ounded. A few weeks later on March fourteenth, a small squad from Charlie Company ran into another booby trap, this time killing a popular sergeant, blinding on GI, and wounding many others. The soldiers of Charlie Company became demoralized as they lost nearly one-third of their troop in two months. Many in the company had given in to an easy pattern of violence. Prisoners were systematically beaten, unarmed civilians sometimes murdered, whole villages burned, and wells poisoned. Rapes were not uncommon. Many military leaders encouraged and rewarded kills in an effort to produce impressive body counts that could be reported to Saigon as an indication of progress. On March 16, 1968. Charlie Company was ordered to enter the Hamlet of My Lai to clear out the Viet Cong's forty-eighth battalion that was believed to be in the vicinity. The soldier's mission would be to engage the forty-eighth battalion and destroy the village of My Lai. The attack was to begin at seven-thirty in the morning. Military leaders believed the women and children would be out of the village heading for the local market by this time, leaving only the Viet Cong. The soldiers were ordered to explode brick homes, set fires to thatch homes, shoot livestock, poison wells, and destroy the enemy.That plan was that Lieutenant Calley would come down from the North, pushing the enemy East. The second platoon, led by lieutenant Brooks, would clear out the northern area. Lieutenant La Crosse's Third Platoon would stay at communications and later come in to help "clean up".By the time the helicopters carrying members of Charlie Company landed in a rice patty about one-hundred and forty yards south of My Lai, the area had already been peppered with small fires from assault helicopters. Whatever Viet Cong might have been in the vicinity of My Lai had most likely left by the time the first soldiers climbed out of the helicopters.About 20 minutes later, Calley's platoo...
