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Killing Denied19 • •■By Green BeretsITRAVIS AKB, Calif. lt;UPI-Seven of the eight men involved in the Green Beret case in Vietnam returned home' today. Their commander denied there hacl even been a killing.Col. Robert B_ Rheault, 43, Vineyard llaven, Mass., former head of all Special Forces in Vietnam, answered no” several times when asked by newsmen if a slaying hadoccurred. He pointed out that, a body had never been found.Asked point-blank ; if he was saying-'it tever happened, he answered “thaCs jjgjjt.”Most of the newsmens’ oilier questions concerning the case drew a crisp “no- comment’* fmmlhe colonel, who spoke for the group during a brief newsconference.Asked why he thought the charges had been dropped, Rheault commented that because of the classified information,'a trial would not be in the besL interests of the nation. Our honor has teen cleared.He said he felt tihat he andhis comrades had not suffered any damage to their careers.“fn the American system of justice, a person is innocent until proven guilty/’ he added.The men arrived at 1:40 a.m. PDT aboard a DC8. As they were going through custom?, the dozens of random servicemen in transit at the big base rushed .to see them and applauded them warmly. The Berets wore fatigues and their famed green caps as they stood in a row and listened to their commander field newsmen’squestions.Traveling with Rheault were Capt. Robert F. Marasco, 27, of Bloomfield, N.J., who had .been named' by the Army ■ as the triggerman in the slaying of a suspected double agent; Capt. Budge E. Williams, 28, . ofAthens, Ga., Capt. Lcland J. Brmulcy, 27, of Duncan, Okla., Maj, David E. Crew 33, of Cedar Rapids, Towa; Maj. Tltomas C. Middleton Jr., 29, of Jefferson, S.C., and CWOEdward M. Boyle, 26, of NewRheault said he would be glad to go back io Vietnam. He said he did not think the incident has affected the morale of the Special ’ Forces.Now that we've been exonerated they will carry on as professional soldiers,” ■The charges. against the Green • Berets were that ' a Vietnamese named Thai Khac Chuycn, 31, was drugged al the Green * Beret headquarters in Nha Trang-last.June, then shot and dumped into' the SouthChina Sea in a weighted canvas bag after lie’was^discovered spying for both sides.More Troops WithdrawnFromVietnamYork City.SAIGON (UPI)—The withdraw wal of 4,900 more Marines from Vietnam began today, to be completed next Monday when all will have departed, for the United States.Some of the Leathernecks, all combat troops, boarded planes and.others took to ships in .the northern war zone for the trip home- as part _ of President Nixon’s cutback'of 35,9GB more troops by Dec. 15.'They followed 1,000 tnen of the 3rd Marine Division who left Tuesday for Okinawa—the j first combat troops to have departed under •the second p5iase of the U.S. pullput.All 18,009 Marines in the division are scheduled for withdrawal under Hie plan. One regiment of . the division, the 9th, left in the initial cutback mJuly. . . •The goal in Ihe-lhS.. cutback is to leave South Vietnamese ground troops with the brunt ofthe fighting, supported by U.S.'air power and supply forces..That formula proved successful in the Mekong Delta Tuesday, military. sokesmen said, as government troops and U.S. helicopter gunships teamed% Berc, departing «j»gtoday, is Sfc Alvin Smith,-41, of I 111(2 boum Viens*im,se xroopb,Naples, Fla. I (Continued on Page 3 Col. 51
Newspaper Details
Canandaigua Daily Messenger
Canandaigua, New York, US
Wed, Oct 01, 1969
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Paul M.
NY, USA 12 Oct 2020
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