hilly, October l7. l9"

ICARLET AND- ILACK

PA I lovon

Colonel Calls Alumnus' War Report “Treason"

By Mark Graeser

Robert Hodierne, 24, of Gales.
burg, 111., a 1968 Grinnell
graduate, made the news in a
big way recently—for "making
news.” He wrote a story tor
the oiiicial military newspaper
in Asia, the Pacific Stars and
Stripes, which so irked the chief
army spokesman in Vietnam,
Col. James Campbell, that the
colonel accused Hodierne 0i
“irresponsible reporting” that
"does not harder on treason,
it is treason."

Campbell made the charge in
l speech he wrote for an inion
motion officer’s meeting earlier
this month. In his speech he
revealed that because of stories
by Hodiernc and two pulitzer
prize reporters for the
Associated Press, “the Pacific
stars and Stripes has earned
for itself the title of the Hanoi
Herald.”

The day after his speech was
made public, the U.S. Army
announced that Campbell was
being “reassigned” to some
other capacity within the us.
Army headquarters, Vietnam,
in Long Einh. His new assign-
ment was not speciﬁed. Army
officials also declined to reveal
whether Campbell would take
over editorship of the Stars and
Stripes next January as had
been planned before his contro
yersial speech was published.

Hodieme’s story, reprinted in
this week's 5&3, bearing its or-
iginal headline "A Weary Com-
pany Fights On with Rifles,
Grenades. Guts," describes a
“very close, personal. infantry
fight" between the Viet Cong
and members of the Americal

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Division in the Hiep Duo Valley.
The story mentions casualties,
tiredness, cowardice, lack of
helicopter support, and the
company pulling back.

Apparently, no one disputes
the facts in the story, par-
ticularly the casualty ﬁgures.
Even Colonel Campbell didn’t
deny that the {acts in the story
were accurate, but said
“whether these ﬁgures are true
is completely beside the point.

“it is my contention that such
Irresponsible reporting is absol-
utely devastating to the morale.
t .of all soldiers. It is also my
contention that such reporting«
in the Stars and Slripes of all
publications‘is of tremendous
aid and comfort to the enemy,”
Campbell said.

In leaiing through the Stars
and Stripes, a daily with a
circulation oi 250 thousand, one
notices a dearth of stories from
the wariront. There are stories
with Saigon datelines, but these
are mostly trom either AF or
UPI. Paradoxlcally, Colonel
Campbell decried the lack of
frontrline reporting, saying:
“With the exception of report-
er Hodieme, the entire staff
apparently considers the battle
zone off limits. . ."

l-lodierne, according to Pro-
fessor Herbert Prescott (Jour-
nalism) who knew him when
he edited the 5&3 in 1965, “H0-
dierne is the kind of reporter
who gets himseli right in the
midst or things, even battle
zones."

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A Weary Company Fights On
With Rifles, Grenades, Guts

By Spec. 4 Bob Hodierne

(Reprinted trom the Paciﬁc
STARS AND STRIPES.)

Hiep Duc Valley, Vietnam —
The fighting here is a very
close, personal, infantry fight.

The valley is dried terraces,
each terrace three or {our feet
higher or lower than the one
next to it. Around each of
these tiny ,lields are thick
hedgerows. And in the middle
of the hedgerows are ditches
and bunkers — ditches and
bunkers that you just know
Charlie Is in.

Bravo co. 4th on. 3Ist lnt.,
Americal Div., knows it. They
were here when it all started
last week and have been chew-
ed up again until Thursday
moming they numbered only 73
men and two officers.

Thursday evening, when the
lighting was over, they would
number only 46 men and one
officer,

Thursday morning Bravo Co.
moved slowly forward .— tor-
ward being the direction they
had to move — to join Marines
lighting from the other end of
the valley. The Marines were
just a few hundred meters
ahead and everyone hoped this
time they might ﬁnd nothing
in between.

At 11 am. two machine guns.
[W0 AK47 and a M79 grenade
launcher blew that hope away.

Pinned down in the late

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morning sun, a very hot sun,
Eravu had a man killed, a new
guy, and 13 others wounded or
nearly unconscious as a result
of the heat. Heat that some-
times reaches 120 degrees.

Caretuliy they pulled back,
leaving the body of the new
guy, to evacuate their wounded.

By 2 pm the 61 men or
Bravo Cu. were ready to move
back into the same area. No
one really wanted to go. They
just wanted to sit in the shade
and be left alone.

The commander, Capt. Wil-
liam H. Gayler, explained the
situation. There would be no
helicopter gonship support. The
gunships had more important
things to do than support
Bravo Co. Air and artillery
couldn’t be used because the
Marines were too close. They
had no mortars. The infantry-
man, with his riile and gren-
ade, was expected to dig out
the North Vietnamese.

Wearily, Bravo moved for-
ward again — only to be
pinned down almost at once.

Now crawling ahead, the ﬁrst
15 men were cut off from the
rest of the company. Men who
had been tired for days, men
with no water, men who were
really scared, were on their
own.

The man nearest the cut of!
group was told to carry gren»
rides forward to them. He re-
fused, crawled back and asked
the medic tor pills tor his
nerves. While hiding back with
the wounded, the nervous sol-
dier was wounded by 3 M79
grenade round fired by tho
NVA.

While the rest of the com-
pany lay pinned down and help—

less, the point group fought it
out with Charlie. Late in the
alternoon, just as darkness was
coming, the point men man<
aged to escape, crawling a row
meters back to the rest of the
company.

Four more Americans were
dead — their bodies still fur-
ward.

The company threw out tear
gas and looking like monsters
in their gas masks, tried to
advance against the enemy to
recover the bodies. They man-
aged to get just one of them.
Five more NVA were dead and
two captured M60 machine
guns destroyed.

As night fell, the company
straggled back to find a place
to sleep.

Friday morning, more tired
than Thursday morning, but
now only 47 strong, Bravo
knew they would have to go
back in to get the bodies.

PANEL SET

The Departments of History
and Political Science am spon-
soring a special panel discus-
sion next Monday, Oct. 20, at
8 pm. in the South Lounge at
the Forum.

Professors Guthrie, Gurofi
and Grey will speak on the
“Liberalization of Soviet
Society.” Anyone interested is
welcome to attend.
W

Opportunities

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