Word: battalion
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...days of combat command, Herbert molded the dissension-ridden 2nd Battalion into the top performing unit in the Brigade, if not in all of Vietnam. He amused other commander by staying on the ground with his troops. That, he felt, was where a combat commander belonged. It also gave him the opportunity to prevent some war crimes, and observe others. He said Colonel Franklin repeatedly told him to ignore them. Herbert would not. He says his refusal caused his premature exit from the Army...
...senior legal officer, Colonel John Douglass was the man to whom Herbert first complained after Major General John Barnes relieved him of battalion command on April 4, 1969. Douglass categorically denied Herbert's version of their conversation. According to Herbert, he spoke at length to Douglass and told him about the atrocities. Douglass said that it was a short meeting with no mention of bloodshed. "Why haven't you said this up to now?" Wallace asked incredulously. "Nobody's asked me," replied Douglass...
...program undermines Herbert's credibility without supporting the Army's. During his 58-day battalion command, Herbert earned a Silver and three Bronze Stars and was about to be recommended for a Distinguished Service Cross. Then he was abruptly relieved of his job. The explanation Barnes offered Wallace-that Herbert lied about enemy casualties and was a "killer"-seemed lame. Not surprisingly, 60 Minutes endorsed Herbert's request that the Army make public all records of hearings and investigations related to his case...
Tiger. After chafing for four months at desk jobs, Herbert got what he had always longed for-the command of a battalion. He quickly turned it into a model for the entire brigade. Most commanders in Viet Nam watched the action from helicopters-a form of vertical absenteeism. Herbert led his men on the ground, right down into enemy bunkers. Fellow officers often relied upon artillery strikes to do the killing and the grunts to do the counting after death. Partly as a result, civilian dead were regularly recorded as killed Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers. Herbert trained...
...results were spectacular. In the first month, his battalion killed more of the enemy than the other four battalions combined. It captured 90 P.O.W.s; the other four captured eleven. Such success seemed a mystery to other officers, but to Herbert it was as obvious as a pair of cross hairs. "Rabbits hide, tigers stalk," he writes. "If the infantry is to win, it must be a tiger." In 58 days of combat, Tiger Herbert won another Silver and three more Bronze Stars...