Into Cambodia - Keith Nolan [96]
Chapter 18: CROSSING PATHS
For Sergeant Hackbarth of H Company, 2d Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry, the battle for Snoul was noisy, dusty, and confusing. Only when they took the market under fire did he get another glimpse of what he thought was the enemy. He turned his .50-caliber on them and put a burst through the trees that they were moving behind, but then, horrified, he released his grip on the butterfly trigger. The movement had actually been a man, a woman, and several children, and he watched helplessly as they disappeared through a hedgerow. Moving into the flattened and smoldering market from a different angle the next morning, Hackbarth again saw no sign of the enemy. Another platoon, however, did come across seven bodies near a gazebo. Although three of them appeared to be enemy soldiers, the other four were civilians, including a horribly maimed little girl.
Monitoring the casualty report, Hackbarth had an uneasy feeling that the war had turned him from a young patriot to an old pessimist, and that it had been his reflexive burst that had killed the civilians. It took a long time to reconcile himself to that possibility.
Rolling down the wide dirt streets into the center of Snoul, where some of the houses had been flecked by shell fragments but where most were unscathed, the tankers found wooden crates of bottled Coca-Cola and Orange Crush. The soda was enthusiastically liberated, as were several chickens. Hackbarth also noticed a Vespa 90 minibike lying on the side of the road, so he radioed Sergeant First Class King, who responded, “Well, pick the damn thing up!” Hackbarth and Langston jumped down from the turret, hoisted the Vespa onto the back deck, and strapped it down. The Vespa turned out to be a big hit, and guys took turns gunning it around until Rocky, their Kit Carson Scout, climbed aboard. He drove it up the cargo ramp of a helicopter, and both Scout and Vespa left Cambodia aboard the Chinook. The Scout eventually returned, but without the minibike. Not long after that, Sergeant Hackbarth was standing front and center before his company commander, platoon leader, and platoon sergeant, who all wanted to know where the scooter had gone. They informed Hackbarth that a certain Cambodian national had returned to Snoul to find his vehicle missing and had filed a complaint. As far as could be determined now, however, the minibike was in Saigon, a gift from the Kit Carson to his girlfriend.
Actually, Hackbarth wasn't the only one to be upbraided: The entire squadron was under investigation thanks to a Chinook full of reporters who had landed that morning after the battle. The flavor of their dispatches was typified by United Press International:
SNOUL, Cambodia–American tanks today smashed through the smoldering ruins of this rubber plantation town leveled by massive air strikes. Their crews looted what remained…. Thus did Snoul become the first Cambodian town of significant size to be destroyed by American arms… men ploughed their tanks through a children's playground bordered by empty fighting holes. As they passed the empty shops, the GIs helped themselves to beer, cases of soft drinks, mirrors, suitcases, shoes, clocks, and even a motorcycle they strapped onto a tank. One shed standing after the air strikes was set afire after tankers looted it…. At one shop a GI spotted a display of sunglasses. “Hey, man,” yelled another. “Grab them shades.” Several GIs helped themselves to