By Michael Marsh
Only a fraction of the soldiers in Calley’s unit killed civilians, he says. Many soldiers refused to participate in the slaughter, and one shot himself in the foot to avoid it. “Innocent civilians get killed in war,” he says. “These people were not killed in war. It’s not what a soldier will do.” He says incompetent officers, peer pressure, prejudice toward the Vietnamese, and a desire to avenge fallen comrades fueled the slaughter.
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Spotting a girl thrashing in pain, the helicopter crew radioed for help. A captain walked up to her, nudged her with his foot, and shot her. Thompson began screaming into his radio, protesting the killings. On the ground, Lieutenant Calley was goading his men to open fire. Angers would write: “Calley then leaned on Meadlo again and together they began slaughtering the helpless people in the ditch. Amid the wailing and screaming, heads and limbs were being blown off. Blood and guts and bits of brain were everywhere. When it was over forty or fifty more Vietnamese people were dead or dying, and Meadlo was sobbing openly.”
Though Thompson calls himself a mild-mannered man who’s respectful of authority, when he returned to his base he yelled at several superiors before calming down. He reported the massacre to a major and a colonel. Later he talked with an Episcopalian priest, crying fitfully. Thompson took a week of R & R in Hawaii, and when he got back he was told that Andreotta had been killed. That August Thompson’s helicopter was shot down, and a spinal injury ended his war in Vietnam.
Thompson is glad that the My Lai massacre was not forgotten. “The only reason it might not happen again,” he says, “is it’s been brought out and people have been taught about it and know the consequences if they do something stupid like that. So that’s good.”
