Rion Causey

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Rion Causey (January 6, 1948) was born in Perry, Georgia and is best known as a member of the US Army's Tiger Force unit. He joined the US Army on July 4, 1966 and arrived in Vietnam as a paratrooper medic in September of 1967. He joined the Tiger Force by losing (or winning?) a coin toss with another medic. Causey was not present with the Tiger Force during the Song Ve Valley operation but was present for the Chu Lai operation (Operation Wheeler.) Both operations are considered very controversial due to the reports of atrocities committed by US soldiers there (specifically the Tiger Force.) The Tiger Force incurred heavy casualities over a two week span on the Cambodian border during the January 1967 lead-up to the Tet Offensive. So many were killed or wounded during that time, that Tiger Force ended up pulling bunker duty while awaiting reinforcements. PFC Causey was wounded in early March 1967 by American artillery during an ambush near the village of Phu Loc. His last action in Vietnam was to drag the body of fellow soldier Pop Collins out of the ambush. Causey claims he heard the artillery round come through the trees.

After leaving the Army in July 1969, Causey entered North Carolina State University as a freshman in nuclear engineering where eight years later, he was awarded a Ph.D. with highest honors in that same major. Afterwards, Causey taught for two years at Texas A&M University and five years at the University of Virginia. He then joined Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California where he has worked in the area of fusion engineering for the last twenty two years.

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