# Whatever happened to Lt. Calley? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 8, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424 "2013-11-08T14:45:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/21 "2013-11-11T14:23:10Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > There’s two right here in this thread. Sorry, what I meant was no one I personally know alive at that time that excuses what Calley did. On SD I tend to dismiss the first 3 people that hold a contrarian views because they are usually trolls or idiots. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/22 "2013-11-11T14:30:02Z")
It’s not a simple issue. Viet Nam was a quagmire. The Vietcong were experts in blending into the villages. The same guys and women you saw working in the rice fields would be ambushing you the next day. Some of the people Calley and the others killed were Vietcong. Others were innocent non combatants. He was convicted of murder and spent time in prison. He committed crimes and deserved punishment. But I also understand the pressures he and the other soldiers were under and their youth and inexperience. These men had a shortened boot camp and were shipped straight into war. These young men were in a war they wanted no part of. They were drafted and forced to serve. Inexperience and lack of training got many of them killed. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/23 "2013-11-11T14:44:04Z")
The Calley wiki has links to the helicopter crew that reported the killing and saved some lives. They were witnesses at the trial and helped convict Calley. > **[Glenn Andreotta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Andreotta)** > > Glenn Urban Andreotta (October 30, 1947 – April 8, 1968) was an American helicopter crew chief in the Vietnam War noted for being one of three who intervened in the Mỹ Lai massacre, in which 504 unarmed children, women and men were murdered. > Glenn Andreotta was of Italian descent. He was born in Newton, New Jersey, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He dropped out of high school in his junior year and enlisted in the United States Army. He then served a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam as a radi... > [@](#): > > Upon returning to their base at about 1100, Thompson heatedly reported the massacre to his superiors. His allegations of civilian killings quickly reached Lieutenant Colonel Frank Barker, the operation’s overall commander. Barker radioed his executive officer to find out from Captain Medina what was happening on the ground. Medina then gave the cease-fire order to Charlie Company to “knock off the killing”. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/24 "2013-11-11T14:44:30Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s not a simple issue. Viet Nam was a quagmire. The Vietcong were experts in blending into the villages. The same guys and women you saw working in the rice fields would be ambushing you the next day. > > Some of the people Calley and the others killed were Vietcong. Others were innocent non combatants. He killed innocent women and children knowing exactly what he was doing and he was convicted in a court of law which considered every excuse there was to consider and he was sentenced to life in prison and, in effect, he served none of it because of the clamor of the American public who wanted him free. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/25 "2013-11-11T14:52:50Z")
The other men in the helicopter crew. > **[Lawrence Colburn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Colburn)** > > Lawrence Manley Colburn (July 6, 1949 – December 13, 2016) was a United States Army veteran who, while serving as a helicopter gunner in the Vietnam War, intervened in the March 16, 1968 Mỹ Lai massacre. > Born in Coulee Dam, Washington, Colburn grew up in Mount Vernon, with his father (a veteran contractor from World War II), mother, and three sisters, where he would serve as an altar boy for four years while attending Immaculate Conception Catholic School. > After dropping out of Mount Vernon Hig... > [@](#): > > Americal commanders were initially successful in covering up the massacre. Somewhat perversely (based on how the incident was falsified), all of Thompson’s crew received decorations for their actions at My Lai, with Colburn receiving the Bronze Star with “V” Device device on May 14, 1968. An account of the action was fabricated for the document accompanying the decoration, and Thompson’s signature was forged on the eyewitness report. > > On December 20, 1969, Colburn testified to the Peers Commission on what he has seen on March 16, 1968 in Mai Ly [Hugh Thompson Jr. - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson,_Jr). > [@](#): > > Thompson made an official report of the killings, and was interviewed by Colonel Oran Henderson, the commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade (the parent organization of the 20th Infantry).[11] Concerned, senior American officers cancelled similar planned operations by Task Force Barker against other villages (My Lai 5, My Lai 1, etc.) in Quang Ngai Province, possibly preventing the additional massacre of hundreds, if not thousands, of Vietnamese civilians. > \ > When news of the massacre publicly broke, Thompson repeated his account to then-Colonel William Wilson [15] and then-Lieutenant General William Peers during their official Pentagon investigations.[16] In late 1969, Thompson was summoned to Washington DC and appeared before a special closed hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. There, he was sharply criticized by Congressmen, in particular Chairman Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), who were anxious to play down allegations of a massacre by American troops.[ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/26 "2013-11-11T15:03:20Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > On SD I tend to dismiss the first 3 people that hold a contrarian views because they are usually trolls or idiots. **Moderator Warning** Given that this is clearly directed at other posters in this thread, even if you did not name them specifically, I’m giving you a warning for insulting other posters. Don’t do this again. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/27 "2013-11-11T15:05:39Z")
Since this discussion has moved beyond “where is Lt. Calley now” to discussions of his actions and their aftermath (and was hijacked beginning with the third post), let’s moved this to Great Debates. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/28 "2013-11-11T15:10:46Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > **Moderator Warning** > > Given that this is clearly directed at other posters in this thread, even if you did not name them specifically, I’m giving you a warning for insulting other posters. Don’t do this again. > > Colibri > General Questions Moderator Actually it was more generally directed toward to some of the posters on the board that always seem to take an opposing view in any thread they’re in just to be contrary and not necessarily people in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/29 "2013-11-11T20:39:31Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > We seem to forget things like Dresden and Hiroshima, where we kill thousands of civilians with blockbuster bombs, but, when we kill\*\* 22\*\* civilians with rifles and pistols, we demand trials and punishment. > War ain’t good. If we’re in it, there’s going to be breakage, and it isn’t pleasant. > Where is the line between good and bad drawn, in a war? > We can talk right and wrong all day long, but, unless you’re in it, talk is cheap. I’m only going to address that number there. Up to **500** villagers died that day. The specifics of the charges faced by the lieutenant were that he personally killed **109** of them. The verdict at his court-martial was that he was guilty of the premeditated murder of **22** of those. The phrase “but, when we kill **22** civilians with rifles and pistols” tends to obfuscate the other numbers. Personally, I don’t think those numbers should be obfuscated. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/30 "2013-11-11T20:48:33Z")
So why no one else convicted of anything for those other 391 or 478 (depending on your counting) deaths? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/31 "2013-11-11T21:07:58Z")
He joined the FBI and he and colleague Eichmann ultimately were recruited by Hagbard Celine and converted to Discordianism. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/32 "2013-11-11T21:12:02Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Some of the people Calley and the others killed were Vietcong. Others were innocent non combatants. Uh huh. “Anyone who runs, is a VC. Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!” And now we wonder how in hell we lost in Vietnam, what with all the work we did granting them freedom and everything. Sorry we massacred a bunch of innocent women and children, but them’s the breaks. Can’t make an omelet without burning down a village in order to save it, right? ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/33 "2013-11-11T21:21:44Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Uh huh. > > “Anyone who runs, is a VC. Anyone who stands still, is a well-disciplined VC!” > > And now we wonder how in hell we lost in Vietnam, what with all the work we did granting them freedom and everything. Sorry we massacred a bunch of innocent women and children, but them’s the breaks. Can’t make an omelet without burning down a village in order to save it, right? Not without drones. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424/34 "2013-11-11T21:39:08Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > The specifics of the charges faced by the lieutenant were that he personally killed **109** of them. !!! How many rounds of ammo did GIs carry then/there?! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whatever-happened-to-lt-calley/673424.md?page=1)