Lieut. Colonel Anthony B. Herbert wanted to be a soldier so badly that he ran away at age 14 to enlist. He was caught and sent home, but except for time out to finish high school and earn a college degree, he has been a soldier ever since. And no ordinary soldier. The most decorated enlisted man of the Korean War, he toured the U.S. and Allied capitals as the Army's symbol of the Perfect Fighting Man. A picture of Herbert —face smudged with camouflage greasepaint, rifle gripped menacingly—illustrated a manual for elite Ranger trainees. His way through the Army was the fighter's way—training in mountaineering, as a parachutist, a Green Beret. With the rows of ribbons, the close-cropped haircut, the polished gleam of his uniform's brass, he was a five percenter, the top rank of officers promoted more quickly than their colleagues.
Herbert was assigned to Viet Nam in September 1968, first in a staff position, then as a battalion commander in the field. The following July he was back in the U.S., relieved of his combat command after just 58 days, his exemplary 19-year service record marred by an efficiency report so adverse that his career was ruined. He immediately began appealing the Army's action against him, and 18 months later made a serious public charge; the reason for his disgrace, he said, was that he had accused two superior officers of covering up war crimes. In a formal complaint filed with the Army in September 1970. Herbert accused Major General John W. Barnes and Colonel Joseph Ross Franklin, the commander and deputy commander of his Viet Nam unit, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, with failing to investigate or report incidents of murder, torture and mistreatment of prisoners. Colonel Herbert then became a quite different symbol to the Army. The battle that followed has resulted in one of the most bitter internal disputes in recent Army history.
No Restraint. During the year since Herbert filed the complaint, the Army has maintained an official silence on the whole case, a correct procedure while the charges against Barnes and Franklin were being investigated. Herbert was under no such restraint. He pressed his case against the Army's handling of the war-crimes allegations, appearing on network television and granting interviews to reporters. The Army retaliated in petty ways. A dispute developed over Army permission procedure for him to make a second appearance on the Dick Cavett Show. The next morning Herbert was upbraided by a superior for saluting improperly. In the meantime, Herbert, who kept up appeals to reverse his unfavorable report, finally won exoneration from Secretary of the Army Robert F. Froehlke last month, four months before he would have been forced into involuntary retirement. Although he was promoted after his record had been cleared and could have remained in the Army, Herbert claimed that the Army had attempted to muzzle and harass him. Citing stress on his wife and daughter, Herbert announced he would voluntarily retire in February after 20 years. At 41, he was on his way out, passing his final months in the Army initialing papers at Fort McPherson near Atlanta. His dead-end job was once shared by Captain Ernest L. Medina.