n had crossed the plaza on the town's southern edge and entered the village. They encountered families cooking rice in front of their homes. The men began their usual search-and-destroy task of pulling people from homes, interrogating them, and searching for Viet Cong. Soon the killing began. The first victim was a man stabbed in the back with a bayonet. Then a middle-aged man was picked up, thrown down a well, and a grenade lobbed in after him. A group of fifteen to twenty mostly older women were gathered around a temple, kneeling and praying. They were all executed with shots to the back of their heads. Eighty or so villagers were taken from their homes and herded to the plaza area. Meadlo and Calley began firing into the group from a distance of ten to fifteen feet.Those who were rounded up were taken primarily to two spots; one group of twenty to fifty were taken to a clearing; a second group of nearly eighty were taken to a drainage ditch. Just after eight in the morning, Lieutenant Calley told the men guarding the first group, "You know what I want you to do with them." The men watched over the group until ten minutes later when Calley returned and said, "Haven't you got rid of them yet? I want them dead. Waste them." From about ten to fifteen feet away, Calley began shooting, and ordered the men to do the same.About forty-five minutes later Calley came to the ditch where anywhere from eighty to one-hundred and fifty villagers were waiting. When some tried to crawl out of the ditch, once again Calley started shooting, and commanded his troops to do the same. A two year old avoided the bullets, crawled out of the ditch, and began to run to what used to be his home. Calley grabbed him, threw him back into the ditch, and shot him.An army helicopter piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson arrived in the My Lai vicinity about nine in the morning. Thompson noticed dead and dying civilians all over the village. Th...
