-Caveat Lector-
The Unconventional Warrior
by LTC Daniel Marvin, USASF (ret)
© 2002 Daniel Marvin
Part 16:
Gun-running Green Berets
Dedember 9, 2002
By introducing facts gleaned from my personal experience and the documented
actions or reactions of others involved I intend to, both in my writings on
this forum and in books to be published, acquaint the reader with the harsh
reality of lawlessness sponsored, condoned and even ordered by higher
command, often in response to the political dictates of the White House.
Perhaps as important as revealing criminal acts to the reader is the
detailing of why it is that so few acts are reported and, once reported, why
little or no action that is taken to investigate them. Few of those
responsible for these particular criminal acts are prosecuted and punished,
much less evidence secured or corroborated.
In a nonfiction book, now in progress, titled Devious Elite, I will report
instances of US military units or individuals intentionally breaking the law,
committing crimes against humanity and taking actions prohibited by law or
the commonly accepted rules of land warfare. In most cases, these illegal
actions, though sometimes of a deadly nature, were directed by those who use
military personnel, primarily unconventional warriors, to achieve
preconceived objectives with little or no consideration for constitutional
prerogatives.
This true account of gun-running by military personnel assigned to Special
Forces units in South Vietnam and Thailand in 1967 will be covered in detail
in Devious Elite. Portions of this tragic record of illegal trafficking of
military weapons will be referred to in Part Eighteen of this series Who
Really Killed Martin Luther King, Jr.? inasmuch as it is probable that many
of the 100+ military weapons illegally mailed to the United States were
involved in government actions tailored to infiltrate and gain intelligence
on Black militant organizations while, at the same time, providing “sterile”
weapons to those involved in the scenario leading to and including the
assassination of Dr. King.
In the summer of 1967 I volunteered to fill an “urgent” requirement within
the 46th Special Forces headquarters located in Lop Buri, Thailand where
“real trouble” had been reported by a source whose identity was kept
confidential, an individual who feared for his life should the “CO” in
Thailand learn of his having reported an illegal activity to higher
headquarters.
Quotes shown below are taken from a 20 page interrogatory witness statement
taken and recorded on 25 November 1968 at Mechanicburg, Pennsylvania and
attested to by myself and Special Agent Donald D. Knutson of USAINTC, in
accordance with Article 136, UCMJ, and witnessed by B.J. Leonard which
related to the investigation I requested. “...I reported to the 46th at about
0100 hours on approximately 19 September 1967. ...Well, Rittenhouse [a
sergeant who worked in the logistical support center which I had just assumed
command of] came in and sat down in my office , talked to me, and he looked
scared and I’m sure he was. He wanted to tell me about an experience he had
had that day, or the day before. On this matter, Rittenhouse explained to me
that Buttler [Special Forces Captain Ernest Buttler, the officer I had asked
to be investigated] had brought in a box of hold baggage to ship back to
CONUS, and when Rittenhouse broke it open, removed the top from it to check
and see what was in the box and to prepare it for inspection by CWO Gillis
[unit customs inspector], he noted that there were some weapons inside the
box . Specifically, Rittenhouse indicated that there were two carbines ... an
M-1D rifle and a sniper scope.”
He called CWO Gillis, who immediately inspected the contents and informed
Captain Buttler that he could not send them home in his hold baggage. Captain
Buttler, later that day, brought a vehicle to the location where the guns
were, “put them in the back of the vehicle and took off.” Rittenhouse then
informed me that, “previous to this incident, Buttler had shipped out
approximately eighteen boxes of hold baggage, and that he and a Staff
Sergeant Richard Sweatt, who also worked in the Property Book Office, ...felt
that a lot of weapons had been shipped out in those eighteen boxes.” I was
told that Buttler had visited the 5th Special Forces in Vietnam and
“scrounged a lot of extra weapons; carbines, shotguns, M-1 rifles, M-1D
rifles with scopes.”
After discussing this activity with CWO Gillis and my assistant, Captain
Peter Crummey, and learning that Captain Buttler had already left Thailand
enroute to CONUS with a wooden box of the same size and shape as the one that
had been opened by Rittenhouse earlier that day, I called our commanding
officer, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bartelt, reported the incident and asked
that action be taken. The next morning I went to Bartelt’s office and we
discussed this matter, and though he recognized that he was required to
notify the CID (Criminal Investigation Division), he decided “that the
incident would leave a bad impression on the company itself, and on Bartelt
as the Commanding Officer. Bartelt decided not to report the incident to CID.”
Knowing this incident should be investigated, but unaware that LTC Bartelt
was a Military Intelligence officer because he wore Infantry brass on all of
his uniforms, I asked the local Special Agent from Military Intelligence to
investigate this matter as an item of national security. He advised that he
would want me to be out of country and back in CONUS before he would formally
have me questioned, telling me that both of our lives would be in danger if
he did it at that time. Thus I was actually interrogated more than a year
after I’d reported the incident.
I immediately, knowing there would be an investigation, spoke with Captain
Crummey, CWO Gillis, and the other personnel assigned to my office and was
promised they would support the need for an investigation and tell the truth
of what they knew.
The exception was CWO Gillis, who would only sign an affidavit with a
statement telling of “an incident involving him (Buttler) attempting to send
a box to CONUS containing one M1D rifle scope.”
Captain Crummey, on 13 July1968, told CID investigator Larry J. Mentink, that
Buttler had “sent a large number of rifles, carbines, and rifle
scopes...including some automatic rifles ... to his home in CONUS.” He also
told Mentink that Buttler was “a Black Power Advocate.” However, on the 12th
day of September 1968, when approached by Special Agent Charles F. Eisman for
his signature on an affidavit prepared based on his earlier interview by
Mentink, refused to sign, said he had no knowledge of those items he had
discussed with Mentink and “further stated that he had been directed not to
discuss anything that he was unable to prove.” Crummey refused to identify
who it was that issued that directive.
The investigators of the US Army’s Intelligence and Security Command went to
a special effort to provide me a complete report of the investigation, to
include the actual signed statements of the investigators when first
receiving information from the various people questioned in addition to the
actual signed affidavits of those same people which did not contain the
corroboration initially stated by those same people to the earlier agent.
Portions of the report reflect the agent’s findings. Colonel Franklin J.
Bithos writes “... it became evident that LTC Robert Bartelt, commanding
officer, 46th SFC had exerted influence over the personnel interviewed. This
was reflected in their hesitancy in answering questions concerning the
activities of the 46th SFC.” In that same report, Special Agent Donald D.
Knutson wrote, “Marvin answered all questions without hesitation and in an
apparent honest and straightforward manner.”
The entire report of investigation was provided to the attorney for the King
family for use in the trail held in Memphis that held the government to be
guilty of complicity in the death of Martin Luther King Jr. You be the judge
of what happened, who told the truth and what needs to be done to correct
what can happen when unbridled power is given to those who command men, money
and weapons.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Edited by Jeanne Calabretta]
Next Week – Part 17: Who Really Killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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