James Hawkins, from Maysville, Kentucky

Maysville, Kentucky

Maysville is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,993 at the 2000 census, making it the fiftieth largest city in Kentucky by population. Maysville is on the Ohio River, northeast of Lexington. It is the principal city of the Maysville...

, was a Battlefield commissioned Second lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...

 and field operations leader of the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 Tiger Force

Tiger Force

Tiger Force was a task force of the United States Army, 1st Battalion , 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade , 101st Airborne Division, which fought in the Vietnam War....

 commando unit, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade (Separate), 101st Airborne Division

101st Airborne Division

The 101st Airborne Division—the "Screaming Eagles"—is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France, Operation Market Garden, the...

, during the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. The unit was featured in the Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning book Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War, written by Toledo Blade

The Blade (newspaper)

The Blade is a daily newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, first published on December 19, 1835.- Overview :David Ross Locke gained national fame for the paper during the Civil War era by writing under the pen name Petroleum V. Nasby. Writing under the pen name, Locke wrote satires ranging on topics from...

reporters Michael D. Sallah

Michael D. Sallah

Michael D. Sallah is a Pulitzer Prize- winning American investigative journalist from Toledo, Ohio.-Life:He graduated from St. John's Jesuit High School and the University of Toledo, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism....

 and Mitch Weiss

Mitch Weiss

Mitchell S. Weiss is an American investigative journalist, and editor of the Charlotte Observer. He won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, with Joe Mahr and Michael D. Sallah.-Life:...

 (the Pulitzer Prize included a third Blade reporter Joe Mahr

Joe Mahr

Joe Mahr is an American investigative journalist, who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting.-Life:He was born in Genoa, Ohio and attended Genoa Area High School and the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism.In 2004,...

). The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command

U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command

United States Army Criminal Investigation Command investigates felony crimes and serious violations of military law within the United States Army...

 investigated the Tiger Force for "atrocities," including torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

, maiming

Dismemberment

Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism...

, rape

Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

, and murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 of unarmed villagers, including babies, children, and the elderly, during operations in the Song Ve Valley. The Army did not file charges against Tiger Force soldiers, including their acting platoon leader, Hawkins. The investigations into the atrocities committed by Tiger Force occurred after reports and investigations into atrocities by United States Army soldiers in the My Lai Massacre

My Lai Massacre

The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children , and...

. Hawkins attributes the lack of charges to the timing of the investigation after My Lai and the potential for additional bad "publicity."