Thanks to at&t for getting ADSL syncing up again, whatever they did (and to Steve at at&t high-speed Internet customer care this morning for processing the Internet outage credit of $3.80 for this month).

From my father:

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/ODE/KingsportTimesNews/, 13Mar2011, p. 1C.

Brother outlines attorney’s part prosecuting infamous Vietnam rape/murder case

‘I grew up that you do the honorable thing. And I think he did the honorable thing.’

— Ralph Yelton.

By REX BARBER

NET News Service

James Yelton was taught to always do the honorable thing.

He carried that sentiment with him to Vietnam, where he was sent by the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps in the 1960s. One of the cases he prosecuted as a JAG lawyer there was the basis for a Hollywood movie about the rape and murder of a young Vietnamese woman by U.S. soldiers. That movie, “Casualties of War” starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn, was released in 1989. Hollywood producers came to Yelton’s home to consult with him on the facts of the case.

Yelton died in his sleep at his Kingsport home in late February. He was 76.        James’ brother, 85-year-old Ralph Yelton, a World War II and Korean War veteran who became paralyzed by machine gun fire fighting in Korea and who also went on to serve 14 years in the Tennessee General Assembly, recalled his brother during an interview this past week.

“James was a very interesting person,” Ralph said as he showed various photographs of his brother. “He had a very high IQ. He was smart. He could talk about anything. He had a grasp, you know, of knowledge in a lot of areas of discussion.”

James graduated from Tipton Hill High School in Bakersville, N.C. He went on to get a doctorate of jurisprudence from Wake Forest U n i v e r s i t y.

With his degree in hand, he began practicing law in Burnsville, N.C., for about a year before opening his own practice in Bakersville. Soon James decided to join the Army because positions were open in the Judge Advocate General Corps.

His first assignment as a JAG officer was at   Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. This facility, which is still operational, was opened in World War II to produce munitions.

“He was in charge of all the procurement contracts,” Ralph said of James’ responsibilities at Redstone. “The contracts for all of the material they needed to build those missiles there at Redstone Arsenal.”

James was eventually stationed around the globe, winding up in Vietnam in 1966, where he met a soldier who told him about the infamous kidnapping, rape and murder. Ralph said that soldier’s conscience was weighing heavily on him about the incident. That meeting was depicted in the movie, as Fox’s drunken character confides in a chaplain about the Vietnamese woman’s torture and death.

“They show it in the bar, in the movie, where my brother was talking to (the soldier with a guilty conscience). He could tell that he was really distraught, and James got to talking with him, and he told him what happened,” Ralph said. “He told him every bit of it, exactly what happened.”

Just like in the movie when Fox’s character had trouble getting superiors to act on the rape and murder, so did James, Ralph said.

“Well, James went, you know, to the company commander at first. Company commander said, ‘Shut it up. We don’t need that.’ He went to the battalion commander. … Battalion commander didn’t want it,” Ralph said. “But James went ahead with the case. He said that shouldn’t be. That was a crime that shouldn’t be allowed in the military.”

Four soldiers involved in the crime were sentenced to spend varying lengths of time in prison.

Ralph did not know if his brother ever watched the movie. He knows James did the right thing, though.

“I grew up that you do the honorable thing,” Ralph said. “And I think he did the honorable thing. That’s what we were taught all of our life. And I’m sure he did what he felt was the right thing to do, because in a war or anywhere else that kind of behavior don’t need to be tolerated. It don’t need to be let go on.”

Photo by Ron Campbell [removed from this blog entry]:

Former Tennessee state Rep. Ralph Yelton*  holds a photograph of his brother James Yelton receiving the Legion of Merit award from Lt. Gen. Charles Hall.

* long-time member of Kingsport area Optimist Clubs.