VOICES OF MY LAI: PART I

The Beginnings of Charlie Company

Army Prosecutor: Who did it? Who killed these people?


Radio Operator: There was nothing special about us.


Squad Leader: I didn't go over there to be a hero or nothin. I went over to do my job.


Investigator: Calley was always trying to do things to show that he was a real officer.


My Lai Villager #1: When I was young I saw American soldiers. Whenever they came they'd gather up everyone. They'd bring cake and candy for the children. Everyone would have some and then they would let us go home. 


My Lai Villager #2: I never would have imagined, never would have thought Americans would kill us. Americans don't kill. 


My Lai Villager #3: When I was eight years old, I realized the war had come. There were many times when the American soldiers would set up operations around this area and raid and shoot. So my mother brought me and my siblings together and taught us to flee. Every night we had to crawl into the shelter to sleep. We had to avoid the American bombs and shootings. That was our misery -- war from the Americans. 


Radio Operator: We started pulling regular patrols end of January, beginning of February. Once we started down to the Pinkville area we started to lose people. They were being picked off one by one. This is when we got our initiation into the realities of Vietnam with booby traps, mines, snipers. Weber was the first member we lost. It was like losing a member of your family.


Soldier: Pinkville took on associations for us far beyond a color chart. Pinkville meant death.


Radio Operator: Your attitude toward the villagers now: Everybody's an enemy.


Squad Leader: You begin to hate, and the hatred is very intense and very real. Finally you just throw the rule book away.


Machine Gunner: We were told the innocents had been warned out. If they're there, you gotta assume they're enemy. There are no civilians. They're all Viet Cong.