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MANIFEST DESTINY
Necklaces of Human Ears Through History
The scalping party, 'Blood Meridian' to Iraq

... The reincarnation of Glanton's scalping party was an elite 45-man unit of the 101st Airborne Division known as Tiger Force.

The Blade's intricate reconstruction of its murderous march through the central highlands of Vietnam in summer and fall 1967 needs to be read in full, horrifying detail. Blade reporters interviewed more than 100 American veterans and Vietnamese survivors.

Tiger Force atrocities began with the torture and execution of prisoners in the field, then grew to the routine slaughter of unarmed farmers, elderly people, even small children. As one former sergeant told the Blade, "It didn't matter if they were civilians. If they weren't supposed to be in an area, we shot them. If they didn't understand fear, I taught it to them."

Very early, Tiger Force began scalping its victims (the scalps were dangled from the ends of M-16s) and cutting off their ears as souvenirs. One member, who would later behead an infant, wore the ears as a ghoulish necklace (just like the character Toadvine in "Blood Meridian''), while another mailed them home to his wife. Others kicked out the teeth of dead villagers for their gold fillings.

A former Tiger Force sergeant told reporters that he "killed so many civilians he lost count." ...

...Stories about the beheading of the baby spread so widely that the Army was finally forced to conduct a secret inquiry in 1971. The investigation lasted for almost five years and probed 30 alleged Tiger Force war crimes. Evidence was found to support the prosecution of at least 18 members of the platoon.

In the end, however, a half dozen of the most compromised veterans were allowed to resign from the Army, avoiding military indictment, and in 1975 the Pentagon quietly buried the entire investigation.

According to the Blade, "It is not known how far up in the Ford administration the decision (to bury the cases) went," but it is worth recalling who the leading actors were at the time: The secretary of Defense, then as now, was Donald Rumsfeld, and the White House chief of staff was Dick Cheney. ...