What Happened at My Lai??

My Lai is in the South Vietnamese district known as Son My.  On March 16, 1968, the 11^th brigade of the America Division, also known as the Charlie Company, arrived at the village of My Lai for a search and destroy mission.  This was during the Vietnam War.  The men had been frustrated and full of grief from the previous battles and previous deaths.  The Lt. was William Calley, and he ordered the men to find and shoot the elusive enemy, and anyone that got in their path.  He ordered them to kill anyone and everyone.  By the end of the “search and destroy mission”, over 300 innocent, unarmed citizens had been brutally murdered, and the so called “enemy” was no where to be found.  Men were bayoneted, women were raped, and children were shot several times in the back of the head.  William Calley is said to have forced the villagers into a trench to mow them down with his anger and gun fire.  Many soldiers who had been there claimed that the heat and death and stench were overwhelming.  They got lost in a violent rage where they shot on compulsion, without thinking. The massacre that took place in My Lai was a tragedy, one that we can only hope to never hear of again.