William Calley, 1943-2024

[Uncle Fester]

Apparently the infamous former Lt William Calley passed away in April, though news of it just now became public. I had no idea the Army was so desperate for officers at the time that it’d take a junior-college dropout with health problems for OCS. He unquestionably deserved to be court-martialed and punished, but allowing his seniors to skate without any real accountability just added more shame to the whole sorry episode.

William Calley, Army officer and face of My Lai Massacre, is dead at 80​

 

[ChuckMK23]

I had no idea the Army was so desperate for officers at the time that it’d take a junior-college dropout with health problems for OCS

I would argue Army and Navy both suffered from exceptionally poor quality of junior officers late 60's through 70's. Reflected the glorious visions of their respective service Chiefs in a era of enormous cultural change.

Marines and AF largely escaped the consequences.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Surprised he lived to be 80, unless he was just very ignorant of what he had been a part of. I mean, what a miserable existence the better portion of his life after that day must have been......not saying I have sympathy, but I feel sorry for him

 

[JTS11]

Surprised he lived to be 80, unless he was just very ignorant of what he had been a part of. I mean, what a miserable existence the better portion of his life after that day must have been......not saying I have sympathy, but I feel sorry for him

I'm sure he had some sociopathic tendencies in his being that allowed him to rationalize what he did.

I do like this passage from his Wikipedia biography though. 😄

"In May or June 1969 near Chu Lai Base Area, Calley and two other Americal Division officers were in a jeep that passed a jeep containing five Marines. The Army jeep pulled the Marines over and one Army officer told the Marines "You soldiers better square away!" One of the Marines replied, "We ain't soldiers, motherfucker, we're Marines!" The Army lieutenants dismounted the jeep. The ensuing fight ended only after one of the Army officers pulled his pistol and fired a round into the air. Two of the officers were briefly hospitalized, while Calley was beaten up. The Marines pleaded guilty at special courts-martial, where they stipulated they had not known the soldiers had been officers.[9]"