William Doyle, Vietnam vet who bragged of killing civilians, dies at 75

William Doyle, a tough-talking Vietnam War veteran who helped lead a decorated platoon that killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in a case concealed by the Pentagon for decades, died Nov. 6 in Springfield, Mo. He was 75.

Doyle was a team leader on the Army's famous Tiger Force in 1967 when some members began executing women and children in a bloody rampage that lasted seven months.

A wiry staff sergeant with the ace of spades tattooed to his trigger finger, Doyle bragged that he shot so many civilians that he lost count.

"We killed anything that moved," he told reporters from The Toledo Blade for a series that won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. "My only regret is that I didn't kill more."

Though Army investigators recommended that he and 17 others be charged with war crimes, including murder and assault, no action was taken.

The case — the longest war-crimes investigation of the Vietnam conflict — was quietly closed by the Pentagon in 1975, and remained concealed for 28 years until the newspaper obtained the secret files.

"There was no political will (to prosecute)," said Gustav Apsey, the Army's lead investigator. "They didn't want this getting out."

By the time the story reached the public in 2003, Doyle emerged as a harsh, emblematic figure of the Vietnam War — his words echoing during the presidential race the next year.

Supporters of Democratic Sen. John Kerry pointed to Doyle and the Tiger Force platoon in arguing that Kerry was justified in condemning the war in the 1970s.

Doyle remained unapologetic. "We fought the war the way we felt it should have been fought," he said.

Relatives say he there were dual sides to the man who talked about killing on network television.

"You always knew where he stood — good or bad. He was brutally honest," said his niece, Melissa McCoy.

Born during the Great Depression in Kansas City, Doyle's mother was killed by a drunken driver when he was 12 and he was raised by an abusive father who frequently beat him. "He never lived a normal life," said his sister, Barbara Doyle of California. "It had so much to do with why he did those things during the war."

After living in foster homes, he joined the Army in 1950 after he was ordered by a Kansas City judge to suit up or go to jail for beating a teenager with a bicycle chain.

After several years, Doyle was assigned to Tiger Force, an elite unit of the 101st Airborne.

Created to find enemy encampments and summon airstrikes, the acclaimed unit spun out of control in 1967, killing and torturing civilians in the longest known series of atrocities by a U.S. fighting unit in the war.

Several years later, a former soldier — haunted by the memories — told Army investigators about a Tiger Force private severing the head of an infant.

Over the next four years, the Army tracked down dozens of platoon members, including Doyle, a target of the probe.

The case reached the highest levels of government, including the White House and Pentagon, records show.

Years later, Doyle told reporters he wasn't worried that he could be charged because he considered himself to be "temporarily insane."

"We were living day to day. We didn't expect to live. Nobody out there with any brains expected to live. So you did any goddamn thing you felt like doing — especially to stay alive," Doyle said. "The way to live is to kill because you don't have to worry about anybody who's dead.

"It didn't matter if they were civilians. If they weren't supposed to be in an area, we shot them. If they didn't understand fear, I taught it to them."

Doyle died of complications from chronic lung disease. He is survived by his wife, Tammy, nine children and three grandchildren. A memorial service is scheduled for Nov. 17 at the Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Springfield, Mo.