Word: platoons
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...solder the final link in this chain of traditionalism, I joined the Marine Corps' Platoon Leader Corps (ROTC). My father had been a Captain in the Marines during WWII, my brother had been a Corporal in the Korean War, and a publicity sheet called The Marine Corps Reservist had come to my home every month along with the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine...
...Harvard knows how many "Harvards" exist under the umbrella of the institutional title. Yet to others I have met, it has always meant something either essentially threatening or something which has conveyed upon the bearer of it an almost beatific quality. From my Marine training I remember: a platoon commander from West Point screaming in my face that I had written "Harvard College" rather than "Harvard University" on my registration forms as some kind of subtle joke; peers in training stunned and disturbed when I was required to attend study hall because I had flunked an exam...
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...
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...
Against such damning testimony, Defense Attorney George Latimer faces an uphill battle. But as he opened his defense late last week, he appeared to be arguing on a level different from that of the prosecution. In his opening speech, Latimer pointed out that Calley's platoon was inadequately trained and instructed, that the men were bent on avenging the buddies they had buried the afternoon before, and that although "higher commanders were in the area . . . not until after lunch were there any orders to cease firing." His choice of initial witnesses seemed designed to bear out these contentions...