Murder in Vietnam | HistoryNet

From the article: "Drugs and alcohol—with their tendency to reduce inhibitions and cloud one’s thinking—played a major role in most known cases of fragging in Vietnam. In the early years of the war GIs in-country could buy marijuana, amphetamines, barbiturates, opium and hallucinogens at low cost. In 1969 heroin made the scene. Extremely pure, highly addictive and cheaper than marijuana, it soon became the most destructive of all substances. In 1971 the military reported an estimated 60,000 U.S. servicemen in Vietnam were addicted to heroin. Each year dozens of them died from overdoses. In 1971 fewer than 5,000 GIs were hospitalized for battle injuries, while 20,529 were hospitalized for “serious drug abuse.”

Some fraggers were so drug-impaired they gave themselves away. In the early hours of April 21, 1969, Marine Pvt. Reginald F. Smith killed his company commander, 1st Lt. Robert T. Rohweller, by throwing a grenade beneath the cot on which the officer was sleeping. When a sergeant subsequently ordered a company formation, Smith was caught literally red-handed—the grenade pin still dangling from an index finger. “He was probably higher than a kite,” his defense attorney stated. Smith was convicted and sentenced to 40 years behind bars. He also did not serve out his time—a dozen years into his sentence a fellow inmate murdered him."