My Lai massacre

By. Makayla Watkins, Stanly Haynes, and Kyle Ankney

Background My Lai lay in the south Vietnamese district of Son My. This was a heavily mined area where the Vietcong were deeply

entrenched . Numerous members of the Charlie Company had been maimed or

killed in the area in the preceding weeks. The agitated troops ,under the command of Lt. William Calley,

entered the village poised for engagement on March 16, 1968.

The Massacre As the mission unfolded it soon turned into the massacre of over

300 apparently unarmed civilians ( includes women, children, and the elderly).

Calley ordered the men to enter the village firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire.

Eyewitnesses say that old men were bayoneted , praying women and children were shot in the back of the head

Calley said to round up a group of villagers ,ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down with machine gun fire

documentingreality.com

Investigations and questions

Word of the massacre did not reach the American public until November, 1969

The gruesome details of My Lai reached the American public, serious questions arose concerning the conduct.

Investigating the massacre found widespread failures of leadership, discipline, and morale among the army’s fighting units.

Language of the war

AIRBURST- explosion of ammunition in the air

AIR CAV- air cavalry, referring o helicopter-borne infantry.

ARCOMS- Army commendation medals

ARTY- artillery

BAC SI- Vietnamese term for medical corpsman; doctor

BIRD- any aircraft, usually helicopters

Language of the war cont.

BLUELEG- infantryman, a.k.a. “grunt”

CAV- nickname for air cavalry

C&C – command and control

CHERRY- a new troop replacement

CHURCH KEY- bottle opener

CRACKER BOX- field ambulance

Artillery

They used various forms of artillery, both stationed and carried into the field.

Infantrymen carried lighter guns on patrol, using them to provide close up, mobile support.

The larger guns, positioned at firebase throughout the south.

historyimages.blogspot.com

Photos of the massacre

digitalhistory.uh.edu

kattydl.freeiz.com

Sources

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html