Cally apologizes for My Lai massacre

[DMZ-LT]

Cally was convicted of killing 22 civilians in the Vietnamese village of My Lai in 1968 apologized for the first time at a event near Fort Benning last Wednesday.He told the Kiwanis Club " there is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed , for their families , for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry " Cally then took questions from the audience. He did not deny that he carried out the massacre but said he was following orders -- a position he has always taken. Calley now lives in Atlanta with his 28 year old son

[DMZ-LT]

That POS disgraced and dishonored every man and woman who served in Vietnam. He is the reason I was asked how many babies I had killed in Vietnam when I got home ( answer , No more than I could eat in a day ) Hope I never see him in Atlanta.

[SuperScout]

As I may have written on this site before, had I been on Calley's court martial board, I would have voted for the death penalty. Of the senior officers who were appointed to that position of preeminence, I suspect that they cratered to public opinion like yellow-backed chicken-shits. Add to that fact that the prosecuting attorney was a weakling.

[WateringHole]

I always believed the US Army should take some of the blame for placing Officers Bars on the collar of a man who's resume' consist of being a one year Community College drop-out(Palm Beach Junior College), was more or less a drifter, and was only able to support himself by holding down skimpy jobs before enlisting.

[SuperScout]

Agreed. WhenI consider what it took for me to even qualify for OCS, then to see the Calley POS make it through, the standards must have been tossed down the Chattahoochee River, running right through Ft. Benning.

[WateringHole]

SuperScout..........When I was in the Army during the early 60s, I ran across a few louies who acted as though they haven't been around the block too many times before getting their bars. But, on the other hand, they wasn't in combat, so I guess they was able to slide by.

[farmboy]

He got off easy.
One aspect, however, is that the deeper they dug, the uglier it got.
Some high ranking folks were being seen to have participating in trying to cover this up and possibly condoning previous incidents.
At the time, division he was in was pieced together of a lot of draftees and bits of other outfits.
There were lots of problems in general.
It was a tumultuous period and lots of confusion ensued.
The only good guys that day were the chopper crew who landed guns up and put a stop to the carnage.
A dark day in our history.
I have talked to folks who know Calley and they rate him as a very low witted individual.
He was guilty, but others skated.
They were pushing guys thru Infantry OCS like crap thru a goose then.
There were some fine officers and leaders who came out of that, though.

[WateringHole]

farmboy..........Many combat vets have stated they always suspected there was more to this My Lai incident than just Calley acting alone. There was stories of Cally's CO(Martinez)giving him orders on other occasion to do something, then reneging about giving Cally such orders. Also, there was stories of Martinez giving Calley a tongue lashing on various occasions in the presents of enlisted men.

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Then let him go to My Lai and let the chips fall where they may.

[Stick]

Guess I’ve always had some sympathy toward Lt. Calley and others like him, that were put into situations that just didn’t have any logic to them. I believe that Calley and the troops that he commanded had been under fire from the area in and around My-Lia when he gave the order to return fire and hence the people of that area suffered the pains of war due to those who used their community to attack the Army of the Democratic Republic of South Vietnam and its allies, the American defenders.
Once upon a time I was in a tower and it was evening just after dark. It must have been post 11 or 12 which was on the other side of the airfield from the down town area of QuiNhon. There were houses just outside of the perimeter fence, maybe fifty feet away and just below the tower was a hooch. I kid came out of the house and hollered at me “Hey GI. Le’ me see watch.” while pointing at his wrist. I raised my arm and pointed at my wrist. “No, No GI, gimme watch” the kid screamed and I screamed “Dinky-Dow” right back at him.
He went back in the hooch and came back out carrying a 47, picked it up and pulled the trigger. Next I heard a bang-sssssssssk, bang-sssssssssk, bang-sssssssssk of 7.62’s going by my ears. I dropped to the floor, picked up the radio, pushed the button and screamed, “I’m being hit, I’m being hit, I’m being hit.”
The SOG calls back screaming “Little John, come back,” and I scream into the radio "A little kid’s shooting at me Serge, what should I do?"
Now the quotes might not be completely accurate up till now because there might have been a few explicatives deleted but what the Sergeant said next I will never forget, he asked "Is he enemy?" and when I replied HOW THE F*CK SHOULD I KNOW, HE’S SHOOTING AT ME DAMN IT, I was ordered that I couldn’t shoot back.
For more than an hour after that, that area of the perimeter wasn’t being guarded very well but after that hour all hell broke loose in the hooch when a jeep and a ¾ ton pulled up to the front of it.
It was quiet after that and I was relieved without incident a couple hours later.
Did a kid die that night? Should I have shot him? How did he get a weapon with “Made in China” inscribed on it? Were the ones that went into that hooch wrong?