Word of Honor (79 page)

The court reconvened at 6 P.m., and Pierce pronounced, "All the parties to the trial who were present when the court adjourned are again present in the court."

Which, Tyson thought, was true. And if anyone took attendance in the pews, he could probably announce the

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same thing. The Army had an obsession with "all present or accounted for."

Pierce reminded Brandt that he was still under oath, but Tyson didn't think that was going to do any more good this time than it did last time.

Pierce began with warm-up questions, then questions of recapitulation, then moved again to the front doors of Misdricorde Hospital. Pierce and Brandt by this time had developed that sense of timing and mutual understanding of speech patterns that characterized long question-and-answer periods. But Brandt did not once anticipate a question, and though the examination was smooth, it did not appear rehearsed.

Pierce had finally gotten to the second floor of the hospital, and there was a palpable sense of expectation in the court, as Pierce asked, "What did you see when you entered this room?"

"I saw immediately that it was an operating room. From what I could see, I didn't think the hospital was ever meant to fulfill the function of a general hospital. It seemed more a sanitoriurn than a hospital. My guess was that it was built by the French as a country rest home or convalescent hospital. "

Pierce seemed infinitely patient as Steven Brandt gave his professional opinion of the architecture, layout, and setting of the place. Tyson thought that if Steven Brandt had been a crippled, unemployed veteran instead of a rhedical doctor, neither Pierce nor anyone else would have had much patience for this. Brandt got down to specifics. "The operating room consisted of seven operating tables in an open space about thirty by forty feet. The walls were whitewashed stucco, as was the beamed ceiling. The windows were screened but not glazed as I said, and the floor was red terra-cotta tile. It was stark. There was electricity in the hospital, probably provided by a generator, and the operating room was lit by hanging incandescent fixtures. It was under these fixtures that the operating tables had been placed. Ceiling fans moved the air around, but the room stank of putrefying flesh and open body cavities. There were flies everywhere. I saw in an adjoining room a sink and toilet, WORD OF HONOR 9 613

and I assumed the water source was a collecting cistern on the roof. Hot water was boiled on a charcoal stove, also located in this adjoining room.

The conditions were primitive, to say the least, and not very sanitary. My feelings for the men and women who were going about their jobs there was one of admiration."

Pierce nodded in complete accord, though Tyson suspected he hadn't listened to a word of it.

Pierce asked, "Who entered the operating room with you?"

"I can't recall everyone who was there, but I know I entered with Lieutenant Tyson, his radio operator, Kelly, Richard Farley, and I believe two more men. Farley was assisting Moody, who'd been hit in the leg. The other two men were carrying Peterson, who was semiconscious and crying out.

"

"How many other people were in the room, and who were they?"

"There were about twenty hospital staff there. It was quite a mixture. All the doctors seemed to be Caucasian males. There were Oriental orderlies of both sexes. There were female nurses of both races--that is, Caucasian and Oriental. Most of the nurses wore white cotton dresses that I thought resembled nuns' habits. They wore crosses around their necks. There were religious adornments throughout the hospital, and I made the assumption it was a Catholic facility. "

Corva leaned toward Tyson. "I've seen courts-martial run until midnight."

Tyson said, "Brandt seems fresh. He's enjoying himself. "

Corva observed, "Pierce is in fine form, too. I think he'd like to finish up with Brandt tonight, while they're both on a roll. Sometimes you get a witness back the next day and the magic is gone."

~ Pierce asked Brandt, "Did any of the staff in the operating room formally greet you?"

"No. But Lieutenant Tyson said something to the doctor who was closest to the door. The doctor was working on a patient with a badly mangled leg.

Lieutenant Tyson walked

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over to the operating tab6-it was the closest one-and began talking to this doctor."

"In what language?"

"English, at first. But the doctor was intent on his patient. He said a few words to the nurse in what sounded like French, then Lieutenant Tyson switched to French."

"Do you speak French, Doctor?"

"No. But I'd heard enough of it over there by this time to recognize it."

"Were Lieutenant Tyson and the doctor speaking amicably?"

"Not at all. I could tell from the beginning that they were having strong words."

"About what?"

"I suppose about Lieutenant Tyson's insistence that someone do something for Peterson. Actually, Lieutenant Tyson did make several asides to me and Kelly in English, so I knew what was going on."

Pierce continued his questions, and the responses provided more detail than Picard had done in his book and Farley had given in his testimony. After fifteen minutes of examination concerning a segment of the incident that probably lasted one minute, Pierce asked, "What was your opinion--your opinion at the time--not in retrospect, but at the time--of Peterson's condition?"

"I told Lieutenant Tyson my opinion several times. Peterson's wound was mortal. Only a thoracic surgeon in a well-equipped hospital room could have saved him. I saw a similar wound at a place called Phu Lai. I told Lieutenant Tyson that if Peterson had any chance at all, it was to get him on a medevac: chopper. But he hadn't called one."

"Did he give you any reason for not calling one?"

"No, except that he was obsessed with the idea that if he were in a hospital, he should be able to get aid for his man. I explained that the hospital didn't look like it was equipped for what would have been open chest surgery. I think that was what this doctor was trying to tell him, too. " Brandt paused and said, "Actually, I told him to forget Peterson.

The man's blood pressure was dropping, and his breathing was very shallow.

It was a difficult thing to say, but the man was as good as dead."

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"How did Lieutenant Tyson react to what you were telling him?"

"Not very well. He was very agitated, and I had the impression he was more interested in imposing his will on that doctor and the staff of that hospital than he was in helping Arthur Peterson."

Tyson stood suddenly, sensing his chair falling backward. All noise including the court reporter's stenotype stopped. No one said anything for a second or two as Tyson stared at Brandt, his hands visibly shaking.

Corva looked at him but made no movement to get him in his seat.

Colonel Sproule said to Tyson, "Will the accused please be seated?" Before Tyson could comply or not comply Sproule said hastily, "The court will recess for fifteen minutes. -

Tyson and Corva walked in silence to Rabbi Weitz's office. Corva closed the office door and said, "You scared the shit out of old Sproule."

Tyson didn't reply.

Corva added, "Brandt went a little white, too." Corva went on, "And the board will have no trouble believing that you belted the French doctor."

Tyson walked to the window and lit a cigarette.

Corva added, "Of course, there was a positive side to that little scene.

Colonel Amos Moore smiled for the first time in two days. I saw it. A tight little smile of approval. -

Tyson shrugged.

Corva said, "They don't like the little shit, Ben."

Tyson nodded slowly. "But they believe him." Tyson drew on his cigarette.

"Do you think Pierce himself believes that I ordered enemy soldiers to be shot?"

"Oh, yes. And it gives him the moral resolve he needs to prosecute this case. The fact of you not reporting the massacre may be legal or technical murder, but neither he nor the government would have had much heart for this case if that's all they had against you. No, they have to believe that your illegal order to commit selective murder led to the mass murder of everyone else in that hospital."

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There was a knock on the door, and an MP called out, "Time. I I Colonel Pierce looked at his witness for some time, then asked, "What was the result of this altercation between Lieutenant Tyson and the French-speaking doctor?"

"Lieutenant Tyson slapped the man across the face."

Pierce nodded thoughtfully as if he'd heard this someplace before.

Recalling that both Picard and Farley had described what followed as confusion, he said to Brandt, "Would you tell us now, in your own words, what happened after Lieutenant Tyson struck this doctor. Take your time, Doctor, and relate the incident as you recall it from your perspective.

"

Brandt crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. He put the tips of his fingers together and cocked his head slightly to the side so that he was looking obliquely at Pierce. Tyson thought Brandt was about to tell Pierce that he was a very sick man - Instead, Brandt said, "The very next thing that happened was that Richard Farley swung his rifle and delivered a butt stroke to the doctor's groin. The doctor doubled over in pain.

Then Lieutenant Tyson turned to one of his men, Hernando Beltran, and told him to pull the doctor's patient off the operating table. Beltran did this, literally throwing this man with the mangled leg on the floor.

Two men lifted Peterson to the table. A white Caucasian female then placed a suction tube in Peterson's throat and with a foot-pedal device began aspirating Peterson's blood. But Peterson would have needed transfusions of whole blood in order to stabilize his pressure, and he would have needed immediate exploratory surgery to see if blood was collecting in the abdomen. I think the hospital staff or some of them were ready to make a show of saving his life in order to avoid an ugly scene."

Brandt looked at his surroundings, and his eyes went to the stained-glass windows where the light had long since faded. He seemed suddenly aware of the fact that he'd been testifying since morning, and he slumped a little in the chair. He cleared his throat and went on. "Now that Peterson was on the table, Lieutenant Tyson began giving orders regarding other matters. His first concern, and properly so, was WORD OF HONOR 9 617

that the hospital should be searched thoroughly for hidden enemy soldiers.

He ordered a room-to-room search. "

Pierce interrupted. "Excuse me. Who did he give this order to? Who was present in the operating room? Could you describe the general command structure and deployment of this platoon?"

Brandt replied, "There were a total of nineteen men who approached the hospital. As I said, it was a much reduced platoon. It was difficult to keep track of the comings and goings of everyone. Men were coming in and out, making hasty reports to Lieutenant Tyson. There were no sergeants in the platoon to give orders or supervise the men except Paul Sadowski, who had just been promoted to sergeant but who was not very experienced. There was virtually no command structure or organized deployment of the platoon.

But eventually, about twelve men wound up in the operating room. It was then that Lieutenant Tyson began to attempt some organization. But the men were not at home, so to speak, in this sort of situation. They were running about, gawking at patients and staff. Some of them had not been in contact with ... with other people for close to a year. That's the general impression I had. One of undisciplined behavior. Inappropriate behavior for the surroundings."

Pierce seemed to find this interesting. "Did this cause friction between the men of the platoon and the hospital personnel?"

"Oh, yes. There were several incidents."

"Did Lieutenant Tyson correct the behavior of his men?"

"Not that I saw or heard. He'd promised them a little treat, and he let them run loose. But as I said, most of them had gravitated toward the operating room where he was. Someone reported to him that the adjoining ward held six or seven wounded North Vietnamese soldiers. Their bloody khakis had been found lying around, and somehow the men matched the khakis to the soldiers, or perhaps there were other signs to indicate who was an enemy soldier. "

"And there were about twelve men in the operating room now. "

"Yes. And one of them was now having a verbal altercation with an English-speaking doctor. Then Beltran called out that Peterson had died.

Then Lieutenant Tyson gave an

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order to shoot any enemy soldiers who were found in the hospital." Brandt knew to stop there.

Pierce said, "You heard him give this order?"

"Yes. He was five feet from me."

"Can you recall in what form the order was given?"

"Not precisely. It was more of a response to these reports he was getting from a few men concerning the discovery of enemy soldiers in the beds.

Lieutenant Tyson simply said something like, 'Shoot them.' "

"Meaning the enemy soldiers."

"That was the subject at hand, yes."

"Did anyone appear to follow this order?"

"Yes. A few men hurried off, and we heard five or six shots. Almost immediately afterward, I heard a loud burst of gunfire right in the room.

I turned, and this Englishspeaking doctor lay on the floor bleeding. I couldn't tell who shot him or why. I dropped to one knee, behind the operating table. There were more bursts of automatic fire. I saw the French-speaking doctor drop to the floor. Then I heard two loud single shots, and I discovered later that someone had executed the two North Vietnamese patients in the operating room. I saw them sometime later with bullet wounds in their heads. I should point out that I couldn't see much from where I was on the floor. I had no idea at first where the gunfire was coming from except that it was close. I even thought it might be enemy fire. But within a minute I realized it wasn't, because no one was reacting as though it was. No one was saying 'take cover' or returning any fire. Everyone was on their feet within a minute. Then someone began ordering the hospital staff into the adjoining room, making them leave their patients on the tables."