Hidden History: Accountability For The Military Industrial Complex

In the annals of American military history, there are thousands of stories, some heroic, some tragic. Some are more commonly known than others, like Quang Nam Province in Vietnam, or Pat Tillman’s story from Afghanistan. Others are more obscure, like the ambush in Tongo Tongo, Niger, or Navy SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen.

All of these have several things in common but they all have one thing in common that’s abhorrent: They’re all examples of the U.S. military lying to obscure uncomfortable facts—lying to families, lying to fellow soldiers, and creating fantastic narratives that few people question.

“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
— Winston Churchill

A sad fact of history: Government lying is so prevalent that it’s tacitly accepted by the general population, and sometimes emphatically defended.

“National security implications” fuel secrecy and justification for deceit. By and large, however, that secrecy is erected to hide crimes, and has led to a long history of cover-ups and absurdly false narratives that eschew accountability over the messy business of war.

Whenever allegations surface, the military investigates itself and almost universally finds itself innocent of any wrongdoing. On the rare occasion that these internal investigations find fault, the military will find the lowest ranking officer to pin it on. The “rogue officer” is punished and everyone moves onto business as usual. This has bastardized history, tainted good men and women, and swept atrocity under the rug.

As we move into a new era of national accountability where sacred government cows suddenly find themselves being herded for inspection, we need to examine the history of one of the most culpable of all national institutions: the Military Industrial Complex, or rather, the handful of powerful miscreants who run it.

Friendly Fire

An Nasiriyah, Iraq, 2003

A company of Marines — eleven Trac vehicles and three Humvees — were under assault from accurate and unexpectedly intense gunfire after getting separated from the main column of American forces. Fortunately, the Marines had a combat air controller at their disposal. Captain Dennis Santare called up two American A-10s to pulverize the enemy. Tragically, when the smoke cleared, eighteen Marines were dead and another seventeen were wounded, victims of friendly fire that Santare had called down mistakenly onto his own men.

The above incident would have been merely a sad chapter in the annals of American war. Instead, Bush Administration officials decided to lie about it. In order to spare the nation an inconvenient reflection on the reality of war at a critical juncture, the truth was buried. They concocted a preposterous story about the Marine deaths.

An investigation conducted a year later discovered that cockpit videotape from the two A-10 Warthogs — piloted by Gyrate 73 and Gyrate 74, both Majors in the Pennsylvania National Guard — went missing soon after viewing the tapes with their officers. Gyrate 73’s tape disappeared after it was given to an intelligence officer. Gyrate 74 asked to retain his tape “to watch it later on.” His request was granted and he later admitted to “mistakenly” recording over it with another mission’s footage.

No one was held responsible for the misconduct on the battlefield or later, and in fact the deaths themselves were not even acknowledged as fratricide at the time:

“Investigators were unable to determine the cause of death as the Marines were also engaged in heavy fighting with the enemy at the time of the incident.”

— U.S. Central Command’s Summary Report, March 29th, 2004

You won’t find any mention of the false investigation or cover up in the Marine Corp History Division’s article on the battle of An Nasiriyah. To do so would run counter to the goals of the U.S. military establishment then and now, which seem to be to:

a) Accomplish the mission at all costs and, b) Maintain positive domestic morale for whatever war effort is being conducted.

“If fratricide is an untoward but inevitable aspect of warfare, so, too, is the tendency by military commanders to sweep such tragedies under the rug. It’s part of a pattern: the temptation among generals and politicians to control how the press portrays their military campaigns, which all too often leads them to misrepresent the truth in order to bolster public support for the war of the moment.”

— John Krakauer, from Where Men Win Glory

Bolstering public support for the “war of the moment,” as Krakauer puts it, has been a defining characteristic of the military since its conception — be it against Redcoats, Barbary Pirates, or Syrian “regimes.” And whereas many of those historical enemies were indeed legitimate and the wars justified, admitting the truth about them is imperative if we as a nation are ever asked to send our young men and women off to fight, and perhaps die.

Americans deserve to be treated like adults, with eyes wide open about what our troops will encounter.

Yet our military has largely escaped the scrutiny requisite for a free society of volunteer soldiers to know what they’re signing up for. My generation is full of veterans who, if you ask them, will often say that the outcomes of Iraq and Afghanistan were not even close to what they signed up for. Ask your veteran friends what they think. Opinions abound.

The larger the conflict, the greater the tragedies. The greater the tragedies, the more audacious the lies required to minimize those tragedies. Sometimes they are disavowed completely, with now-empty folders in dusty, archival file cabinets being the only remaining clue to what may have happened. This too has been a defining characteristic of the American military industrial complex, and it’s more common that you think.

The Vietnam War Crimes Working Group

For many Americans, the details of the Mai Lai massacre of March 16, 1968 was a wake-up call. No longer could America claim the moral high ground over the murky reality on distant battlefields. That day, in the rural hamlet of Mai Lai, Vietnam, at least 500 civilians were murdered in cold blood by U.S. soldiers acting on orders that anyone still in the area was an enemy combatant, or sympathizer, and was to be engaged as the enemy. Additionally, all livestock, crops, and structures were to be killed or destroyed.

The war crimes were unfathomable and included numerous rapes and atrocities perpetrated against men, women, and children. These only came to light after the heroic efforts of eyewitnesses who risked their freedom, careers, and reputations to expose (and in at least one instance, prevent) further killing.

But Mai Lai was hardly an outlier, and few Americans realize this fact of history.

If you visit the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, you can examine the findings of a once-secret Pentagon task force (declassified in 1994 after decades of FIOA requests) organized in the wake of Mai Lai to investigate war crimes in Vietnam.

“The War Crimes Working Group files included more than 300 allegations of massacres, murders, rapes, torture, assaults, mutilations, and other atrocities that were substantiated by army investigators. They detailed the deaths of 137 civilians in mass killings, and 78 smaller scale attacks in which Vietnamese civilians were killed, wounded, and sexually assaulted. They identified 141 instances in which the U.S. troops used fists, sticks, bats, water torture, and electrical torture on noncombatants. The files also contained more than 500 allegations that weren’t proven at the time — like the murders of scores, perhaps hundreds, of Vietnamese civilians by the 101st Airborne Division’s Tiger Force, which would be confirmed and made public only in 2003.”

— Nick Turse, from Kill Anything That Moves

Even still, the 9000 pages of official findings are merely a drop in the bucket compared to the eyewitness testimonies of Vietnam veterans and civilian survivors. You could literally spend years researching all of the accusations and cover ups, and several prominent journalists have done so. Books chronicling and substantiating the investigations exist and are worth your time, but one thing is clear from a preponderance of the outcomes of these investigations:

The U.S. military has never had any interest in punishing anyone over them.

Even the highly publicized Mai Lai incident resulted in just two men being court-martailed over the murder of over 500 civilians. Lieutenant William Calley was court-martialed in March 1971, found guilty of the murder of 22 civilians, and sentenced to life in prison while his superior—the man who stipulated the mission parameters, Captain Edwin Medina—and all of the senior officers who failed to investigate the actions of their men walked away scot free.

“As far as the War Crimes Working Group was concerned, these allegations were purely an image management problem, to be parried or buried as quickly as possible. Over time, the group became a key part of the Pentagon’s system for hiding the true nature of war from the American people.”

— Nick Turse, Kill Anything That Moves

They were content to let Calley take the fall as a scapegoat, but even he was paroled after three years. The result of the worst atrocity in U.S. military history—for those personally overseeing the murder, rape, and torture of hundreds — was a few years in the can.

But that was then, a horrible chapter in military history that modern investigative accountability measures would never stand for.

Tell that to Gold-star widow Michelle Black.

Ugly Lies / Beautiful Truths

Tongo Tongo, Niger, 2017

On October 3rd, 2017, a team of Green Berets known as ODA 3212set off on a mission to capture a suspected ISIS commander. By October 6th, three of them, including Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, plus an Army Sergeant and four African counterparts, were confirmed dead. They were killed in an ambush by hostile forces after fighting bravely and largely alone for several hours.

Who exactly should be held responsible for putting them in that situation became the subject of three major U.S. Army inquiries, multiple articles by investigative journalists, and a documentary film. A bestselling book by Bryan Black’s wife Michelle added layers of authority to the following assertion:

In almost every facet of the investigation, the military was committed to preserving itself at the expense of the families, the surviving soldiers, and the truth.

After she and her family were given a formal presentation of the events by the Army, Michelle Black had more questions than answers. Unsatisfied, she set out to investigate the matter herself, and wrote a book about that journey. Sacrifice: The Green Berets, A Fateful Ambush, and a Gold Star Widow’s Fight For The Truth (2021) is a damning indictment on the methods the U.S. military uses and the lengths it will go to in order to protect, or excoriate, whomever it chooses.

“I often say I’d prefer to hear an ugly truth to a beautiful lie. In the year following my husband’s death, I was told plenty of both. Sacrifice details many of the ugly truths I faced following the ambush and the lies I was told in the aftermath. It tells the story of what happened to ODA 3212 in October 2017 in Niger, and shows how that account differs from the official narrative.”

— Michelle Black, Sacrifice

This time around, the Army chose to pin its scarlet letters on Captain Michael Perozeni, ODA 3212’s ground commander, and Major Alan Van Saun, who was not even on the continent at the time. Major Van Saun, the company commander, was on leave stateside with his wife who had just given birth to their daughter.

The Army concocted a story painting Perozeni as a cowboy commander acting against good judgment, taking his men needlessly into harm’s way—despite Perozeni’s repeated calls to his superiors opposing the new FRAGO (fragmentary orders changing the original mission) after the initial mission was concluded. The Army brass also chose to blame Van Saun for being derelict in failing to train his men properly.

An excellent documentary film, ODA 3212 Un-Redacted, details the deceptions, investigations, and perpetrators, and is highly recommended for anyone with children or loved ones currently serving.

In Vietnam in 1969, in Iraq in 2003, and in Niger in 2017, the Pentagon needed a scapegoats. In Niger, Perozeni and Van Saun suited that need quite nicely, so the Pentagon laid letters of reprimand on them, and even denied Perozeni the commendations he deserved as a result of his leadership under fire.

In fact, most of the soldiers in Tongo Tongo had their medals downgraded by General Raymond “Tony” Thomas, who oversaw the second investigation. In a note regarding Perozeni’s downgade, Gen. Thomas said:

“While I do not discount the bravery of Captain Perozeni in the face of overwhelming enemy force, I am opposed to awarding a commander whose poor tactical actions directly led to a tragic outcome.”

The survivors of ODA 3212 disagree. But when things hit the fan, the soldiers on the ground rarely seem to matter to the Pentagon any more than the truth does. In the end, regardless of the war, branch, or unit, it’s the soldiers and their families who take it on the chin. Regardless of the facts being on their side, these families are often eventually worn down from years of battling against their own government.

“Sometime in the summer of 2019, while walking through 3rd Group headquarters, Captain Perozeni was spotted by a warrant officer. The officer pulled Captain Perozeni aside to hand him an Army Commendation Medal with a “C.” It had been sitting on the warrant officer’s desk for a while.

Like tipping a waitress a penny, the award seemed to be more of a slap than a recognition. By that time, no one was surprised, and very little outrage was left in any of us. We had come to expect those at the highest level to stay true to the narrative they have forged.”

— Michelle Black, Sacrifice

While some families walk away fully understanding the military’s deceptions, not everyone is equipped (or inclined) to go up against the behemoth of the U.S. military and get to the bottom of things. For most, the pain of loss is already too much to bear. Many grieving families therefore cling to the simple narratives that obscure larger scandals.

Such was the case with the family of Kyle Mullen.

Burying The Data

Coronado Island, CA, 2021

Seaman Kyle Mullen was 24 years old and had just earned the hardest fought victory of his life: completion of Hell Week at the U.S. Navy’s Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUD/S). Exhausted beyond the capability of most humans, Mullen and the other candidates were each carefully examined by medical personnel before being released for a few days to recover. Later that night Mullen was in an ambulance, and soon died from“acute pneumonia.”

A representative to Naval Special Warfare said in July 2022 that Mullen “died of cardiac arrest most likely caused by acute pneumonia in the presence of cardiomegaly…other contributing factors include the use of prohibited performance enhancing drugs.”

The final 198-page report by the Navy on the death of Kyle Mullen concluded that BUD/S command leadership was at fault, and offered up SEAL Captain Brad Geary as the scapegoat this time around:

“This investigation identifies risks that aggregated as the result of inadequate oversight, insufficient risk assessment, poor medical command and control, and undetected performance enhancing drug use.”

— Command Investigation into the Facts and Circumstances Regarding Safety and Medical Oversight of BUD/S Class 352, Department of the Navy, March 24th, 2023

The report discusses the use of performance enhancing drugs among SEAL candidates and the role they may be playing in the uptick of chronic medical conditions. Left completely untouched is the reality that the U.S. military has been lowering, not increasing,the physical demands on potential operators (including SEALs) for the past several years — a subject that many veterans lament as a major downgrade in force readiness.

The media and the U.S. Navy have purported that the SEAL trainers in 2021 were off the reservation, creating a culture of brutality that cost Mullen’s life.

It’s a simple narrative that the mainstream media and the family of Kyle Mullen accept at face value. This is intended to mask a scandal that no branch of the U.S. military, or the vast majority of the medical establishment, wants to discuss: an across-the-board increase in chronic health conditions among active duty service members since 2021.

From the moment the Covid vaccines were distributed as mandatory to all military personnel, men and women began to die or become injured. Only those brave troops willing to sacrifice their careers have dared to protest this or expose it.

The truth about Kyle Mullen (and thousands of other mysteriously injured or deceased service members) is shrouded in secrecy, the families led to cling to a conclusion fostered by the same military that has lied time and time again. How long will it be before the actual reports are revealed? And will anyone notice when they do?

Defending The Narrative

In 2003, Pat Tillman was awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s second-highest award for valor for his action in facing the enemy in Afghanistan. At the time, the Bush administration needed a political win, and they lied about Tillman’s death to achieve it.

The actual facts didn’t come out until much later. His death was as a result of friendly fire, a fact that the Army went to great lengths to conceal, even from his own brother Kevin Tillman, who was in the same unit and less than a mile away from Pat at the time of his death. In order to achieve this deception, the Army required many of the Tillman brothers’ fellow Rangers to lie about the details.

Specialist Russell Baer had almost suffered the same fate as Pat elsewhere on the battlefield. Crouching behind cover, it was clear to Baer that they were under friendly fire by Rangers; an M203 grenade’s percussion ruptured his eardrum in the exchange.

Baer was later called on to accompany Pat’s body home alongside Kevin. Baer had been aggressively warned by his commanders to tell Kevin nothing of the truth about how his brother died. A few days later Baer was tasked to hand the folded American flag to Pat’s parents, and later, Baer was unable to answer Pat’s father’s inquiries about additional details.

The forced deception broke him:

“I had just handed the parents the flag. I saw the look on their faces. A few days earlier, the guys I worked with had killed Pat and another guy, injured two more, and shot at me, and I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone.”

Deception, because politics demanded it, at the expense of individual lives. The truth didn’t emerge until several years later.

The Emerging History

Like Bush in 2003, the Johnson Administration in 1968 also needed a win after a year’s worth of bad press, and they weren’t above concealing the murder of hundreds of civilians in Mai Lai and elsewhere to gain it.

As the My Lai massacre was taking place, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson observed from his helicopter wounded civilians being killed by Americans. Thompson landed his helicopter between the two groups and ordered door gunner, Lawrence Colburn, and crew chief, Glenn Andreottato man their weapons and prepare to fire if necessary to prevent the war crimes currently in progress. After a heated exchange with the ground troops, Thompson then hailed other helicopters to join him in ferrying the civilians to safety.

It wasn’t until thirty years later that Thompson, Colburn, Andreotta (posthumously, in his case), were awarded the Soldier’s Medal for the extraordinary acts of bravery they exhibited in opposing the military they served.

What other acts of heroism are buried in the dusty archives waiting to see the light of day?

What new revelations will demolish the sacred legends foisted on us over the last five, fifty, or hundred years? And how many Americans want to do the digging and face the uncomfortable truths of history?

Perhaps it’s better to cling to the beautiful lies and let the truth fade from memory, lest it sour the impressive appeal of stories we’ve concocted.

Personally, I believe we are a nation of grown ups, and fully capable of facing ugly truths. Dealing with the truth and the consequences — and learning from them — is one way a truly humble nation can move forward in greater wisdom than our predecessors. For a nation under God, it’s the only way.

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