We could never really write about the Vietnamese life style, or how the Vietnamese viewed their life in their universe, because it's so contrary to how we viewed Vietnam and the purpose of Vietnam. And the dichotomy would be very apparent in any story. We could not write of taking souvenirs-souvenirs that we witnessed being taken, such as ears and teeth. You can't help but notice it because it happens all the time and if you did write of it, it would be redlined and, of course, you'd be on the carpet if your Information Services Office could find you out on the field. You could not write of villages being burned, of crops destroyed. You could not write of defoliation, of the use of tear gas. The use of tear gas on at least three occasions-I witnessed tear gas pumped into caves and people running out and shot down as they run out of these caves. When the story of tear gas being used in 7th Marines in 1965 was exploded, through Colonel-the regimental commander at the time said it was only for humane purposes. And I witnessed a few of those humane purposes and I did write it in the story, infuriated, and it was redlined. The use of napalm: you can't even use the term napalm anymore. It's called incindergel, like jello. You could not write of women guerrillas, women prisoners; especially the deaths of women, children, old men and women.

Franklin Shepard, 23, S. Sgt. (E-6), 5/60, 9th Infantry Division (March 1968 to August 1969).

Well, as you were mentioning, there are many ways to build up your body count. In our particular unit, as John mentioned, he had the Recondo badge, We had this badge known as the Sat Cong badge. This badge, translated into English means "Kill Cong." This represents one Viet Cong-or civilian, whatever it may be, because there's really no way of telling. It represents one life. These badges were given when someone could prove that he had killed a Viet Cong, or Vietnamese. There are many ways of doing this. One is to have somebody verify that you did in fact see him kill a Vietnamese. Another way is-and this is a common way-to cut off the ear of the dead Vietnamese and bring it in. You could exchange it for one of these badges. The badges were created on a battalion level; I have the order here that created this badge, and the sick individual that signed it.

Moderator. I tell you Frank, on the "sick individual" let's just say a "Captain in the infantry."

Shepard. All right. This is a disposition form. It's an official Army form dated 28 June '69. It reads as follows: Any member of this battalion who personally kills a Viet Cong will be presented a Sat Cong badge-Kill Viet Cong-for his gallant accomplishment. The Sat Cong badge will only be given to those individuals who have accomplished the above-mentioned feat. There will be no honorary presentations. Furthermore, only personnel who have personally killed a Viet Cong may wear the Sat Cong badge. Company Commanders will draw Sat Cong badges from the Executive Officer, and will maintain all control." And also, explaining more about the badge, this is what is known as a Cheiu Hoi leaflet. On one side, it's in Vietnamese; on the other sidt it's translated into English. This is used for two purposes: It's to build up the morale of the soldier, make him want to kill; and its also to scare the hell out of the Viet Cong. It's entitled, Viet Cong, N. V. A. Beware. It says: You are now located in the Area of Oporations of the Cong-Killer 5th Battalion, 60th Infantry.

Each member of his elite American unit is a trained killer, dedicated to the annihilation of every VC-NVA. The proof of this dedication is the Cong badge he proudly wears proclaiming he has personally killed a VC-NVA. We don't rest; we will hunt you with our helicopters, track you down with our radar, search above and below the water with boats, bombard you with artillery and air strikes. There are no havens here. You are not safe, nor are you welcome here. Rally to the government of Vietnam now, or face the fact that you will soon join your ancestors. Signed, Cong-killer 5th Battalion, 60th Infantry."

Moderator. That's sort of interesting, the "you are not safe nor are you welcome here"-this was in Vietnam, was it not?

Shepard. Yes, it's their country.

Moderator. Okay, do you have any evidence for the press that this actually did take place, other than your saying so?

Shepard. Yes, I do. I have two letters from the Defense Department admitting that the Sat Cong badge was initiated in my unit. They say the practice was discontinued after this letter was written. As I say, they do admit that it did happen. There's no question in their mind that it did happen. They pretend that they don't know the purpose of it, but as I say, I have the orders that were issued. I know the purpose for it, and everybody that was there knows the purpose for it. They say they can't do anything about this; they couldn't

prosecute the individuals, as they indicated they would if they could, because the commanding officer and the brigade commander were killed in a helicopter crash. Well, that's kind of funny. In the Calley case they say that they can't prosecute the higher officers because its an individual thing, and there they turn it around. It's another inconsistency.

Steve Pitkin, 20, SP/4, "C" Co., 2/239, 9th Infantry Division (from May 1969 to July 1969).

I've sort of got a little hassle by the idea of coming up here, sitting down and telling basically war stories to everybody, because I'm sure, besides the FBI agents that we have in here, most of you people are against the war. Most of you people know atrocities have been committed. The thing I sort of wanted to impress was that there are different sorts of atrocities being committed. It doesn't necessarily have to be in Vietnam, although those are the ones that get the most attention. But, I'm sort of directing this one at the present because I think one of the most atrocious things about Vietnam is the way it was covered in the press. I guess it's sort of like you shouldn't have news reporters over there; you ought to have sports writers, box scores and everything. I guess the war's winding down, because this week we only lost 27 men and because Richard Nixon says so.

But ask anyone of those 27 men if the war's winding down. But you won't get an answer, you know. Well, what I'm trying to say is one of the saddest experiences I had is when I returned from Southeast Asia and I was waiting to catch a plane from Frisco Airport to Baltimore. It's like two o'clock in the morning or something and four long-haired people came in. And, you know, it's okay with me, but they laughed at me and in a sense I really had to fight back tears, I didn't say anything. I tried not to let it phase me that much, but we're not tin soldiers, we're people; the people they sent over to Vietnam are blacks: they sent a lot of college graduates and college students over there. I don't know if this is a form of genocide, but believe me, if you look up the definition, it sort of hints at it.

I feel that if people knew more the in Vietnam and about the enormous underground and how well organized it is over there, they might have some second thoughts before they called me a pig or before they called me a tin soldier, laughed at me. I figured before I went over to Nam I had a choice of either going to jail or to Canada or making it over there. I figured that I was doing more in a capacity to attack it over there in Vietnam, where the problem was actually happening, then I would be sitting in jail. Although, believe me, anybody who does go to jail or does human part of the American soldier go to Canada, has my full support. I think it's an atrocity on the part of the United States Army. (I don't know about the Marines, Navy, or anything else), to allow eight weeks of basic training, nine weeks of advanced infantry training, and then to send you against an enemy that's been fighting in his own backyard for twenty-five years. The training that they gave us, the infantry, really amounted to nothing but familiarization with the small-arms weapons and the explosives you would use once you got over there. We attacked a mock Vietnamese village in the snow at Fort Dix. An interesting point: a lot of times when we were put on line to attack a point of something, you were told not to fire until your left feet hit the ground. I remember asking a drill sergeant. "Do they really do this in Nam?" "Yeah, you know."