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Thirty Years Ago

By Barry Romo

Thirty years ago, I was sitting at Chu Lai base camp getting totally and completely drunk. I had spent the last eight months with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade as platoon leader and staff officer. Had survived the field, and the Tet. I was now being "infused" (transferred) to a new brigade fresh from the States, along with a bunch of seasoned officers and NCOs. They were short on combat leaders so we were supposed to infuse experience into the cherry unit.

We were briefed by Division staff officers about the terrain, the enemy and the unit. The 11th Inf. Bde. had been trained in the jungles of Hawaii (the 196th had been trained in the jungle snows of Massachusetts); it was also the only brigade trained in amphibious landings in the army.

The Division staff officers were proud of this and the unit's body count, while we were talking, in fact, a battalion-sized task force. TC Backer (named after its commander, a Major Backer) was racking up the body count. Five hundred confirmed VC/NVA bodies! My friends and I were jolted to sobriety. Five hundred confirmed enemy bodies? Startled, one of us asked, "How many friendly casualties?" The Colonel answered with pride, "Only one American - a machine gunner who shot himself in the foot." Well, that didn't make sense to us. Five hundred to one? So another of us asked, "How many weapons did you take off the VC?"

"Well," answered the Colonel, "three."

Even our military brains knew in an instant what was happening. Five hundred body count, only three weapons and only one self-inflicted wounded American. One of us said, 'They're killing civilians, aren't they?"

The proud Colonel didn't answer, he just ended the briefing and sent us to Lieutenant Calley's 11th Brigade, around My Lai.

Another Division staff officer, with one tour under his belt, made the initial Division investigation into a reported massacre at My Lai. The finding by Major Colin Powell was that no massacre had occurred, case closed.

Which brings me to Monica Lewinsky. Here's a woman who wanted no publicity, no book deals, no 'Hard Copy'. And because she didn't want to be questioned about her sexual activity, she's being hounded by the press and prosecutors. Not even old Joe McCarthy called in mothers to question them about their daughters.

All this on the 30th anniversary of the My Lai massacre.

Why hasn't the press gone after that mass murderer, former Lt. Calley? They know where he is: working outside Fort Benning, Georgia, selling cheap jewelry at inflated prices to army trainees. Where are 'Hard Copy' and Geraldo and CNN and all the rest? Respecting Lt. William Calley, Jr.'s privacy!

Since when does a child murderer have privacy? And what about the Major who became a General, the Chairman, who did not see, could not find, was nowhere around? Shouldn't they be questioned at least by the press?

Isn't covering up a crime a crime?