My Lai - serious post
Excuse me while I rant.
Today is the 41st anniversary of the massacre in "My Lai" Vietnam by American Servicemen.
Question: Does the chief instigator, convicted murderer William L Calley still live in Georgia? He served less than 4 years jail time; sentence was commuted by Richard Nixon (boo hiss). ANS: I think he lives in ATLANTA. Someone with research foo help me out?)
(EDIT: I may have found better info.... hang on while I check it.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-485983/Found-The-monster-My-Lai-massacre.html
Fabulous... looks like he lives in Atlanta... SEE HIS PICTURE FROM 10/07
**
From the Daily Mail (Last updated at 23:07 06 October 2007 )
"By all accounts, Calley was accepted without question as a pillar of the community. Always smartly attired, he managed the jewellers until two years ago, when - after a series of heated rows about the way the store should be run - he left his wife.
He now lives 90 miles away in Atlanta, where the Daily Mail found him sharing a smart midtown apartment with their 27-year-old son, a brilliant PhD computer student also called William Laws Calley.
His path has not always run smoothly, however. For a time he ran a nice little sideline as a speaker on the college lecture circuit - sickeningly charging a fee to give sanitised talks about My Lai. But he was forced to give up when he was heckled by the students.
According to one neighbour - a former policewoman who remarked that Calley "doesn't look big enough to snap a twig in half" - during his middle years he also developed a drink problem.
Perhaps he turned to the bottle to blot out his memories, though his close friend Al Fleming, an award-winning local TV newsman, says he is now at ease with himself.
"William did have nightmares for a while, but not now," Fleming told the Mail. "I'm sure he didn't like doing what he did, but he shows no sense of remorse at all. He's not like a lot of Vietnam veterans; suicidal and sick. He's just an ordinary guy."
An ordinary guy? Visiting My Lai last week, we spoke to people who remember the day William Calley came to their village, and regard him rather differently. A dignified woman of 82, wearing a traditional black trouser suit, Mrs Hai Thi Quy's wrinkled face contorted with pain as she recalled how her family were forced into the ditch, where her mother and two children, aged six and 16, were murdered beside her.
"They just started shooting people and pushing them into the canal," she said. "People were screaming, but the American soldiers said nothing, and their faces were so hard. They even shot a pregnant woman.
"They just killed and killed. The bullets came down like rain. One man grabbed my mother's hair and pushed her face down into the water and shot her."
Mrs Quy was shot in the back, but recovered in a U.S. military clinic after being rescued by the helicopter hero, Hugh Thompson.
Understandably, she still feels angry - yet, like all the survivors we interviewed, she showed an uplifting spirit of forgiveness. The director of the My Lai Museum, Mr Pham Thanh Cong - who lost his mother and three siblings but escaped with bullet wounds - even extended an olive branch to Calley.
"If the government will allow it, I invite him here, not to scold him or reprimand him, but to try and understand why he ordered the killing," Mr Cong said. "If he comes here, he and I could become friends. We could confide and talk to each other. We really want him to come back and see the truth."
From a man who has suffered so much, it was a remarkable gesture. Sadly, however, William Calley - who has never demonstrated the slightest desire to make his peace with the Vietnamese people - was not even willing to discuss it this week. Unless, of course, he received a fat fee.
"Meet me in the lobby of the nearest bank at opening time tomorrow, and give me a certified cheque for $25,000, then I'll talk to you for precisely one hour," he drawled nauseatingly.
When we showed up at the appointed hour, armed not with a cheque but a list of pertinent questions, Calley scuttled away from the line of fire. It was an option the man who led the My Lai Massacre never afforded to his innocent victims."
**
Looks like he's still unapologetic. Check out an Iraq-related comment he posted (3rd down) - could be his son but probably himself. Grrrr!
http://www.qrmapps.com/rantburg/poparticle.php?ID=203031&D=2007-10-19&HC=4
********
EDIT 3:
A SONG written about this murder, song to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I kid you not. Recorded in 1971. I could just PUKE.
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mylai2.html
IME, December 5, 1969:
Only a shadow of a doubt now remains that the massacre at My Lai was an atrocity, barbaric in execution. Yet almost as chilling to the American mind is the character of the alleged perpetrators. The deed was not performed by patently demented men. Instead, according to the ample testimony of their friends and relatives, the men of C Company who swept through My Lai were for the most part almost depressingly normal. They were Everymen, decent in their daily lives, who at home in Ohio or Vermont would regard it as unthinkable to maliciously strike a child, much less kill one. Yet men in American uniforms slaughtered the civilians of My Lai, and in so doing humiliated the U.S. and called in question the U.S. mission in Vietnam in a way that all the antiwar protesters could never have done.
Lyrics as recorded by "C COMPANY featuring Terry Nelson,", Plantation Records PL-73, 1971
transcribed by Manfred Helfert.
SPOKEN INTRO:
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who wanted to grow up to be a soldier and serve his country in whatever way he could.
He would parade around the house with a saucepan on his head for a helmet, a wooden sword in one hand, and the American flag in the other.
As he grew up, he'd put away the things of a child, but he never let go of the flag...
My name is William Calley,
I'm a soldier of this land,
I've tried to do my duty
And to gain the upper hand;
But they've made me out a villain,
They have stamped me with a brand,
As we go marching on...
I'm just another soldier
From the shores of USA,
Forgotten on a battlefield
Ten thousand miles away
While life goes on as usual
From New York to Santa Fe,
As we go marching on...
I've seen my buddies ambushed
On the left and on the right,
And their youthful bodies riddled
By the bullets of the night;
Where all the rules are broken
And the only law is might,
As we go marching on...
While we're fighting in the jungles
They were marching in the street,
While we're dying in the rice fields
They were helping our defeat.
While we're facing VC bullets
They were sounding a retreat,
As we go marching on...
With our sweat we took the bunkers,
With our tears we took the plain,
With our blood we took the mountain
And they gave it back again.
Still, all of us are soldiers,
We're too busy to complain,
As we go marching on...
SPOKEN:
When I reach my final campground
In that land beyond the sun,
And the Great Commander asks me,
"Did you fight or did you run?"
I'll stand both straight and tall,
Stripped of medals, rank, and gun,
And this is what I'll say,
"Sir, I followed all my orders,
And I did the best I could.
It's hard to judge the enemy
And hard to tell the good.
Yet, there's not a man among us
Who would not have understood.
We took the jungle village
Exactly like they said,
We responded to their rifle fire
With everything we had.
And when the smoke had cleared away
A hundred souls lay dead.
Sir, the soldier that's alive
Is the only one can fight.
There's no other way to wage a war
When the only one in sight
That you're sure is not a VC
Is you buddy on your right.
When all the wars are over
And the battle's finally won
Count me only as a soldier
Who never left his gun,
With a light to serve my country
As the only prize I've won..."
Glory, glory, hallelujah... [FADE-OUT]
+++---+++---
Per the NY Times:
"He was sentenced to life at hard labor, but actually served three years under house arrest at Fort Benning, Ga.Today, Mr. Calley lives near the Army post in a quiet section of Columbus, Ga., and works six days a week at the V.V. Vick jewelry store, which is owned by his father-in-law. Customers say Mr. Calley, 40 years old, is the store's most popular salesman. He married Penny Vick in 1976." (source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E5D91439F933A25754C0A965948260) By Frank Emblen. Published: Sunday, July 10, 1983
Or does he live in Atlanta?
"Sometime in 2005 or 2006, Calley divorced his wife Penny, whose father had employed him at the V.V. Vick jewelry store in Columbus since 1975, and moved to downtown Atlanta to live with his son, Laws Calley. In October 2007, Calley agreed to be interviewed by the UK newspaper the Daily Mail to discuss the massacre, saying, "Meet me in the lobby of the nearest bank at opening time tomorrow, and give me a certified check for $25,000, then I'll talk to you for precisely one hour."[7] However, when confronted with the journalist's questions about the massacre (and with no money given to him), Calley left." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley)
I would like to know.
go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai for some info (CAUTION: BRUTALITY PICTURED and I mean murdered children, too.)
Further, from Wiki:
"“Soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. ... Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. Some victims were mutilated with the signature "C Company" carved into the chest. By late morning word had got back to higher authorities and a cease-fire was ordered. My Lai was in a state of carnage. Bodies were strewn through the village.[2] ”
Dozens of people were herded into an irrigation ditch and other locations and killed with automatic weapons.[17] A large group of about 70 to 80 villagers, rounded up by the 1st Platoon in the center of the village, were killed personally by Calley and by soldiers he had ordered to fire. Calley also shot two other large groups of civilians with a weapon taken from a soldier who had refused to do any further killing."
Comments not screened.
He had a son also named William Calley (now approx 29 years old) with Penny Vick. I hope he sees the murdered children and hears their screams every time he looks at his son. But I seriously doubt it.
Today is the 41st anniversary of the massacre in "My Lai" Vietnam by American Servicemen.
Question: Does the chief instigator, convicted murderer William L Calley still live in Georgia? He served less than 4 years jail time; sentence was commuted by Richard Nixon (boo hiss). ANS: I think he lives in ATLANTA. Someone with research foo help me out?)
(EDIT: I may have found better info.... hang on while I check it.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-485983/Found-The-monster-My-Lai-massacre.html
Fabulous... looks like he lives in Atlanta... SEE HIS PICTURE FROM 10/07
**
From the Daily Mail (Last updated at 23:07 06 October 2007 )
"By all accounts, Calley was accepted without question as a pillar of the community. Always smartly attired, he managed the jewellers until two years ago, when - after a series of heated rows about the way the store should be run - he left his wife.
He now lives 90 miles away in Atlanta, where the Daily Mail found him sharing a smart midtown apartment with their 27-year-old son, a brilliant PhD computer student also called William Laws Calley.
His path has not always run smoothly, however. For a time he ran a nice little sideline as a speaker on the college lecture circuit - sickeningly charging a fee to give sanitised talks about My Lai. But he was forced to give up when he was heckled by the students.
According to one neighbour - a former policewoman who remarked that Calley "doesn't look big enough to snap a twig in half" - during his middle years he also developed a drink problem.
Perhaps he turned to the bottle to blot out his memories, though his close friend Al Fleming, an award-winning local TV newsman, says he is now at ease with himself.
"William did have nightmares for a while, but not now," Fleming told the Mail. "I'm sure he didn't like doing what he did, but he shows no sense of remorse at all. He's not like a lot of Vietnam veterans; suicidal and sick. He's just an ordinary guy."
An ordinary guy? Visiting My Lai last week, we spoke to people who remember the day William Calley came to their village, and regard him rather differently. A dignified woman of 82, wearing a traditional black trouser suit, Mrs Hai Thi Quy's wrinkled face contorted with pain as she recalled how her family were forced into the ditch, where her mother and two children, aged six and 16, were murdered beside her.
"They just started shooting people and pushing them into the canal," she said. "People were screaming, but the American soldiers said nothing, and their faces were so hard. They even shot a pregnant woman.
"They just killed and killed. The bullets came down like rain. One man grabbed my mother's hair and pushed her face down into the water and shot her."
Mrs Quy was shot in the back, but recovered in a U.S. military clinic after being rescued by the helicopter hero, Hugh Thompson.
Understandably, she still feels angry - yet, like all the survivors we interviewed, she showed an uplifting spirit of forgiveness. The director of the My Lai Museum, Mr Pham Thanh Cong - who lost his mother and three siblings but escaped with bullet wounds - even extended an olive branch to Calley.
"If the government will allow it, I invite him here, not to scold him or reprimand him, but to try and understand why he ordered the killing," Mr Cong said. "If he comes here, he and I could become friends. We could confide and talk to each other. We really want him to come back and see the truth."
From a man who has suffered so much, it was a remarkable gesture. Sadly, however, William Calley - who has never demonstrated the slightest desire to make his peace with the Vietnamese people - was not even willing to discuss it this week. Unless, of course, he received a fat fee.
"Meet me in the lobby of the nearest bank at opening time tomorrow, and give me a certified cheque for $25,000, then I'll talk to you for precisely one hour," he drawled nauseatingly.
When we showed up at the appointed hour, armed not with a cheque but a list of pertinent questions, Calley scuttled away from the line of fire. It was an option the man who led the My Lai Massacre never afforded to his innocent victims."
**
Looks like he's still unapologetic. Check out an Iraq-related comment he posted (3rd down) - could be his son but probably himself. Grrrr!
http://www.qrmapps.com/rantburg/poparticle.php?ID=203031&D=2007-10-19&HC=4
********
EDIT 3:
A SONG written about this murder, song to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. I kid you not. Recorded in 1971. I could just PUKE.
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mylai2.html
IME, December 5, 1969:
Only a shadow of a doubt now remains that the massacre at My Lai was an atrocity, barbaric in execution. Yet almost as chilling to the American mind is the character of the alleged perpetrators. The deed was not performed by patently demented men. Instead, according to the ample testimony of their friends and relatives, the men of C Company who swept through My Lai were for the most part almost depressingly normal. They were Everymen, decent in their daily lives, who at home in Ohio or Vermont would regard it as unthinkable to maliciously strike a child, much less kill one. Yet men in American uniforms slaughtered the civilians of My Lai, and in so doing humiliated the U.S. and called in question the U.S. mission in Vietnam in a way that all the antiwar protesters could never have done.
Lyrics as recorded by "C COMPANY featuring Terry Nelson,", Plantation Records PL-73, 1971
transcribed by Manfred Helfert.
SPOKEN INTRO:
Once upon a time, there was a little boy who wanted to grow up to be a soldier and serve his country in whatever way he could.
He would parade around the house with a saucepan on his head for a helmet, a wooden sword in one hand, and the American flag in the other.
As he grew up, he'd put away the things of a child, but he never let go of the flag...
My name is William Calley,
I'm a soldier of this land,
I've tried to do my duty
And to gain the upper hand;
But they've made me out a villain,
They have stamped me with a brand,
As we go marching on...
I'm just another soldier
From the shores of USA,
Forgotten on a battlefield
Ten thousand miles away
While life goes on as usual
From New York to Santa Fe,
As we go marching on...
I've seen my buddies ambushed
On the left and on the right,
And their youthful bodies riddled
By the bullets of the night;
Where all the rules are broken
And the only law is might,
As we go marching on...
While we're fighting in the jungles
They were marching in the street,
While we're dying in the rice fields
They were helping our defeat.
While we're facing VC bullets
They were sounding a retreat,
As we go marching on...
With our sweat we took the bunkers,
With our tears we took the plain,
With our blood we took the mountain
And they gave it back again.
Still, all of us are soldiers,
We're too busy to complain,
As we go marching on...
SPOKEN:
When I reach my final campground
In that land beyond the sun,
And the Great Commander asks me,
"Did you fight or did you run?"
I'll stand both straight and tall,
Stripped of medals, rank, and gun,
And this is what I'll say,
"Sir, I followed all my orders,
And I did the best I could.
It's hard to judge the enemy
And hard to tell the good.
Yet, there's not a man among us
Who would not have understood.
We took the jungle village
Exactly like they said,
We responded to their rifle fire
With everything we had.
And when the smoke had cleared away
A hundred souls lay dead.
Sir, the soldier that's alive
Is the only one can fight.
There's no other way to wage a war
When the only one in sight
That you're sure is not a VC
Is you buddy on your right.
When all the wars are over
And the battle's finally won
Count me only as a soldier
Who never left his gun,
With a light to serve my country
As the only prize I've won..."
Glory, glory, hallelujah... [FADE-OUT]
+++---+++---
Per the NY Times:
"He was sentenced to life at hard labor, but actually served three years under house arrest at Fort Benning, Ga.Today, Mr. Calley lives near the Army post in a quiet section of Columbus, Ga., and works six days a week at the V.V. Vick jewelry store, which is owned by his father-in-law. Customers say Mr. Calley, 40 years old, is the store's most popular salesman. He married Penny Vick in 1976." (source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E5D91439F933A25754C0A965948260) By Frank Emblen. Published: Sunday, July 10, 1983
Or does he live in Atlanta?
"Sometime in 2005 or 2006, Calley divorced his wife Penny, whose father had employed him at the V.V. Vick jewelry store in Columbus since 1975, and moved to downtown Atlanta to live with his son, Laws Calley. In October 2007, Calley agreed to be interviewed by the UK newspaper the Daily Mail to discuss the massacre, saying, "Meet me in the lobby of the nearest bank at opening time tomorrow, and give me a certified check for $25,000, then I'll talk to you for precisely one hour."[7] However, when confronted with the journalist's questions about the massacre (and with no money given to him), Calley left." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley)
I would like to know.
go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai for some info (CAUTION: BRUTALITY PICTURED and I mean murdered children, too.)
Further, from Wiki:
"“Soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. ... Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. Some victims were mutilated with the signature "C Company" carved into the chest. By late morning word had got back to higher authorities and a cease-fire was ordered. My Lai was in a state of carnage. Bodies were strewn through the village.[2] ”
Dozens of people were herded into an irrigation ditch and other locations and killed with automatic weapons.[17] A large group of about 70 to 80 villagers, rounded up by the 1st Platoon in the center of the village, were killed personally by Calley and by soldiers he had ordered to fire. Calley also shot two other large groups of civilians with a weapon taken from a soldier who had refused to do any further killing."
Comments not screened.
He had a son also named William Calley (now approx 29 years old) with Penny Vick. I hope he sees the murdered children and hears their screams every time he looks at his son. But I seriously doubt it.