Posted on Nov 17, 2016
My Lai trial begins - Nov 17, 1970 - HISTORY.com
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The court-martial of 1st Lt. William Calley begins. Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) of the 23rd (Americal) Division, had led his men in a massacre of Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, at My Lai 4 on March 16, 1968. My Lai 4 was one of a cluster of hamlets that made up Son My village in the northern area of South Vietnam.
The company had been conducting a search-and-destroy mission as part of the yearlong Operation Wheeler/Wallowa (November 1967-November 1968). In search of the 48th Viet Cong Local Force Battalion, the unit entered the village but found only women, children, and old men. Frustrated by unanswered losses due to snipers and mines, the soldiers took out their anger on the villagers, indiscriminately shooting innocent people as they ran from their huts. They then systematically rounded up the survivors, allegedly leading them to nearby ditch and killing them.
Calley was charged with six specifications of premeditated murder. During the trial, Chief Army Prosecutor Capt. Aubrey Daniel charged that Calley ordered Sgt. Daniel Mitchell to “finish off the rest” of the rounded-up villagers. The prosecution stressed that all the killings were committed despite the fact that Calley’s platoon had met no resistance and that no one had fired on the men.
The My Lai massacre was initially covered up, but came to light a year later. An Army board of inquiry, headed by Lt. Gen. William Peers, investigated the massacre and produced a list of 30 persons who knew of the atrocity, but only 14, including Calley and his company commander, Capt. Ernest Medina, were charged with crimes. All eventually had their charges dismissed or were acquitted by courts-martial except Calley, whose platoon allegedly killed 200 innocent people.
Calley was found guilty of personally murdering 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment, but his sentence was reduced to 20 years by the Court of Military Appeals and further reduced to 10 years by the Secretary of the Army. Proclaimed by much of the public as a “scapegoat,” Calley was paroled in 1974.
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCOL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnellSSG Leo Bell SFC William Farrell LTC (Join to see)
The company had been conducting a search-and-destroy mission as part of the yearlong Operation Wheeler/Wallowa (November 1967-November 1968). In search of the 48th Viet Cong Local Force Battalion, the unit entered the village but found only women, children, and old men. Frustrated by unanswered losses due to snipers and mines, the soldiers took out their anger on the villagers, indiscriminately shooting innocent people as they ran from their huts. They then systematically rounded up the survivors, allegedly leading them to nearby ditch and killing them.
Calley was charged with six specifications of premeditated murder. During the trial, Chief Army Prosecutor Capt. Aubrey Daniel charged that Calley ordered Sgt. Daniel Mitchell to “finish off the rest” of the rounded-up villagers. The prosecution stressed that all the killings were committed despite the fact that Calley’s platoon had met no resistance and that no one had fired on the men.
The My Lai massacre was initially covered up, but came to light a year later. An Army board of inquiry, headed by Lt. Gen. William Peers, investigated the massacre and produced a list of 30 persons who knew of the atrocity, but only 14, including Calley and his company commander, Capt. Ernest Medina, were charged with crimes. All eventually had their charges dismissed or were acquitted by courts-martial except Calley, whose platoon allegedly killed 200 innocent people.
Calley was found guilty of personally murdering 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment, but his sentence was reduced to 20 years by the Court of Military Appeals and further reduced to 10 years by the Secretary of the Army. Proclaimed by much of the public as a “scapegoat,” Calley was paroled in 1974.
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCOL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnellSSG Leo Bell SFC William Farrell LTC (Join to see)
My Lai trial begins - Nov 17, 1970 - HISTORY.com
Posted from history.com
Vietnam War
Warfare
American History
Military History
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 9
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Case study in SOS. Mob mentality I think and very interesting SP5 Mark Kuzinski Sadly for all involved on both sides.
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Maj Marty Hogan
MCPO Roger Collins - I spent a little time on this case study. I tried to think what I would do as the leader, follower, and ultimately a juror. I first looked at it from my world view now- and then reset my thinking to my 19 year old fresh kid self. My viewpoints were kept honest inside my self and disturbed me quite a bit. Each point you put out was exactly what I tried to frame.
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Sgt William Straub Jr.
I had a close friend that was in VN in 68. He was on a search and destroy mission. They entered a village with no problem, his platoon was spread out when a small kid started running up to him, one of his squad saw the wire coming from the kids arm to a package on his back. The squad member shot the kid and killed him. When they got close they saw the wire attached to a grenade. If the kid had gotten closer, he would have killed 3-4 GI's. He didn't even realize what he was doing. My friend was never the same after that. We had our share of terrible things we did, but nothing in comparison to the VC and the North Vietmese Army.
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I recall a case where a fire base was overrun and a soldier shot an NVA with an M-79 grenade launcher when the enemy was closing in on his foxhole; the range was too close for the grenade to spin-arm, and the grenade caught the enemy in the gut and imbedded in his spine. After the battle we risked American aircrew and aircraft evacuating the NVA soldier and risked MASH doctors and facilities operating on him to get the live grenade out.
One minute we would have been happy to see the enemy blown in half and the next minute we were risking American lives to save him. It seemed insane to me at the time.
It takes experience to distinguish the right way to kill a man and the wrong way to kill the same man when killing men itself has been the strong taboo we were all raised with.
In the case of My Lai, it had been declared a free fire zone which meant that there was nobody in there but enemy, and they could all be killed on sight. LT Calley was part of a sweep through the area and had captured a couple of hundred unarmed prisoners; while holding the prisoners his unit was falling behind in the sweep, and his superior - Capt. Medina - told him to "Take care of them". He radioed back that he had set a guard over them but was told "That's not what I meant - take care of them!" That was when he told his men to mow them down.
When moving into the village they rounded up the people (families of the VC) and herded them into a ditch where they were machine gunned down. A chopper pilot seeing what was going on set his chopper down between the advancing American troops and villagers trying to hide from them, and threatened to open up on our troops if they did not stop.
The chopper pilot and the advancing troops all thought they were doing what was expected of them, but it ended the careers of all of them.
Young men were thrust into a meat grinder without adequate training, and this tragedy was the result.
It is interesting to note that had the village been hit with napalm from the air the result would have been the same but no rules would have been broken and no one would have been court-martialed.
The military underwent serious changes in training as a result of this tragedy.
One minute we would have been happy to see the enemy blown in half and the next minute we were risking American lives to save him. It seemed insane to me at the time.
It takes experience to distinguish the right way to kill a man and the wrong way to kill the same man when killing men itself has been the strong taboo we were all raised with.
In the case of My Lai, it had been declared a free fire zone which meant that there was nobody in there but enemy, and they could all be killed on sight. LT Calley was part of a sweep through the area and had captured a couple of hundred unarmed prisoners; while holding the prisoners his unit was falling behind in the sweep, and his superior - Capt. Medina - told him to "Take care of them". He radioed back that he had set a guard over them but was told "That's not what I meant - take care of them!" That was when he told his men to mow them down.
When moving into the village they rounded up the people (families of the VC) and herded them into a ditch where they were machine gunned down. A chopper pilot seeing what was going on set his chopper down between the advancing American troops and villagers trying to hide from them, and threatened to open up on our troops if they did not stop.
The chopper pilot and the advancing troops all thought they were doing what was expected of them, but it ended the careers of all of them.
Young men were thrust into a meat grinder without adequate training, and this tragedy was the result.
It is interesting to note that had the village been hit with napalm from the air the result would have been the same but no rules would have been broken and no one would have been court-martialed.
The military underwent serious changes in training as a result of this tragedy.
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SP5 Mark Kuzinski
Thanks you Capt Seid Waddell -
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCOL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnellSSG Leo Bell SFC William Farrell LTC (Join to see)
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCOL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnellSSG Leo Bell SFC William Farrell LTC (Join to see)
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The American Army in decline the war in Vietnam had throughly reduced the Military's effectiveness by this period,with virtually no support from the American people,drug use,racial issues within the ranks,fighting guerilla war with conventional tactics,under or poorly trained Soldiers thrown in against an enemy harden by decades of war all factors I think led to this tragedy.
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