Sam Ybarra
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Sam Ybarra | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1945 |
| Died | 1982 (aged 36) |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Unit | Tiger Force |
| Conflicts | Vietnam War |
Sam Ybarra (1945–1982) was a United States Army soldier who served in the Tiger Force commando unit attached to the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War. He is notable for alleged involvement in war crimes alongside the Tiger Force unit.
Early life
[edit | edit source]Ybarra was born and raised on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona to a Mexican father and an Apache mother. When he was five, his father died in a bar brawl, and after that he was raised by his mother. He attended Globe High School in Globe, Arizona, and was arrested four times as a teenager for disturbing the peace and underage drinking.[1]
Military service
[edit | edit source]Ybarra enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1966, along with his childhood friend, Kenneth Green, and the friends were attached to the Tiger Force unit. Ybarra was noted by the Stars and Stripes magazine as having recorded the 1000th kill of Operation Wheeler.
Green was killed by a sniper on September 29, 1967, and other Tiger Force soldiers claim that it threw Ybarra over the edge[clarification needed], as he vowed to avenge his friend's death. As a result, he became the unit's worst killer, and had to be transferred out of the unit to an artillery company in early 1968. Ybarra went on to be court martialed for insubordination, and was dishonorably discharged in late 1968. He would later be named in 7 of the 30 allegations that the Army would later investigate the unit for, including the rape and fatal stabbing of a 13-year-old girl and the killing of a 15-year-old boy.[1]
Once discharged, Ybarra could not be compelled to testify to the investigations against him, and declined three times. After years of using drugs and alcohol, he died of pneumonia in 1982, at age 36, living with his mother on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona, reportedly contrite and depressed over his role in the war. He repeatedly confessed to murdering civilians, including children, to friends and family members.[1] At the time of his death, Ybarra weighed less than 100 pounds due to complications from his alcoholism.[2]
References
[edit | edit source]- Sallah, Michael and Mitch Weiss. Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2006, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Greiner, Bernd. Krieg ohne Fronten: Die USA in Vietnam. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2007. [1], Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Toledo Blade Article Series on Tiger Force [2] Archived 2006-06-05 at the Wayback Machine
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- United States Army personnel stubs
- 1945 births
- 1982 deaths
- 20th-century American murderers
- San Carlos Apache Tribe people
- American war criminals
- American people of Mexican descent
- Native American United States military personnel
- United States Army soldiers
- United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War
- United States Army personnel who were court-martialed
- Deaths from pneumonia in Arizona