The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and bad orders.
It takes a village to be saved.
General “Jumping” Jack Singlaub had an interesting take on this in his book “Hazardous Duty.” As I recall from reading it some time ago Singlaub was briefly in the Pentagon and working on personnel issues. He said their way of reducing officers was taking out all the good ones which would later force them to promote unfit officers. He used Lieutenant Calley as an example.
You can't tell me that God doesn't have a sense of humor!
Like many others, I served after Calley’s trial, and was briefed on my obligation not to follow illegal orders.
Of course, we were not told how to determine a legal from an illegal order, or what the mechanism was for the proper way to refuse an illegal order. Essentially all this did was to further stir up the muddy water.
Go back and read about public sentiment at the time this was unfolding.
That single atrocity gave the enemy the gift that they were looking for to smear all of the hard work and combat all the rest of us had to struggle to do the right way.
Hope they fry in Hell.
The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley--C Company (1971)
On this day in 1968, Oklahoma and Arkansas were locked in with 14 inches of “only a dry front” blowing snow. The area was shut down for a week or two as many people were without power, and no one had a 4-WD except the local banker.
I was privy to several ‘retribution’ attacks on folks in RVN. It would serve us well to read up on what happened prior to, during, and after the My Lai event. I would not be so quick to judge. RVN 1969-70.