An Illinois Reader Recalls the “Khaki Mafia”

 

The “Khaki Mafia” issue recently resurfaced over the past weeks. The March 19th edition of Army Times reported the death of the first Sergeant Major of the Army, William O. Wooldridge, the supposed leader of the Khaki Mafia.

The original announcement made no mention of his involvement in the “clubs and messes” events [kickbacks, fraud, etc.]. But two op-ed pieces appeared in the April 2nd edition of AT, mentioning the incident.

De Mau Mau killings here in the Chicago area, early 1970’s. One clue the cops had to go on was that the killers used a type of ammo found only in the inventory of Australian troops in Vietnam. How that ammo got to the Chi area is a mystery but it is known that “weaponry” smuggled into the U.S. and sold to dissident groups, revolutionaries at the time was part of the business of the Khaki Mafia.

[The blog Military Thoughts confirms my reader’s account, while leaving out the names.

This is however, precedent for this sort of thing [sewing bags of heroin into the bodies of puppies, in order to evade customs searches]. A precedent established during the Vietnam War, forty years ago now.

Smuggling of heroin from Vietnam to the U.S. was done by sewing bags of "smack" into the bodies of dead GI's.

Dead GI's, in caskets, being shipped from the preparatory mortuary in Saigon to Hawaii, had their remains stuffed with bags of heroin. A further going over of the bodies was done at another mortuary in Hawaii, the drugs being surreptitiously removed, prior to transport back to the burial site stateside.

The normal customs and drug checks were bypassed and the shipment of heroin got through all the customary and normal barriers without incident.

This was the work of the "Khaki Mafia".

A very disreputable group, about twenty, of most senior non-commissioned officers [NCO's] that were long term service and high ranking. Men that knew each other from a prior basis of serving in the same units, etc.

Ran "rackets" in the enlisted mens' clubs set up for GI's in Vietnam. Engaged in a whole host of ILLEGAL activities, from which they profited mightily.

The entire milieu surrounding this criminal enterprise was captured very well in the book, "The Khaki Mafia", by Robin Moore.

"Rackets" such as fixed slot machines, bringing in professional gamblers to cheat the GI's at cards, prostitution, the previously mentioned smuggling of drugs and automatic weapons into the U.S. [some of those automatic weapons ended up in the hands of American radicals that wanted to overthrew the government!!!], and black marketeering. This was all done to the American GI by the senior NCO's. The very men that the young GI's were told to look up to.

Very shameful.

This sort of behavior of course should not be considered to be confined to the Vietnam War….

[the leading member of the "khaki mafia" was at one time the Sergeant Major of the Army [William O. Wooldridge]. The most senior enlisted rank in the Army, period. This man had the good-will even of the commander of the MP branch, a Major General.* There was a famous incident where this General personally stopped a group of American Nazis' from burying their murdered leader, George Lincoln Rockwell, in a military cemetery. The Nazis's were wearing fascist regalia, forbidden under law. Under those circumstance, the General was diligent. With regard to the "Khaki Mafia", he was not!!]

N.S.: Brackets for the foregoing paragraph were inserted by the author, not by yours truly.

*That would be Major General Carl C. Turner, who was later convicted and imprisoned for crimes of his own.

By the way, William O. Wooldridge was convicted of felonies, and forced to pay a certain amount of damages to reimburse the Army of his ill-gotten gains, but he was not sent to prison. Instead, he got mere probation.