As a Platoon Leader in Vietnam his men killed as many as 500 civilians in response for losing a soldier and injuring another. He was charged with personally killing 22 civilians, given a life sentence then pardoned by the president after serving 3 days. A Warrant Officer helicopter pilot, Hugh Thompson, saw what was happening and landed in the middle of everything and stopped it. For his efforts a Senator wanted to courts martial him. Times were certainly different back then.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/william-calley-led-lai-massacre-shamed-us-military-112398904

Was just refreshing myself on the details. Hard to read/believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre

Aggie12B said:

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Lt Calley was the sacrificial scapegoat, IMO

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He absolutely was. Not to say he wasn't explicitly guilty of course but he was the cover needed to save others. It truly is appalling how so many flat out got away with it. I mean, a few demotions here and there and black marks on a few service records but no actual time served for anyone aside from a few days for Calley.

I love my country and am proud of our services but in the times of actual no **** wrong doing, it's disgusting to see people bending over backwards to hide, obfuscate, and outright lie to cover up said wrongdoing. We will never be a perfect people (Americans) but we have stated standards and it sucks to see those standards subverted on an organizational level.

I think the helo pilot at one point likened what he saw to Nazi forces and I could not agree more when I first started reading about this event. From the pictures to the evasion of any real accountability by the members who took part, it is almost a one to one with an Einsatzgruppen massacre IMO.

Eliminatus said:

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Aggie12B said:

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Lt Calley was the sacrificial scapegoat, IMO

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He absolutely was. Not to say he wasn't explicitly guilty of course but he was the cover needed to save others. It truly is appalling how so many flat out got away with it. I mean, a few demotions here and there and black marks on a few service records but no actual time served for anyone aside from a few days for Calley.

I love my country and am proud of our services but in the times of actual no **** wrong doing, it's disgusting to see people bending over backwards to hide, obfuscate, and outright lie to cover up said wrongdoing. We will never be a perfect people (Americans) but we have stated standards and it sucks to see those standards subverted on an organizational level.

I think the helo pilot at one point likened what he saw to Nazi forces and I could not agree more when I first started reading about this event. From the pictures to the evasion of any real accountability by the members who took part, it is almost a one to one with an Einsatzgruppen massacre IMO.

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Calley was in charge and participated. And Medina knew but did nothing to stop it. With a force that big you can bet some of the soldiers did not shoot anyone but also didn't lead investigators to those who did, after all those were their buddies. Calley wasn't a scapegoat IMO, he was just the one who got caught, which he wouldn't have if they had just shot a few villagers and move on.

You wonder if a seasoned E-6 or E-7 tried to make a stand and stop the massacre.

When I went through IOBC, staff mentioned he still lived in the area.

They also said he had recycled in OCS a couple of times (maybe IOBC), and had to be pushed through because of the need for Infantry LTs.

I can't imagine what his son thinks of all this.

He's like the evil version of COL Ralph Puckett who would do the 5 mile with every ranger class.

Man it was truly an honor to be in his presence.

RIP

I also had Jeff Strueker (Black Hawk Down) in my life during IBOLC in Columbus. He was a pastor at Calvary Baptist Church and has since gone off to start his own.

While attending the Captains Career Course at Benning in 11' I had an apartment where the guy in the unit next to me was an executive at Aflac. One evening I was returning home as he was saying goodbye to a friend who had been visiting. He quickly introduced me and the man got in his car and drove off. My neighbor then dropped the bomb on me that it was William Calley.

Come to find out the neighbor had gone to HS with Calley and they had remained friends. According to him Calley never spoke of Me Lai and that he had no place being an officer in the Army. He was, according to the neighbor, nice to the point of being an absolute wimp. He had no doubt that when things began to get out of control Calley just stood there to scared to speak up or intervene. He also stated that he was the type to agree with everyone in order to avoid any level of conflict.

Was wild shaking a guys hand, even though I didn't know it till later, who played such a major role in one of the Army's darkest moments.

Downtown Columbus is so much nicer than when you were there.

I was there for IBOLC on '13. My in-laws and my family all witnessed someone get shot across the river in phoenix city, AL. We were on the Columbus side.

I returned for CCC in 2019 and was very impressed with the new downtown area and not as ghetto.

I've heard that it's actually become a nice town. It was actually nicer in 11 than it was in 07 when I went through OCS. Glad to see things are improving.

Went through ocs at Benning in '02. Pretty rough part of town at the time.

Many heads should have rolled. They were conducting search a search and destroy mission to include killing the enemy. Children and babies were killed. The massacre was absolutely the wrong way to gain the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people.

I remember watching the news with my dad when they reported he was charged with premeditated murder. My dad didn't have much school education and certainly was not aware of the meaning of legal terms, but he jumped out of his chair and said "premeditated murder? Well every Japanese I shot was premeditated! I planned on killing them all." Of course, it was two very different situations.