The Massacre

The start of the massacre was triggered by U.S. troops that had seen several armed enemies in the vicinity of My Lai (9). The 1st Platoon led by Second Lt. William Calley and the 2nd Platoon led by Second Lt. Stephen Brooks entered the Tu Cung hamlet. The 3rd Platoon, led by 2nd Lt. Jeffry U. Lacross and Captain Medina's forces remained outside the hamlet. 

When the two platoons entered the hamlet, they fired at the civilians in the rice fields (10). 

There was no initial panic among the locals. The villagers were brought into the commons. Harry Stanley, a marine gunner, Charlie Company, made note of the first killings. People being struck with bayonets, getting thrown down a well with a grenade, women and children being shot in the head in front of a church, etc (11). 

One account stated that 70-80 villagers were pushed into an irrigate ditch and killed by the orders of Lt. Calley.

Paul Meadki, Private First Class, recalls that the women were saying "No VC", while shielding their children. Mead was convinced that they were booby-trapped. 

Private First Class Dennis Konti reports, "A lot of women had thrown themselves on top of the children to protect them, and the children were alive at first. Then, the children who were old enough to walk got up and Calley began to shoot the children". (12)

Charlie Company went onto attack subhamlet My Hoi of the Co Luy hamlet, also known to the military as My Khe. Between 60 to 155 people, including women and children, were killed (13). 

On the following day, March 17th, the companies destroyed more of the village and mistreated more detainees. 

Private First Class Michael Bernhardt entered the subhamlet of Xom Lang and recalled,

"I walked up and saw these guys doing strange things...Setting fire to the hootches and huts and waiting for people to come out and then shooting them...going into the hootches and shooting them up...gathering people in groups and shooting them... As I walked in you could see piles of people all through the village… all over. They were gathered up into large groups. I saw them shoot an M79 [grenade launcher] into a group of people who were still alive. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else. We met no resistance and I only saw three captured weapons. We had no casualties. It was just like any other Vietnamese village - old papa-sans, women and kids. As a matter of fact, I don't remember seeing one military-age male in the entire place, dead or alive." (15)

Ronal Haeberle witnessed a group of 20-15 villagers being killed on a dirt road. 

"There were some South Vietnamese people, maybe fifteen of them, women and children included, walking on a dirt road maybe 100 yards [90 m] away. All of a sudden the GIs just opened up with M16s. Beside the M16 fire, they were shooting at the people with M79 grenade launchers... I couldn't believe what I was seeing." (16)

William Thomas Allison, a professor of Military History at Georgia Southern University writes, "By midmorning, members of Charlie Company had killed hundreds of civilians and raped or assaulted countless women and young girls. They encountered no enemy fire and found no weapons in My Lai itself" (14). 

Eventually, Warrant Officer One Hugh Thompson, Jr., a helicopter pilot for Company B, saw the casualties as he flew above. He and his crew flew several groups of survivors out of the village. He reported what he saw to his company commander, Major Frederic W. Watke. The actions of him and his crew played a major role in ending the massacre.

Picture of Hugh Thompson Jr. heading to court to testify against Lt. William Calley at Fort Benning, Georgia, on Nove. 23, 1970.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-485983/Found-The-monster-My-Lai-massacre.html

Report of the Department of Army review of the preliminary investigations into the Mỹ Lai incident. Volume III, Exhibits, Book 6—Photographs, 14 March 1970. From the Library of Congress, Military Legal Resources.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/vietnam/vietnam_mylai.cfm

https://prezi.com/wdiu61uomkjw/my-lai-massacre/

Ronald L. Haeberle - Report of Army review into My Lai incident, book 6, 14 March 1970

http://photos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2009/11/15cmylaidjpg.html

https://mholloway63.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/what-happened-on-march-16th-my-lai-massacre/