This Day in History, March 16 — My Lai Massacre, 1968

The road out of My Lai littered with bodies.

On March 16, 1968, 55 years ago today, approximately 350-500 unarmed civilian men, women, children, and infants were slaughtered by U.S. Army soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, and Company B, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division (aka the “Americal Division”), in what quickly became known as the “My Lai Massacre.”

Initially reported by the US Army as a “day-long battle” against Communists, many women, and children as young as 12, were brutally gang-raped before being murdered, and their corpses mutilated. The massacre occurred in two hamlets of the Son My village in Quảng Ngãi Province, marked on U.S. Army maps as Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khê in South Vietnam.

A woman and her child lie dead on the ground.

The crime scene and event was later called “the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War.”

A total of 26 American soldiers were charged with various criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley, Jr., a  platoon leader in C Company, was convicted of any crimes.

In a general court martial, he was found guilty of murdering 22 villagers, and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, KS, the DOD’s maximum security prison, but 3 days after his conviction, POTUS Richard M. Nixon ordered him released, and commuted the sentence to 3.5 years of house arrest at Fort Benning, GA.

Though Army officials were aware of it, they had initially covered up the massacre, and had it not been for

Now More American COVID-19 Deaths Than Vietnam & Korea Combined

I knew STRONGLY SUSPECTED this day was coming very soon.

It’s now here.

Soon enough, we’ll surpass the number of deaths in WWI – 116,516.

Only 18,805 to go.

Welcome aboard the Death Train.

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Figures are total deaths, i.e., combat, and non-combat related deaths.

Vietnam War Deaths = 58,209
+
Korean War Deaths = 36,516
GRAND TOTAL = 94,725

COVID-19 Deaths in the United States as of 8:32:56 PM, 24 May 2020 = 97,711

Difference = 2986

War in Afghanistan Deaths = 2,216

Difference = 770

Gulf War Deaths = 294

Difference = 476

Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA

Beirut Deployment Deaths = 266

Difference = 210

Somalia Deaths =

Which is more deadly? War, or COVID-19?

American COVID-19 Deaths
WILL SURPASS
the
TOTAL Number of Deaths
in the
Vietnam and Korean Wars
COMBINED.

33,686 + 47,424 =81,110

81,110 – 68,387 = 12,723

Remember those numbers.

What are they?

The first figure – 33,686 – represents the number of deaths in the Korean War.

The second figure – 47,424 – represents the number of deaths in the Vietnam War.

The third figure is the sum (total) of the two numbers.

The fourth figure – 68,387 – represents the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States, as of 0450 UTC (Universal Coordinated Time), Monday, 4 May 2020.

The fifth figure – 12,723 – represents the difference between the current number of COVID-19 American Deaths and the Total number of Deaths in the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined.

Sadly, that fifth figure WILL surpass the the third figure in a matter of days.

Already, the TOTAL number of American COVID-19 deaths has SURPASSED the number of deaths in Vietnam (47,424), Iraq (3836), Afghanistan (1833), Gulf War (149), and the Beirut Deployment (256) COMBINED – 53,498.

But here’s the sad, startling fact:

This has all happened in the space of a couple months – since 20 January – a mere 106 days. On the other hand, those wars lasted far, far longer.

So, you tell me

Give It Your All

How much are you willing to give? Some make the ultimate sacrifice and give their very lives. Andrew Dung-Lac (1795-1839) was a priest and one of 117 saints martyred by

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Today, March 29, is now officially “National Vietnam War Veterans Day.”

And as with so many things, it took an act of Congress to make it so.

But it was a bipartisan effort, for which – I suppose – we can be thankful. Especially given since the do-nothing GOP is now in control of Congress.

On February 3, Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-PA), sponsored S.305, and along with co-sponsor Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), introduced the bill in the Senate, which was read twice, considered, read the third time, passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent, discharged by the Committee on the Judiciary, Passed/agreed to in the House by voice vote, and was signed into law by President Trump March 23, 2017. It is the 14th law Trump has signed since his inauguration.

From the date of introduction to passage, it could very well be one of the most rapidly-enacted pieces of legislation in Congressional history. Of course, THE shortest was likely 1 day, for H.J.Res.131: “Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2015, and for other purposes,” which was a government shutdown stopgap measure. Mysteriously, Congress gets rapidly active when their paychecks are imperiled.

As far as laws go, it’s a good law, because the Congressional Budget Office has declared it would cost nothing. When was the last time you ever read that?

And it’s a short law – another rarity in this day and age. In fact, there are only

All You Need Is Love

I recollect, a few years ago, having gone with a dear friend to the apartment where her former husband lived.

He had died alone.

D’Angelo (not his real name) was a retired Army NCO, whom had volunteered for service. He was genuinely a “squared away” soldier, and rose to the rank of First Sergeant (E-8), which rank is politely nicknamed “Top,” because, aside from Sergeant Major which is also an E-8 position, it is the highest rank and position a NCO can obtain.

His generosity was well-known, and his humility, honesty and genuine love for his fellow man was evident throughout his life. And though he was a good man with many admirable character qualities, a congenial fellow, well liked – even loved – by many, it seemed he never could win the battle over the bottle.

What little I knew of him from others’ reports and my own limited interaction with him, he was an honorable family man. And yet,

Ever the Artful Dodger, Mitt Romney ran to France during the Viet Nam War

The Long & Short of it: Mitt Romney dropped out of college, which meant he was going to lose his student deferment. Then, he decided he could obtain additional deferments by doing missionary work. Where else but to France would a cushy kid go? So, he did, for two years. Then, he decided he wanted to return to the United States, so he re-enrolled in college, this time at a different one – BYU. That meant he could get ANOTHER deferment… which he did.

One thing’s for certain: MITT ROMNEY KNOWS HOW TO GAME THE SYSTEM.

While at Stanford, Mitt Romney was exempt from the draft because he had a 2-S student deferment which was given to most undergraduates. He kept it only one year. Similarly to his older brother, Scott, Mitt Romney left Stanford early to serve for 30 months as a missionary abroad, as is customary for devout Mormon men.

During those two years in France, from 1966 to 1968, he obtained another draft exemption as a missionary — which was very controversial, because critics complained that it disproportionately excluded Mormon men from service.

The Selective Service eventually limited church districts to one religious deferment every six months, which sharply reduced draft exemptions in Utah. But in Michigan, where Mitt Romney grew up, the small Mormon population there made it highly unlikely that others competed for the mission that Mitt Romney volunteered for, said Barry Mayo, a counselor at the time to the district bishop. After he returned from France, Mitt Romney transferred to Brigham Young University, and obtained another student deferment.

Three years after George Romney became the the Nixon administration‘s housing secretary, a journalist interviewed children of top administration officials about their views on the war. Then 23-year-old Mitt said, “If it wasn’t a political blunder to move into Vietnam, I don’t know what is.”

—

All Gave Some, Some Gave All.

And ONE ran off to France to hide.

By David Pinar on Sep. 28, 2012

Mitt Romney resigned from college, then requested a draft deferment & exemption for missionary work in France.

The Vietnam War was one of the most troubling, challenging times for America. It was America’s most unpopular war, and it sharply divided our country. Some proudly enlisted and volunteered for duty. Some had to be drafted, but served their country and did their duty. Many protested against the war. And some even immigrated to Canada to avoid the draft. But as diverse their views and opinions were they shared one thing in common: they formed their opinions and then followed their convictions. But there was one who didn’t: Willard Mitt Romney.

That’s Mitt on the right in May 1966, at Standford University. Some students had organized a sit-in demonstration protesting the war, the draft, and university President Sterling’s support for the war. So Mitt joined a counter demonstration supporting the war in Vietnam and the draft. He thought those anti-war protestors should just shut up and prepare to be drafted and deployed. When he was running for President in 2007 he claimed in an interview with NBC that