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When Calley, then 23, first entered the Army, he was a filing clerk. But because of an increasing need for officers, the Army soon shipped Calley to Ft. Benning, Ga. for training as an infantry lieutenant. At Ft. Benning, Calley attended Infantry Officer Candidate School (OCS), which provided a six-month course to train enlisted men to become officers. Calley was instructed on both military tactics and the responsibility of command. OCS was a relatively quick way for the Army to provide replacements for the growing number of casualties in the Vietnam War.
Lt. Calley graduated from OCS and then was shipped to Hawaii, where he became part of Charlie Company, Americal Division, led by Capt. Ernest Medina. Charlie Company excelled in its training and was sent to Vietnam Nov. 27, 1967.
On February 25, 1968, Charlie Company walked into a minefield. Three men died, and 12 were wounded. (Lt. Calley was not with his troop in the minefield because he was returning from a leave of absence.) The soldiers of Charlie Company became demoralized as they lost nearly one-third of their troop in two months.
At 7:30 a.m. on March 16, 1968, Charlie Company attacked My Lai and spent the day sweeping through the small hamlet. A post-battle report said that the mission was a complete success by body count standards: 128 Vietnamese killed. One detail stood out, though. Only three rifles and 10 hand grenades were seized from what should have been a significant enemy encampment.
Ridenhour collected information for about a year and then, on March 29, 1969, wrote a letter about his findings to President Richard Nixon, several congressmen, and the Department of the Army. Army officials initially assigned their Inspector General to examine the allegations. Finding sufficient cause, the Inspector General then turned over the evidence to the Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID). The CID confirmed Ridenhour's and the Inspector General's allegations of a massacre at My Lai. Initially, Lt. Calley alone was charged in September 1969, but no details were released.
Against Congress' wishes, the Army assigned Lt. Gen. William Peers to conduct a full investigation. Soon after, the nation was exposed to the horrors of My Lai through an article written by Seymour Hersh and photos published in Life. For the first time, the Americans saw piles of dead women and children, not Viet Cong, killed by American soldiers.
Gen. Peers went to Vietnam to finish his probe. In March, 1970 he presented a devastating set of results. He found that the My Lai massacre resulted from faulty leadership, that there was a massive cover-up, and that most American soldiers were poorly-trained about the rules of war. Peers' report also found that at least 30 people, including Lt. Calley, either knew about or participated in the My Lai massacre. Charges against most of them were dismissed due to lack of evidence.
Lt. Calley, however, was charged with being responsible for the murder of more than 100 Vietnamese civilians.
In July 1966, William Calley dropped out of college and joined the Army. At the time he enlisted, the American presence in Vietnam was escalating. By the end of 1967, U.S. forces totalled 500,000.
Charlie Company's inexperienced soldiers were ill-prepared for what they encountered. Their enemy, the Viet Cong, were intensely nationalistic, ready to sacrifice enormous amounts of soldiers to defend their land and their cause. Between 10,000 and 14,000 enemy soldiers were in Charlie Company's area; while Charlie Company had only 150 men divided into three platoons (one of which was led by Calley).
Out in the field, Charlie Company was demoralized by heavy casualties
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Soon, army intelligence reported that the Viet Cong were living with local villagers to conceal their identities. They were farmers during the day and guerrilla soldiers at night. American soldiers often could not see their enemy and were vulnerable to ambushes and booby traps. Inevitably, Charlie Company fell victim to one of these traps.
On March 15, Capt. Medina tried to boost morale by telling his company about a new mission.
Brigade Cmdr. Lt. Col. Frank Barker assigned Charlie Company to eliminate a Viet Cong battalion
believed to be located in the small village of My Lai
Three members of Charlie Company died when the troop walked into an enemy trap in February 1968. 
(also known as "Pinkville" because of its color on military maps) in a mission called Task Force Barker. The soldiers expected to be outnumbered nearly two-to-one, but they were excited about their chance to finally fight the enemy face-to-face. Charlie Company had two objectives: avenge the lives of the soldiers killed over the past few months and meet the Army's demand for "body count" -- the measuring stick by which the commanders in Saigon Washington evaluated the war's progress.
Months after My Lai, one of the soldiers in the siege had a drink with his friend, Ron Ridenhour, a veteran who had trained in Hawaii with many of Charlie Company soldiers. According to Ridenhour, his friend said, "Hey man, did you hear what we did in Pinkville?...We went in there and lined up all these people and massacred them -- massacred a whole village." Ridenhour's friend revealed the entire story of My Lai.
Outraged, Ridenhour conducted his own investigation. He spoke with several other Charlie Company friends. Their accounts differed greatly from the official report.
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