Michael Sallah - Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War

Copyright 2006 by Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproducedin any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,including information storage and retrieval systemswithout permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

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First eBook Edition: May 2006

ISBN: 978-0-7595-1573-4

TO OUR WIVES AND CHILDREN

There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, norsecret that will not be made known.

LUKE 12:2

CAST OF CHARACTERS

TIGERS:

SERGEANT JAMES BARNETT

January 1967 to January 1968

PRIVATE EDWARD BECK

June 1967 to September 1967 (KIA: September 29, 1967)

SERGEANT GERALD BRUNER

August 1967 to September 1967

SPECIALIST WILLIAM CARPENTER

January 1967 to December 1967

PRIVATE DANIEL CLINT

August 1967 to May 1968

PRIVATE JAMES COGAN

June 1967 to September 1967

SERGEANT ROBERT DIAZ

April 1966 to September 1967

SERGEANT BENJAMIN EDGE

June 1967 to August 1967

SERGEANT CHARLES FULTON

June 1967 to September 1967

SPECIALIST KENNETH BOOTS GREEN

June 1967 to September 1967 (KIA: September 29, 1967)

SERGEANT JAMES HAUGH

May 1967 to March 1968 (KIA: March 27, 1968)

SERGEANT LEO HEANEY

December 1966 to October 1967

PRIVATE JERRY INGRAM

June 1967 to September 1967 (KIA: September 27, 1967)

PRIVATE KENNETH KERNEY

May 1967 to December 1967

PRIVATE TERRENCE KERRIGAN

May 1967 to May 1968

PRIVATE GARY LITTLE SKI KORNATOWSKI

September 1966 to October 1967

PRIVATE JAMES MESSER

August 1967 (KIA: August 22, 1967)

SERGEANT ERNEST MORELAND

September 1966 to October 1967

SERGEANT TERRY LEE OAKDEN

September 1967 (KIA: September 20, 1967)

PRIVATE CECIL PEDEN

June 1967 to September 1967

PRIVATE FLOYD SAWYER

July 1967 to October 1967

PRIVATE SAM YBARRA

April 1967 to January 1968

TEAM LEADERS:

SERGEANT WILLIAM DOYLE

June 1967 to November 1967

SERGEANT ERVIN LEE

July 1966 to October 1967

SERGEANT DOMINGO MUNOZ

May 1967 to July 1967 (KIA: July 28, 1967)

SERGEANT MANUEL SANCHEZ JR.

December 1966 to July 1967

SERGEANT HAROLD TROUT

March 1967 to February 1968

SERGEANT ROBIN VARNEY

November 1966 to September 1967

(KIA: September 27, 1967)

MEDICS:

PRIVATE MICHAEL ALLUMS

January 1967 to April 1968

SPECIALIST BARRY BOWMAN

May 1967 to September 1967

PRIVATE RION CAUSEY

October 1967 to March 1968

PRIVATE HAROLD FISCHER III

September 1967 to January 1968

PRIVATE RALPH MAYHEW

August 1967 to December 1967

SERGEANT FORREST MILLER

May 1967 to May 1968

PRIVATE DOUGLAS TEETERS

May 1967 to December 1967

OFFICERS:

LIEUTENANT COLONEL HAROLD AUSTIN

June 1967 to August 1967

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOSEPH COLLINS

September 1966 to June 1967

LIEUTENANT GARY FORBES

March 1967 to May 1967

LIEUTENANT JAMES HAWKINS

July 1967 to November 1967

CAPTAIN CARL JAMES

June 1967 to November 1967

CAPTAIN HAROLD MCGAHA

November 1967 to January 1968 (KIA: January 21, 1968)

LIEUTENANT COLONEL GERALD MORSE

August 1967 to December 1967

CAPTAIN BRADFORD MUTCHLER

November 1966 to November 1967

CAPTAIN LARRY NAUGHTON

May 1967 to June 1967

LIEUTENANT STEPHEN NAUGHTON

June 1967 to July 1967

LIEUTENANT EDWARD SANDERS

August 1967 to November 1967

LIEUTENANT DONALD WOOD

June 1967 to August 1967

C COMPANY:

PRIVATE JOHN AHERN

July 1967 to March 1968 (KIA: March 16, 1968)

PRIVATE GARY COY

August 1967 to November 1967

CID:

WARRANT OFFICER GUSTAV APSEY

CAPTAIN EARL PERDUE

CAPTAIN FRANK SUGAR

COLONEL HENRY TUFTS

COLONEL KENNETH WEINSTEIN

1975

T he sun glared off the hood of his blue Buick as Gustav Apsey peered through the windshield at the white clapboard shack. Rust stains ran down the sun-bleached wood, and scattered around the home were beer cans, cardboard boxes, and a rusty tailpipe from a pickup truck. There were no mansions on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, just miles of scrub and cacti and rows of shacks built on dry sand and clay. It was one of the poorest and most desolate areas of southeastern Arizona, a no-mans-land where generations of Native Americans survived on food stamps and other government handouts.

Apsey slowly pulled into the gravel driveway and turned off the ignition.

For a moment, he stared at the shacks door and then at its windows, trying to catch any movement through the flimsy sheer curtains and cracked glass masked with tape. Just two days earlier, shots were fired over the top of a police car that had pulled into the drive on a disturbance call. Instead of radioing for backup, the patrol officer turned his car around and left. Its just Crazy Sam, he said to the dispatcher at the reservation. The police had long known to ignore the man who lived in the shack at the end of the road. And you certainly did not want to encounter Sam Ybarra when he was drunk.

For Apsey, an Army investigator, it was important to get the tribal police to accompany him, since he was a federal agent on their land now, on their reservation. But when he had gone to the police station, the officers had been less than thrilled to help. They were Apache, just like Ybarra, and there wasnt exactly a long history of benefits for the tribe when they helped out white guys from the U.S. Army.

Reservation police chief Robert Youngdeer told the investigator about Ybarras drinking and warned that he might even fire his gun at Apseys car. But Apsey was undeterred. He had waited too long for this and traveled too far. He assured Youngdeer he was only going to question Ybarranot arrest him. Besides, Apsey didnt want to have to come back with more agents. There was already bad blood between the feds and Native American activists on other reservations, and no one needed any trouble at San Carlos.

Youngdeer agreed to assign reservation police sergeant Frank Cutter to follow the agents car to Ybarras home; he couldnt spare any more officers. He had only thirty to cover one of the largest reservations in the Southwest, an expanse of land that could have been an entire state: 1.8 million haunted acres.

Apsey opened his car door and stepped onto the driveway, while fellow investigator Larry Pereiro bounded out the passenger side. Cutter, who trailed the investigators in another car, joined the men.