[2]: 345 A five-man Marine "hunter-killer" patrol led by Lance Corporal Randell D. Herrod, who had been in the country for seven months, alongside Private Thomas R. Boyd Jr., PFC Samuel G. Green, PFC Michael A. Schwarz and Lance Corporal Michael S. Krichten had been in Vietnam for only a month, was sent out from Firebase Ross.

[2]: 345 The following morning, after advice from Vietnamese civilians, another Marine patrol entered Sơn Thắng and found the dead.

Marines Battalion headquarters challenged first lieutenant Ambort's after action report and he eventually admitted to having falsified it.

[2]: 345 On 23 February, Ambort was removed from command and the next day a pre-trial investigation commenced which charged the five Marines on the patrol with murder.

Schwarz was found guilty of 12 counts of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor and dishonorably discharged.

Extremely favorable testimony as character witness was given by Herrod's friend, Oliver North, whose life was saved by him a few months earlier.

In 1991, he wrote a book about his court-martial called Blue's Bastards: A True Story of Valor Under Fire.