Editing My Lai massacre (section)

==Participants==
===Officers===
* [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|LTC]] Frank A. Barker – commander of the [[Task Force Barker]], a battalion-sized unit, assembled to attack the VC 48th Battalion supposedly based in and around Mỹ Lai. He allegedly ordered the destruction of the village and supervised the artillery barrage and combat assault from his helicopter. Reported the operation as a success; was killed in Vietnam on 13 June 1968, in a mid-air collision before the investigation had begun.<ref name=summaryreport/><ref name="WallBarker">{{cite web|url=http://thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=2428|title=Ltc Frank Akeley Barker|publisher=Thewall-usa.com|date=26 November 1967|access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref>
* [[Captain (United States O-3)|CPT]] Kenneth W. Boatman – an artillery forward observer; was accused by the Army of failure to report possible misconduct, but the charge was dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>
* [[Major (United States)|MAJ]] Charles C. Calhoun – operations officer of Task Force Barker; charges against him of failure to report possible misconduct were dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>
* [[Second lieutenant#United States|2LT]] [[William Calley]] – platoon leader, 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, [[11th Infantry Brigade (United States)|11th Infantry Brigade]], [[23rd Infantry Division (United States)|23rd Infantry Division]]. Was charged in premeditating the murder of 102 civilians,<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NxYuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QDMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1493,6642255&dq=my+lai&hl=en Calley admits slayings on Capt. Medina's order], ''Rome News-Tribune'', 23 February 1971.</ref> found guilty and sentenced to life. Was paroled in September 1974 by the Secretary of the Army [[Howard Callaway]]. Died April 28, 2024.
* LTC William D. Guinn Jr. – Deputy Province Senior Advisor/Senior Sector Advisor for Quangngai Province. Charges against him of dereliction of duty and false swearing brought by the Army were dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>
* [[Colonel (United States)|COL]] [[Oran Henderson|Oran K. Henderson]] – 11th Infantry Brigade commander, who ordered the attack and flew in a helicopter over Mỹ Lai during it. After [[Hugh Thompson, Jr.|Hugh Thompson]] immediately reported multiple killings of civilians, Henderson started the cover-up by dismissing the allegation about the massacre and reporting to his superiors that indeed 20 people from Mỹ Lai died by accident. Accused of cover-up and perjury by the Army; charges dropped.<ref name=summaryreport/>Died on June 2, 1998,
* [[Major general (United States)|MG]] [[Samuel W. Koster]] – commander of the 23rd Infantry Division, was not involved with planning the Mỹ Lai search-and-destroy mission. However, during the operation he flew over Mỹ Lai and monitored the radio communications.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/docview/156398291 General Heard My Lai Radio Conversations: Pentagon Says Americal Commander Was in Copter During Alleged Massacre] . ''Los Angeles Times'', 19 December 1969.</ref> Afterward, Koster did not follow up with the 11th Brigade commander COL Henderson on the initial investigation, and later was involved in the cover-up. Was charged by the Army with failure to obey lawful regulations, dereliction of duty, and alleged cover-up; charges dropped. Later was demoted to brigadier general and stripped of a Distinguished Service Medal.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>died on January 23, 2006
* CPT Eugene M. Kotouc – military intelligence officer assigned to Task Force Barker;<ref>[https://archive.today/20130909024858/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xd8jAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fCgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6570,2098116&dq=my+lai&hl=en Calley jury to call own witnesses], ''The Milwaukee Journal'', 6 March 1971.</ref> he partially provided information, on which the Mỹ Lai combat assault was approved; together with Medina and a South Vietnamese officer, he interrogated, tortured and allegedly executed VC and NVA suspects later that day. Was charged with maiming and assault, tried by the jury and acquitted.<ref name="autogenerated2"/>died 23 Sep 2008
* CPT Dennis H. Johnson – 52d Military Intelligence Detachment, assigned to Task Force Barker, was accused of failure to obey lawful regulations; however, charges were later dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>
* 2LT Jeffrey U. Lacross – platoon leader, 3rd Platoon, Charlie Company; testified that his platoon did not meet any armed resistance in Mỹ Lai, and that his men did not kill anybody; however, since, in his words, both Calley and Brooks reported a body count of 60 for their platoons, he then submitted a body count of 6.<ref name="Kill Order Refuted">Greider, William. [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19710310&id=ZsgcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g1oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5547,1436152 Kill Order Refuted at Court-Martial], ''The Victoria Advocate'', 10 March 1971.</ref>died 14 March 2020
* MAJ Robert W. McKnight – operations officer of the 11th Brigade; was accused of false swearing by the Army, but charges were subsequently dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>
* CPT [[Ernest Medina]] – commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry; nicknamed ''Mad Dog'' by subordinates. He planned, ordered, and supervised the execution of the operation in Sơn Mỹ village. Was accused of failure to report a felony and of murder; went to trial and was acquitted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/medina.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990508015038/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/medina.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 May 1999|title=Peers Report: Captain Ernest Medina|publisher=Law.umkc.edu|access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref>died on May 8, 2018,
* CPT Earl Michles<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://virtualwall.org/dm/MichlesER01a.htm|title=CPT Earl R Michles, Pocahontas, AR on www.VirtualWall.org The Virtual Wall Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall|website=virtualwall.org|accessdate=3 November 2023}}</ref> – officer during My Lai operation; he died in a helicopter crash three months later.
* Col Nels A Parson -charged with failure to obey lawful regulations and dereliction in the performance of their duities; but charges were subsequently dropped. Died 19 May 2013
* [[Brigadier general (United States)|BG]] George H. Young Jr. – assistant division commander, 23rd Infantry Division; charged with alleged cover-up, failure to obey lawful regulations and dereliction of duty by the Army; charges were dismissed.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>Died October 23 1996
* MAJ Frederic W. Watke – commander of Company B, 123rd Aviation Battalion, 23rd Infantry Division, providing helicopter support on 16 March 1968. Testified that he informed COL Henderson about killings of civilians in My Lai as reported by helicopter pilots.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GmUpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q8kEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5046,4600204&dq=my+lai+medina&hl=en Henderson Witness Admits False Statement about My Lai]. ''Daytona Beach Morning Journal'', 17 September 1971.</ref> Accused of failure to obey lawful regulations and dereliction of duty; charges dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>
* CPT Thomas K. Willingham – Company B, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, assigned to Task Force Barker; charged with making false official statements and failure to report a felony; charges dropped.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up"/>

Altogether, 14 officers directly and indirectly involved with the operation, including two generals, were investigated in connection with the Mỹ Lai massacre, except for LTC Frank A. Barker, CPT Earl Michaels, and 2LT Stephen Brooks, who all died before the beginning of the investigation.<ref name="Massacre and Its Cover-Up">Peers, William R., Joseph Goldstein, Burke Marshall, and Jack Schwartz. ''The My Lai Massacre and Its Cover-Up: Beyond the Reach of Law?: The Peers Commission Report''. New York: Free Press, 1976.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref><ref name="Cover-Up">Hersh, Seymour M. ''Cover-Up: the Army's Secret Investigation of the Massacre at My Lai 4''. New York: Random House, 1972.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref><ref>Peers, William R. ''The My Lai Inquiry''. New York: Norton, 1979. ISBN 0394474600</ref>

===1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry===
* [[Private first class|PFC]] James Bergthold, Sr. – Assistant gunner and ammo bearer on a machine gun team with Maples. Was never charged with a crime. Admitted that he killed a wounded woman he came upon in a hut, to put her out of her misery.
* PFC Michael Bernhardt – Rifleman; he dropped out of the [[University of Miami]] to volunteer for the Army.<ref>Lelyveld, Joseph. [https://www.nytimes.com/1969/12/14/archives/the-story-of-a-soldier-who-refused-to-fire-at-songmy-a-soldier-who.html A soldier who refused to fire at Songmy], ''The New York Times'', 14 December 1969.</ref> Bernhardt refused to kill civilians at Mỹ Lai. Captain Medina reportedly later threatened Bernhardt to deter him from exposing the massacre. As a result, Bernhardt was given more dangerous assignments such as point duty on patrol and would later be afflicted with a form of [[trench foot]] as a direct result. Bernhardt told Ridenhour, who was not present at Mỹ Lai during the massacre, about the events, pushing him to continue his investigation.<ref>{{harvnb|Oliver|2006|p=34.}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=1wisoI-wP5MC&q=michael+bernhardt+medina&pg=PA34 Michael Bernhardt's post-massacre actions].</ref> Later he would help expose and detail the massacre in numerous interviews with the press, and he served as a prosecution witness in the trial of Medina, where he was subjected to intense cross examination by defense counsel [[F. Lee Bailey]] backed by a team of attorneys including [[Gary Myers (lawyer)|Gary Myers]]. Bernhardt is a recipient of the [[Ethical movement|New York Society for Ethical Culture]]'s 1970 Ethical Humanist Award.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nysec.org/ethical-humanist|title=The Ethical Humanist Award: New York Society for Ethical Culture|date=7 September 2010|publisher=Nysec.org|access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref>
* PFC Herbert L. Carter – "[[tunnel rat]]"; shot himself in the foot while reloading his pistol and claimed that he shot himself in the foot to be [[Medical evacuation|MEDEVACed]] out of the village when the massacre started.<ref name=":0">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/mylai-massacre/ Timeline: Charlie Company and the Massacre at My Lai] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170319224934/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/mylai-massacre/ |date=19 March 2017 }}, ''[[American Experience]]'', pbs.org. accessed February 23, 2018</ref>
* PFC Dennis L. Conti – Grenadier/Minesweeper; testified that he initially refused to shoot but later fired some M79 rounds at a group of fleeing people with unknown effect.
* [[Specialist (rank)#Specialist (1955–present)|SP4]] Lawrence C. La Croix – Squad Leader; testified favorably for Captain Medina during his trial. In 1993, he sent a letter to the ''Los Angeles Times'', saying, "Now, 25 years later, I have only recently stopped having flashbacks of that morning. I still cannot touch a weapon without vomiting. I am unable to interact with any of the large Vietnamese population in Los Angeles for fear that they might find out who I am; and, because I cannot stand the pain of remembering or wondering if maybe they had relatives or loved ones who were victims at Mỹ Lai&nbsp;... some of us will walk in the jungles and hear the cries of anguish for all eternity".<ref>Lawrence C. La Croix. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-25-me-14700-story.html "Reflection on My Lai"]. ''Los Angeles Times'', 25 March 1993.</ref>
* PFC James Joseph Dursi – Rifleman; followed orders to round up civilians, but refused to open fire, even when ordered to do so by Lieutenant Calley. Earlier that day, he had shot a fleeing villager who was apparently carrying a weapon but turned out to be a woman carrying her baby. Afterwards, Dursi had vowed to not kill again.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WppaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jksDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5797,4629881&dq=james+joseph+dursi&hl=en "In Calley testimony: Soldier refused 'order{{'"}}], ''Ellensburg Daily Record'', 7 December 1970.</ref>
* PFC Ronald Grzesik – a team leader. He claimed he followed orders to round up civilians but refused to kill them.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
* SP4 Robert E. Maples – Machine gunner attached to SSG Bacon's squad; stated that he refused an order to kill civilians hiding in a ditch and claimed his commanding officer threatened to shoot him.<ref>[http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/vietnam_mylai.cfm Digital History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007064903/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/vietnam/vietnam_mylai.cfm|date=7 October 2013}}, an online textbook maintained by the [[University of Utah]].</ref>
* PFC Paul D. Meadlo – Rifleman; said he was afraid of being shot if he did not participate. Lost his foot to a [[land mine]] the next day; later, he publicly admitted his part in the massacre.
* [[Staff sergeant|SSG]] David Mitchell – Squad Leader; accused by witnesses of shooting people at the ditch site; pleaded not guilty. Mitchell was acquitted.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909677,00.html?promoid=googlep|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930102330/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909677,00.html?promoid=googlep|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 30, 2007|magazine=Time|title=Armed Forces: The My Lai Trials Begin|date=2 November 1970|access-date=2 May 2010}}</ref>
* SP4 Charles Sledge – Radiotelephone Operator; later a prosecution witness.
* [[Private (rank)#United States Army|PV2]] Harry Stanley – Grenadier; claimed to have refused an order from Lieutenant Calley to kill civilians that were rounded-up in a bomb-crater but refused to testify against Calley. After he was featured in a documentary and several newspapers, the city of [[Berkeley, California]], designated 17 October as "Harry Stanley Day".<ref>{{cite news |title=War Hero Relives Day He Refused to Murder |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1989-11-19-8911193407-story.html |work=Biloxi Sun Herald |publisher=Orlando Sentinel |date=19 November 1989 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516142416/https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1989-11-19-8911193407-story.html |archive-date=16 May 2021}}</ref>
* [[Sergeant#United States|SGT]] Esequiel Torres – previously had tortured and hanged an old man because Torres found his bandaged leg suspicious. He and Roschevitz (described below) were involved in the shooting of a group of ten women and five children in a hut. Calley ordered Torres to man the [[M60 machine gun|machine gun]] and open fire on the villagers that had been grouped together. Before everyone in the group was down, Torres ceased fire and refused to fire again. Calley took over the M60 and finished shooting the remaining villagers in that group himself.<ref>[http://www.asser.nl/upload/documents/DomCLIC/Docs/NLP/US/My_Lai_Testimony_Delgado_10-7-1969.pdf "My Lai Testimony of Mr. Andress Delgado"], p. 975, 7 October 1969.</ref> Torres was charged with murder but acquitted. Died June 26.2015
* SP4 Frederick J. Widmer – Assistant Radiotelephone Operator; Widmer, who has been the subject of pointed blame, is quoted as saying, "The most disturbing thing I saw was one boy—and this was something that, you know, this is what haunts me from the whole, the whole ordeal down there. And there was a boy with his arm shot off, shot up half, half hanging on and he just had this bewildered look in his face and like, 'What did I do, what's wrong?' He was just, you know, it's, it's hard to describe, couldn't comprehend. I, I shot the boy, killed him and it's—I'd like to think of it more or less as a mercy killing because somebody else would have killed him in the end, but it wasn't right."<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/714.html "Remember My Lai"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506072757/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/714.html |date=6 May 2016 }}. WGBH Educational Foundation, 23 May 1989; retrieved 28 June 2009.</ref> Widmer died on 11 August 2016, aged 68.<ref>[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/frederick-widmer-obituary?pid=181049294 "Frederick Widmer Obituary"], Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania | Legacy.com, 13 August 2016.</ref>

Before being shipped to South Vietnam, all of Charlie Company's soldiers went through an advanced infantry training and basic unit training at Pohakuloa Training Area in Hawaii.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20131119004519/http://www.1-20infantry.org/rvnhist.htm "History of the 1st Battalion 20th Infantry"]}}, ''A History of the Unit From Its Formation at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii Through Its Deactivation After Service in the Republic Of Viet Nam. Research And Compilation By Cpt. Chuck Seketa.''</ref><ref>[http://www.charlie1-20.org Website with history of the Charlie Company], charlie1-20.org; accessed 23 February 2018.</ref> At Schofield Barracks they were taught how to treat POWs and how to distinguish VC guerrillas from civilians by a [[Judge Advocate General's Corps|Judge Advocate]].<ref name=":0"/>

===Other soldiers===
* Nicholas Capezza – Chief Medic; HHQ Company;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.1-20infantry.org/hhqroster68.htm|title=1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, HHQ Company Roster – 1968|access-date=11 March 2016|archive-date=9 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209221458/http://www.1-20infantry.org/hhqroster68.htm|url-status=usurped}}</ref> insisted he saw nothing unusual.
* William Doherty and Michael Terry – 3rd Platoon soldiers who participated in the killing of the wounded in a ditch.<ref name="Ron"/>
* SGT [[Ronald L. Haeberle]] – Photographer; Information Office, 11th Brigade; was attached to Charlie Company. Then SGT Haeberle carried two Army issued black and white cameras for official photos and his own personal camera containing color slide film.<ref>{{cite book |last=Investigations |first= United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Armed Services Investigating Subcommittee |title=Investigation of the My Lai Incident, Ninety-First Congress, Second Session |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PT6y77DsAasC |year=1976 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=267 |quote=Mr. Stratton: You said that you had two black and white cameras and one color camera. Mr. Haeberle: That is right.}}</ref> He submitted the black and white photos as part of the report on the operation to brigade authorities. By his own testimony at the Courts Martial, he admitted that official photographs generally did not include soldiers committing the killings and generally avoided identifying the individual perpetrators, while his personal color camera contained a few images of soldiers killing elderly men, women of various ages and children. Haeberle also testified that he destroyed most of the color slides which incriminated individual soldiers on the basis that he believed it was unfair to place the blame only on these individuals when many more were equally guilty. He gave his color images to his hometown newspaper, ''The Plain Dealer'', and then sold them to ''Life'' magazine. Criticism was initially levelled at Haeberle for not reporting what he witnessed or turning in his color photographs to the Army. He responded that "he had never considered" turning in his personal color photos and explained, "If a general is smiling wrong in a photograph, I have learned to destroy it.&nbsp;... My experience as a G.I. over there is that if something doesn't look right, a general smiling the wrong way&nbsp;... I stopped and destroyed the negative." He felt his photographs would never have seen the light of day if he had turned them in.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/01/22/coverup |title=The Massacre at My Lai |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |date=1972-01-14 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=2023-06-16}}</ref> It was confirmed in the U.S. Army's own investigation that Haeberle had, in fact, been reprimanded for taking pictures which "were detrimental to the United States Army".<ref>{{cite report |title=Report of the Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations into the My Lai Incident |volume=II, Testimony, Book 14 |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/RDAR-Vol-IIBook14/RDAR-Vol-IIBook14.pdf |date=1970-03-14 |publisher=Library of Congress |lccn=97042604 |page=100 |access-date=2023-06-21}}</ref> 
* Sergeant Minh, Duong – ARVN interpreter, 52nd Military intelligence Detachment, attached to Task Force Barker; confronted Captain Medina about the number of civilians that were killed. Medina reportedly replied, "Sergeant Minh, don't ask anything – those were the orders."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/personnel/vernag/EH/F/cause/lectures/my-lai.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120803164758/http://www.fsa.ulaval.ca/personnel/vernag/EH/F/cause/lectures/my-lai.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 August 2012|title=Four Hours in Mỹ Lai: A Case Study|publisher=Fsa.ulaval.ca|access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref>
* SGT Gary D. Roschevitz – Grenadier; 2nd platoon;<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20171028063216/http://www.1-20infantry.org/croster68.htm Charlie Company Roster, 1968]}}, Research and compilation of "C Company" Rosters provided by Daniel Malin.</ref> according to the testimony of James M. McBreen, Roschevitz killed five or six people standing together with a [[canister shot]] from his M79 grenade launcher, which had a shotgun effect after exploding;<ref>Bigart, Homer. [http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/White%20%20Files/Indochina%20%20Related%20Files/Mylai/Mylai%20226.pdf "Calley Trial Off for the Holidays: Defense Presses View That Medina Was to Blame"], ''The New York Times'', 18 December 1970.</ref> also grabbed an M16 rifle from Varnado Simpson to kill five Vietnamese prisoners. According to various witnesses, he later forced several women to undress with the intention of raping them. When the women refused, he reportedly shot at them.<ref>Yarborough, Trin. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TIfbUZzjsSMC&dq=gary+Roschevitz&pg=PA19 ''Surviving Twice: Amerasian Children of the Vietnam War'']. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2005; {{ISBN|1-57488-864-1}}</ref>{{rp|19–20}}died 12 August 2020
* PFC [[Varnado Simpson]] – Rifleman; 2nd Platoon; admitted that he slew around 10 people in My Lai on CPT Medina's orders to kill not only people, but even cats and dogs.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O7JfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DDMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5852,2394336&dq=varnado+simpson&hl=en "Pilot Testifies Senior Officers Knew Something Amiss On Day Of Massacre"]. ''Lewiston Morning Tribune'', 14 January 1971.</ref><ref>Reed, Roy. [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E12F73E591A7493C5AB178AD95F4D8685F9 "Veteran Says He Slew Ten in Vietnam Village"], ''The New York Times'', 27 November 1969.</ref> He fired at a group of people where he allegedly saw a man with a weapon, but instead killed a woman with a baby.<ref name="The Milwaukee Journal"/> He committed suicide on 4 May 1997, after repeatedly acknowledging remorse for several murders in Mỹ Lai.{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
* SGT Kenneth Hodges, squad leader, was charged with rape and murder during the My Lai Massacre. In every interview given he strictly claimed that he was following orders.<ref>Dahlia Wren, [https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1989/07/30/my-lai-no-accident-says-soldier-who-was-there/ "My Lai: No Accident, Says Soldier Who Was There"], ''Orlando Sentinel'', 30 July 1989.</ref>

===Rescue helicopter crew===
* [[Warrant officer (United States)|WO1]] [[Hugh Thompson Jr.]]
* SP4 [[Glenn Andreotta]]
* SP4 [[Lawrence Colburn]]