Word: medinae
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Captain Ernest Medina, Calley's superior officer, who commanded Charlie Company on its sweep into the South Vietnamese village, testified, as Calley had earlier, to the shock effects of combat. Like Calley, he recited a grisly story about the company's casualties when the men walked over a Viet Cong minefield 20 days before the massacre. One man hit by mine fragments, said Medina, "was split as if somebody had taken a cleaver right up from his crotch all the way to his chest cavity." Discussing the day of the massacre, Medina said: "For those...
Whatever the influence of battle conditions, the crucial question was whether or not Medina had ordered his men, at previous briefings and during the assault itself, to "waste" everyone in the village, women and children included. Calley has based much of his defense on the argument that he participated in the massacre on explicit orders from Medina, and two dozen other members of the company have corroborated Calley's story...
Last week Medina, who himself faces a court-martial, denied that he had issued any such orders. "One of the questions that was asked of me at the briefing [the night before the assault] was, 'Do we kill women and children?' My reply was that 'No, you do not kill women and children. You must use common sense. If they have a weapon and are trying to engage you, then you can shoot back, but you must use common sense.' " Further, said Medina, "there were no instructions given as far as the capture or collection...
...week it was announced that for failing, among other things, "to conduct a proper and thorough investigation" of the incident, Colonel Oran K. Henderson, former commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade, will be tried by a general court-martial. Of those charged, all have been freed except Henderson, Calley, Medina and Captain Eugene M. Kotouc, who did not participate in the raid but is accused of having assaulted a Vietnamese during interrogation just after...
...could accept such a defense, Calley and Medina, the only actual participants still charged, could both be acquitted on the ground that they were following apparently lawful orders from Colonel Frank Barker, their task force commander, who died three months after My Lai. Thus My Lai could conceivably enter history as a massacre for which no one is legally held responsible. Calley, who is well aware that he was his own best witness at the trial, considers himself by now an expert on the horrors of war. He has said that he would some day like to make a combat...