Sailor Tells of Worry for Boat People

A corpsman from the U. S. warship Dubuque testified Wednesday that both he and the ship’s doctor were “amazed” that Capt. Alexander Balian decided not to rescue Vietnamese refugees adrift in the South China Sea last June.

“What we were really worried about was major starvation and dehydration cases,” Petty Officer Benjamin M. Tarango said. Although the staff of the ship’s sick bay hurried to prepare beds and intravenous fluid lines, Tarango said, he went topside to board a launch to get a closer look at the refugees aboard the crowded junk. However, neither he nor any other medical personnel were permitted aboard the launch, he said.

“I personally thought I should have been on the boat,” Tarango said. “There was no qualified expert out there to evaluate anybody.”

Tarango was called to testify at Balian’s court-martial on charges that he disobeyed orders and violated Navy policy when he left the refugees at sea. Balian is also charged with dereliction of duty.

52 of 110 Survived

The refugees drifted for 19 days after their encounter with the amphibious transport dock. They resorted to cannibalism when they ran out of food, according to accounts of survivors. Of about 110 refugees who left Ben Tre in southern Vietnam last May 22, 52 survived and were rescued by Filipino fishermen.

Tarango testified Wednesday that he made a videotape of the junk and refugees who jumped into the water, then he descended to the ship’s sick bay to help prepare for casualties. He said he told the ship’s doctor, who had remained in the sick bay, that the refugees appeared “very skinny” and “very dehydrated.”

Later, word came that there would be no rescue.

“I said, ‘This is amazing. I don’t believe we’re not picking them up,’ ” Tarango recalled. The doctor “was amazed,” he added. “Everyone down there assumed we were picking them up.”

Tarango testified about the condition of the refugees outside the presence of six Navy captains who will decide the case. After hearing Tarango’s testimony, Capt. James A. Freyer, the court-martial judge, ruled that Tarango will not be allowed to make the statements in the presence of the court-martial board. Balian’s lawyer had argued that Tarango was neither a doctor nor an expert and therefore was unqualified to offer an opinion on the medical state of the refugees.

Conflicting Accounts

Tarango was permitted, however, to tell the court-martial board about what he saw as he made the videotape of the encounter with the junk from a catwalk on the Dubuque last June 9. His testimony provided another in a series of conflicting accounts of the encounter that have emerged since the first witnesses took the stand Monday.

One key point of contention is whether Balian issued an order to shake several refugees back into the water after they began to climb ropes called “monkey lines” that had been used to lower the launch to the water.

While on the catwalk, Tarango said, he heard someone issue an order to “shake them off the monkey lines.” Crew members then shook a refugee back into the water, he said. However, he said, he was unable to capture that scene on his videotape. That tape was played in court Wednesday.

Ens. Dale Esperum, who was in charge of putting the launch in the water, cast doubt on the “monkey line” charge when he testified that he could recall no order being issued to shake refugees into the water. “I received no word to shake the lines,” he said.

‘Shake Them Off’

But Seaman Apprentice Jay Philippsen said it was Esperum himself who issued the order to “shake them off the line.”

Philippsen said he and two others did as they were told, causing a refugee to fall about 10 feet into the water. “He had a lot of strength in him,” Philippsen said. “He held on really well. Then he fell and splashed into the water.”

But the issue was further clouded by the testimony of Chief Petty Officer Luis Ilano, who said he heard Balian say “pull in the lines and shake them off.”

Still another crew member said he was listening on a phone line when Balian ordered: “We’re not going to bring them aboard. Knock them off the monkey line.”

Fourteen crewmen from the Dubuque have testified and have given conflicting accounts of the two-hour encounter. Some say they saw two bodies in the water, others say they saw one. Some said Balian said not to throw life rings to refugees who jumped from the junk, but others recall no such order.

Balian, who is expected to testify later in the trial, has denied all the charges and has said he provided the refugees all the assistance he thought was necessary--food, water and directions to the nearest land. He based his decision on reports from his crew, which turned out to be erroneous, he has said.