Pinkville was the code name the US used for the "My Lai" massacre (http://encyclopedia.tfd.com/My+Lai+Massacre), which took place yesterday 43 years ago. Probably the single event that most influenced us youngsters against the war in Vietnam, I remember we discussed this even in school.

Anybody knows what became of Casey?

Rattler

You mean Lt. William Calley? The Lieutenant in command at the time of the massacre?

Here is some information about him:

Calley underwent nine weeks of basic combat training at Fort Benning, Georgia, followed by eight weeks advanced individual training as a company clerk at Fort Lewis, Washington. Having scored sufficiently high enough on his Armed Forces Qualification tests, he applied for and was accepted into Officer Candidate School (OCS). Calley began 16 weeks of junior officer training at Fort Benning in mid-March 1967. Graduating in OCS Class No. 51 on September 7, 1967, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Infantry.

Calley was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade, and began training at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii in preparation for deployment to the Republic of Vietnam. In Vietnam, the brigade became part of the 23rd Infantry (Americal) Division.

Calley was not highly regarded as a platoon leader. His Officer Evaluation Reports describe him as merely "average". Later, as the My Lai investigation progressed, a more negative picture emerged. Many men in his platoon told army investigators that Calley lacked common sense and could not even read a map or compass properly. A few of Calley's men claimed he was so disliked that some secretly discussed assassinating him.

Just 20 people survived the massacre, ten of whom are alive today. Most owe their lives to U.S. helicopter captain Hugh Thompson. Patrolling over My Lai, he saw what was happening, and airlifted as many villagers as he could to safety.

Thompson, who died last year, confronted Calley and urged him to stop the killing, but the Second Lieutenant refused to defer to his superior, saying: "Down here on the ground, I run the show."

For many months afterwards, the massacre was covered up. Utterly unrepentant, Calley went away on leave and then signed on for an extra stint in Vietnam.

On April 1, 1971, only a day after Calley was sentenced, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered him transferred from Leavenworth prison to house arrest at Fort Benning, pending appeal. This leniency was protested against by Melvin Laird, the Secretary of Defense. The prosecutor, Aubrey Daniel wrote, "The greatest tragedy of all will be if political expedience dictates the compromise of such a fundamental moral principle as the inherent unlawfulness of the murder of innocent persons." On August 20, 1971, the convening authority — the Commanding General of Fort Benning — reduced Calley's sentence to 20 years. The Army Court of Military Review affirmed both the conviction and sentence (46 C.M.R. 1131 (1973)). The Secretary of the Army reviewed the sentence and findings and approved both, but in a separate clemency action commuted confinement to ten years. On May 3, 1974, President Nixon notified the Secretary that he had reviewed the case and determined he would take no further action in the matter.

Ultimately, Calley served only three and a half years of house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning. He petitioned the federal district court for habeas corpus on February 11, 1974, which was granted on September 25, 1974, along with his immediate release, by federal judge J. Robert Elliott. Judge Elliott found that Calley's trial had been prejudiced by pretrial publicity, denial of subpoenas of certain defense witnesses, refusal of the United States House of Representatives to release testimony taken in executive session of its My Lai investigation, and inadequate notice of the charges. (The judge had released Calley on bail on February 27, 1974, but an appeals court reversed it and returned Calley to U.S. Army custody on June 13, 1974.)

Calley was sent to the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. At his release, the press eagerly awaited his arrival at the prison's South Gate, as promised by the prison commandant. Instead, at Calley's request, he was released at West Gate and taken directly to the Fort Leavenworth airfield, where his escort, an unnamed Georgia congressman, had him flown home. The press were notified of his departure after the fact.

The Army appealed against Judge Elliott's decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and asked an appeals judge to stay Calley's immediate release, which was granted. However, the full Court upheld the release pending appeal and decided the entire court would hear the appeal (normally not done in the first instance). The Army won a reversal of Judge Elliott's habeas corpus grant and a reinstatement of the judgment of the courts martial, with 5 judges dissenting. (Calley v. Callaway, 519 F.2d 184, 9/10/1975). In a long and extremely detailed careful opinion, the reviewing court disagreed with Judge Elliott on the law and significantly on Elliott's scope of review of the courts martial proceedings. On November 9, 1974, the Court noted that although by now Calley had been "paroled" from confinement by the Army, that did not moot the habeas corpus proceedings. Later in 1974, President Nixon tacitly issued Calley a limited Presidential Pardon. Consequently, his general court-martial conviction and dismissal from the U.S. Army were upheld, however, the prison sentence and subsequent parole obligations were commuted to time served, leaving Calley a free man.

Sometime in 2005 or 2006, Calley divorced his wife Penny, whose father had employed him at the V.V. Vick jewelry store in Columbus since 1975, and moved to downtown Atlanta to live with his son, William Laws Calley Jr. In October 2007, Calley agreed to be interviewed by the UK newspaper the Daily Mail to discuss the massacre, saying, "Meet me in the lobby of the nearest bank at opening time tomorrow, and give me a certified check for $25,000, then I'll talk to you for precisely one hour." When the journalist "showed up at the appointed hour, armed not with a check but a list of questions," Calley left.

On August 19, 2009, while speaking to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Calley apologized for his role in the My Lai massacre. According to the Ledger-Enquirer and a blog maintained by retired broadcast journalist Dick McMichael;

Calley said:

    There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry....If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd Lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them—foolishly, I guess.

Primary Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley)
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_army_calley_apology_082109/ (http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_army_calley_apology_082109/)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-485983/Found-The-monster-My-Lai-massacre.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-485983/Found-The-monster-My-Lai-massacre.html)

Good Hunting.

MR

Yes indeed, thats how memory can fool you...

Thanks for the update.

Rattler

You know just 22 years before this incident at Nuremberg the "I was just following orders" defense was considered invalid.

It was a really good question.

Good Hunting.

MR