Word: calley
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...Calley appeared very much in need of luck as Prosecutor Aubrey Daniel rested his case last week in the military courtroom at Fort Benning, Ga. He had constructed his case well; but with the appearance of Turner and two other former Calley platoon members, Charles Sledge and James J. Dursi, it became obvious that Daniel, in the best tradition of courtroom dramatics, had saved some of the most graphic testimony to wind up his presentation...
Falling and Screaming. Sledge, 23, Calley's radio-telephone operator and now a salesman of ladies' luggage, was the first to testify last week. His tale was one of continuing horror. He recalled coming upon a group of 30 or 40 Vietnamese civilians gathered at an intersection and under guard by former Pfc. Paul Meadlo. (Meadlo has so far refused to testify at the trial, claiming the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination.) According to Sledge, Calley went up to Meadlo and ordered him to "waste 'em, and Meadlo started shooting into the people−about ten feet...
Sledge's testimony also accounted for the two specific deaths charged to Calley in the overall indictment. Calley is charged with killing no fewer than 30 people along the trail, no fewer than 70 people in the ditch, plus an old man and a young child. Sledge testified that he and Calley came upon a monk dressed in white robes at the end of a ditch. Calley started interrogating the monk, "then he hit him with the butt of his rifle in the mouth ... He [the monk] was sort of like pleading. He was about 40 to 50 years...
...Nebraska, did nothing to diminish the stark picture drawn by Sledge. From a position some 75 yds. from the drainage ditch, he was witness to much of the killing there. His testimony clarifies some of the discrepancies between earlier versions of what took place. He, too, swore that both Calley and Meadlo had fired at groups of civilians. "Continually," he said, "small groups of people were brought up, and they would be put into the ditch and fired upon by Lieut. Calley...
Then the prosecution's last witness took the stand. He was James Dursi, 23, a rifleman in Calley's platoon, who recently applied for a job as a New York City cop. He reinforced the testimony of both Sledge and Turner, then added a weird example of the kind of transformation that men in combat can undergo. At one point, Dursi related, having rounded up a group of civilians, "Meadlo had them sitting on a dike [near the trail]. He was playing with the kids, giving them C-rations and candy like we always did." Calley arrived...