first time since this began.

He wanted a drink of water but didn't take the cup in front of him.

Corva leaned toward him. "I am not going to ask you questions or elicit anything from you. You are on your own, Lieutenant. "

"That's fine. I've heard enough out of you to last me a lifetime. "

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Corva grunted.

The members of the court-martial board arrived in their usual single file and went to their chairs in order of rank, but this time, the court already having been called to order, they sat immediately.

Colonel Sproule wasted no time either. "Lieutenant Tyson, will you take the stand, please?"

Tyson walked unhesitantly toward the witness chair and reached it at the same time Pierce did. The two men stood less than three feet apart, and at this distance Tyson was able to see freckles on Pierce's remarkable scarlet skin.

Pierce said, "Raise your right hand."

Tyson raised his hand.

Pierce and Tyson looked directly at each other as Pierce recited, "Do you swear that the evidence you shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"I do."

"Please be seated."

Tyson sat.

Corva, still at the defense table but standing now, said, "Your honor, members of the board; Lieutenant Tyson will make a statement." Corva sat.

Tyson found himself looking at his surroundings from a different perspective. He could no longer see Sproule, whose fidgeting with his hearing aid was distracting. But he could see Pierce, sitting at the table ten feet away directly in front of him. Pierce was leaning forward over his crossed arms as though very eager to hear him. Tyson suspected this was meant to unnerve him, but realizing that, he found it somewhat ludicrous.

Weinroth and Longo were sitting straight, which looked more appropriate to the military surroundings. The board was to his left, and he could see them by turning his head slightly in that direction.

Beyond the prosecution table but partly blocked by it was pew after pew of heads and shoulders, all eyes on him. Tyson said in a non-nal conversational tone of voice, "I realize that any statement I make here in extenuation and mitigation could only be construed as a self-serving one.

But the military system of justice is unique in that it allows a convicted man to present certain facts that may diminish

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his sentence. But I'm not certain that it would be appropriate for me to go into personal details of my life, as you know them as well as anyone, due to the public attention that has surrounded not only this trial, but also my personal life. And I'm not certain it's necessary to attempt to convey to you any more of the horrors of war than you've already had conveyed to you.

I understand that the Code specifically recognizes combat fatigue and all that this term implies as an extenuating factor in cases of murder such as these. But I know, and you know, that the crime for which I stand convicted was not the crime that occurred in that hospital, but the crime that occurred some days later in base camp, when I walked past battalion headquarters and failed to enter there and do my duty. That crime did not occur under conditions of battle fatigue. I cannot sit here in good conscience and tell you that if I had it to do over again, I would do my duty as I clearly understood it. On the contrary, if I had it to do over again, I would do the same thing. And though my life and freedom depend on it, I cannot tell you why I would again willfully commit the same crime. I know that I briefly considered reporting this crime of mass murder. But only briefly; and that was a result of my officer training and my other moral training such as it may have been. I did not wrestle long with my conscience before deciding that I would not do my duty. And after I had made the decision not to speak of this crime ever again, I felt that I had made the right decision. If I said otherwise to you, you would wonder, and properly so, why I did not rectify my original decision, which I know full well was both an immoral and illegal one. So I stand here convicted of a crime I did commit, and we should let the matter rest there."

Tyson surveyed the silent court, then continued, "As for my men, you may have the charitable thought that I was protecting them out of a sense of loyalty, comradeship, and that special paternalism that exists between officers and men. There would be some truth in that thought, but you know and I know that loyalty, comradeship, and paternalism should not extend that far. I do feel some natural regret for the lives that have been perhaps ruined or altered by the public testimony we have all heard here-But balanced against the lives that were ended at that hospital, there cannot and

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should not be too many tears shed for any of the men of the first platoon of Alpha Company. I do feel some sympathy for the families who have discovered things about their sons and husbands that were best left undiscovered. A day or so after I killed Larry Cane, I wrote his family a letter of condolence in which I said he died bravely. He was a brave man in many ways, but he did not die bravely, and I again offer my condolences to his family. "