My+Lai+Massacre+JDS

March 16, 1968 was not such an enjoyable day for the world of peace. It was the day of the unforgettable My Lai Massacre The men of Charlie Company, 11th Brigade, Americal Division were severely frustrated with Vietnam; partly because of the war which was tiring and seemingly never-ending. But also because during the night, they heard men screaming, thinking it was just the Vietnamese communicating or practicing. In the morning, they found a dead body near water. They realized the man was skinned and dipped in salt water for extreme torture. What made this worse was that they would've been able to stop it if they didn't think it was a normal Vietnamese ritual. Who could've predicted or known what the Vietnamese were doing (or rather the Americans) screaming at the top of their lungs, making it impossible to make out the dialogue. Thinking about this only made them even more furious. They finally received their one wish: a search and destroy. Captain Ernest Medina said to them: "This is what you've been waiting for, and you've got it." There was a small pep rally throughout the group of men. Then Lieutenant William Calley led them to a small village named My Lai, which was known as a "stronghold" of Vietnam's citizens, supporters, and soldiers. Their annihilation mission was soon started. Soldiers of the United States of America, the same country which wants world peace so badly, were told to open fire without a concern of the people they were killing. It's hard to say whether our soldiers, if we had the chance to ask them, would've kept on shooting if they had known exactly //who// they were firing upon. If the fact that women and children were shot was released, some minds would have decided revenge is not worth the moment overall. What actually happened during this moment of insanity just makes the whole image worse. Old men, with no idea of what was going on, were bayoneted. Women and children, who were praying for their safety, were shot in the back of the head despite their spirits of not retaliating to this madness. Unfortunately, one girl was even raped, then killed. Later a small group of villagers was gathered up, forced into a ditch, then exterminated by machine guns. Hugh Thompson, who was in a helicopter at My Lai, was instructed that the village was full of Vietnamese soldiers. Realistically, there was 'one draft-aged man' they saw, tried to shoot, but missed, and that was the last person they had seen with a gun and who looked like they were Vietnam-supporters. The helicopters landed. They saw a teenage girl still barely alive. He knew he had to get her to help, so he signaled it on his radio. Later, a captain rushed over to him, nudged the girl with his foot, and shot her repeatedly. This incident shocked Thompson immensely. After that, when they were in the air again, they saw Lieutenant Calley marching towards a group of villagers with his army, so they landed in between the two. Thompson told his gunner that if our soldiers began to shoot, we would shoot our own soldiers just to protect the people. As Calley led them in, he also took the crimes all for himself. He was charged with murder in September of 1969. Some believe that he was a decoy, taking the blame for all of the troops because he was the one that brought them to the scene. But others think it was a glitch in our society, as every other soldier that fought (or slaughtered) at My Lai was responsible for any type of crime, yet only one man was found guilty. And, even though he was sentenced for his lifetime, his sentence later became ten years, then ended up three because he was paroled. One American was injured, however, but it was not with the intention of anger: he had shot himself in the foot accidentally while clearing his pistol. Some reports say the total casualties round up into the three-hundreds. Some reports say it was around five-hundred. The truth is, it was too many deaths for too little of a cause.