Tiger Force

Tiger Force was a long-range reconnaissance patrol unit of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division which served in the Vietnam War. Organizationally part of the 327th Infantry Regiment's 1st Battalion (Airborne) in the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade (Separate), the unit was founded by Major David Hackworth and primarily active from November 1965 to November 1967. It gained notoriety after investigations during the course of the war and decades afterwards revealed the unit had committed extensive war crimes against hundreds of Vietnamese civilians. Hackworth, who left Vietnam before the unit began committing war crimes, claimed he was unaware of Tiger Force's atrocities and refused to speculate on why they occurred.

Composition

The platoon-sized unit, approximately 45 paratroopers, was organized by Major David Hackworth in November 1965 to "outguerrilla the guerrillas". Tiger Force (Recon) 1-327th was a highly decorated small unit in Vietnam, and paid for its reputation with heavy casualties. In October 1968, Tiger Force's parent battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which included a mention of Tiger Force's service at Đắk Tô in June 1966.

Investigations of war crimes

On October 19, 2003, Michael D. Sallah, a reporter for The Toledo Blade newspaper, obtained unreleased, confidential records of U.S. Army commander Henry Tufts. One file in these records referred to a previously unpublished war crimes investigation known as the Coy Allegation. To investigate this further, Sallah gained access to a large collection of documents produced by the investigation held at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.