Winona State University OpenRiver Winona Daily News Winona City Newspapers 12-1-1969 Winona Daily News Winona Daily News Follow this and additional works at: https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews Recommended Citation Winona Daily News, "Winona Daily News" (1969). Winona Daily News. 976. https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews/976 This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Winona City Newspapers at OpenRiver. It has been accepted for inclusion in Winona Daily News by an authorized administrator of OpenRiver. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mostly N ews in Print: fair to partly Reread It, Keep It cloudy You Can See It, Scientists Minneapolis More come forward begin tests of ex-GI tells of murders' MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Bruce in My Lai incident moon samples Branigan, 24, is a former soldier By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS tioned at Ft. Dix , N.J,, said : SPACE CENTER , Houston who served with distinction in (AP) Vietnam. Sgt. Michael Bernhardt , who "The people who ordered it — Scientists begin tests to- was at My Lai, says "it was probably didn day on rocks and other moon The Minneapolis man was 't think it would awarded an Army Commenda- point-blank murder." He said he look so bad .- .. ._ • It . y/as point- samples brought back by the told officers : "The hell with Apollo 12 tion Medal with Combat "V", an blank murder. Onry a few re- . astronauts. They hope this, I'm not doing it." fused. I just told them the hell the material will unlock more of oak leaf cluster in lieu of a sec- ond medal, and an Air Medal An Army lieutenant has been with this , I'm not doing it. I the moon's mysteries. 't The astronauts for 25 combat missions in a hel- charged with the premeditated didn think this was a lawful collected two ' ' • order ." . boxes of rocks, dust and sam- icopter. ; . • murder of 109 South Vietnamese men, women and children dur- Spec. 5 John Kinch , still on ples gathered by boring into the Branigan and .'another former lunar surface. ing an Army operation in the duty in Vietnam , said he had soldier related incidents which hamlet of My Lai in March 1968. been point for the heavy they called "murder" in an in- man The Apollo 12 crewmen — weapons:.platoon. ' . Charles Conrad Jr., Alan 1. terview Sunday. Bernhardt and some veterans Bean and Richard F. Gordon Jr. Branigan said his rifle compa- recall their experiences at My "Captain Medina was right in —have nothing scheduled today. ny in the 3rd Battalion, 60th In- Lai in the current issue of Life front of us," Kinch said. "Col. A formal debriefing on their fantry, was given ^orders during magazine. Barker, the task, force com- mission is to start Tuesday. ' the 1968 Tet offensive "to shoot Sgt. Charles West, a squad mander, was overhead in his All three astronauts had visits anything that moves, and we leader at, My Lai , said a brief- helicopter. He came through on from their families Sunday as •were told it would be covered ing before the opera tion "put the radio saying he had got they relaxed in the quarantine up." fear into a lot of our hearts. We word from the medevac (medi- His unit, Branigan said, was ) quarters at the . Lunar Receiving thought we'd run into heavy re- cal evacuation chopper there Laboratory. Conrad also told "to shoot when startled." sistance." were bodies lying, everywhere spent The Minneapolis man served in some time putting together a ra- Capt. Ernest L. Medina , com- and what was going on. I heard SNIPER VICTIM . A wounded South snipers during an operation around the the southernmost ' section of Vi- ' '¦' dio kit, and Gordon and Bean . pany commander at My Lai, Capt. Medina tell him ; 'I don't . MY LAI HERO ... Chief Vietnamese, infantryman is carried in a y Bu Prang special forces camp, about 110 etnam, operating out of Tarn know what they are doing; The Warrant Officer Hugh C. watched footbaD on television. Dong in the Mekong River Del- "didn't give us an order to go in Quarantine of the astronauts poncho by friends towards a first aid station. miles northeast of Saigon. (AP Photofax) ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦ and kill women or children,' first platoon's in the lead . I am Thompson Jr.. of Decatur, 'W : ' . ¦ " ' f tX L 'ft -' is to end Dec. 10, if they develop He was hit by fire from North Vietnamese . 'West said. "Nobody told us trying to stop it.' Ga., who won the Distin- no illnesses that can be traced He said, "After dark every- about handling civilians, be- "Just after that," Kinch con- guished Flying Cross for to a moon microbe. thing was considered fair game, cause at the time I don't think tinued , "he called the first pla- the rescue of 16 children at: even your own men." any of us were aware of the fact toon and said, 'That's enough Scientists ready to pnt the My Lai on March 16, 1968 Branigan said officers looked that we'd run into civilians." shooting for today.' Colonel —• the same date on which moon material through further the other way when GIs stole Barker called down for a body . tests in an adjoining part of the US. militafy strength and played killing games, Medina, West continued, "was count and Medina got back on the Army claims the My Lai laboratory already have noted The former GI said soldiers telling us here was the enemy, the horn and said: 'I have a massacre of over 100 Viet- major differences between the were "free to loot and take what the enemy that had been killing body count of 310.'" : namese civilians took place. Apollo 12 samples and those re- you wish" and in another pla- our partners. This was going . to Pentagon sources said it turned ln July from the first in Vietnam still dropping toon he was near, soldiers play- be our first real live battle, and Former Army photographer was Thompson's complaint moon-landing expedition, Apollo ed "kill games" in which "they we made up our minds we were Sgt.. Ron Haeberle and Spec, 5 which touched off the" al- 11, ;: SAIGON (AP) — American Viet Cong sappers moving be- the northern edge of the Mekong had a specific count for every- going to go in and with whatev- lay Roberts, assigned to write leged massacre. (AP Photo- Dr. Jeff Warner, a geologist thing from (water ) buffalo to er means possible wipe them ahcut the incident for the bri- military strength in Vietnam hind a mortar barrage blasted Delta, the allied commands re- 1 ¦ ¦¦;¦ fax ) ' -;. for the National Aeronautics has dropped below 480,000 men their way into the compound of ported , while the Viet Cong humans. ' out. " v . f t y f tft. - gade newspaper, recounted and Space Administration, said F. these episodes at My Lai : for the first time in two years, a U.S. Army combat support made two small attacks on the In June 1968. Branigan said he Meanwhile^attorney Lee the rocks from Apollo 12 have continuing a five-month trend unit eight miles north of the big government pacification pro- Bailey said he had been re- —A group of soldiers tried to R. Resor showed similar pic* almost no breccias, or con- witnessed the killing of a wom- tures to congressional commit- downward that began with the American supply base at Cam gram deeper in the Delta. an and a baby by a man in an- tained by Medina , who is sta - disrobe a teen-age girl. Wben glomerates fused from a varie- first troop withdrawals last Ranh bay. One South Vietnamese soldier tioned at Ft. Benning, Ga. He her mother tried to intervene, tees last week. ty of minerals. Almost half, of other platoon while on a clear- Sen George S. McGovern. I>- summer, the U.S. Command an- Security forces and helicopter was reported killed and three ing mission in the Mekong, has not been charged in the both were placed in a group of . tie Apollo 11 rocks were brec- gunships attacked the Viet Cong other women and shot. S.D.y said Sunday he thought a "¦ ¦ ' :¦' nounced today. wounded in the clash between Pe said a man, a woman and case. Lt. William L. Galley Jr., cias. ¦&. There was increased specula- commandos, and they withdrew the Viet Cong and militiamen in ^ leader of the first platoon in —A black GP shot himself in sense of national guilt ; might This, he sala, is the biggest the child were on a sampan and punishment for tion that President Nixon before within an hour. Headquarters a rice paddy in Long An prov- were asked to identif y them- Medina 's company, awaits the foot with a pistol to get lead to harsh mystery of Apollo 12 and indi- the end of the year will an- said three Americans were ince, 24 miles southwest of Sai- court-martial for the alleged evacuated after saying he men convicted of murdering cates the moon may . selves. As the family approach- be more nounce more withdrawals be- wounded. Material damage was gon. The militiamen killed 27 of ed the shoreline, a U.S. soldier murder of 109 civilians. couldn't stomach it. Vietnamese civilians. complex than previously "I think it is more than just yond the 60,000:men reduction reported light There was no re- the enemy, and then American jumped up and gunned the wo- A military judge has ordered —Soldiers stood around shoot- thought. ordered so far this year.