My Lai General Charged With Bribery for Contract

A retired U.S. Army general who was censured over his investigation of the My Lai massacre faces charges that he bribed a military official in hopes of winning a $1-billion contract for a trucking company.

Retired Brig. Gen. George H. Young Jr. was arrested and charged Tuesday with paying $8,100 over two years to Capt. James W. McDowell, a contract officer stationed at the U.S. Tank Automotive Command in Warren.

Young, 65, of Leavenworth, Kan., was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Steven Pepe in Detroit and released on $50,000 personal bond, the FBI said. Afterward, Young declined to comment on the charges.

Kenneth Walton, FBI chief in Michigan, said the 29-year Army veteran paid McDowell $300 a month from June, 1984, to August, 1986, in a scheme to help the unidentified Kansas trucking company win the contract for a tactical loading vehicle.

Authorities Notified

Young, now president of his own consulting firm, was arrested at the Warren facility shortly after allegedly delivering a payment to McDowell, Walton said.

The FBI does not plan to file charges against McDowell, who notified authorities immediately after Young allegedly offered the bribes, Walton said.

The $1-billion contract was to manufacture the Palletized Loading System, a tactical wheeled vehicle designed to load and unload ammunition and supplies at the war front. Walton said the Army has not chosen a supplier for the vehicle.

Young, who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, was censured and allowed to retire from the military for failure to conduct an adequate investigation of the My Lai massacre, the 1968 killing of 300 Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops.

At the time he was assistant commander of the Americal Division.

Gen. William C. Westmoreland, then commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, had also recommended Young be demoted to colonel and stripped of his Distinguished Service Medal.