B Company, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry, 23rd Infantry Division
On the same day as the massacre at My Lai, soldiers from the same division killed an undetermined number of women and children in neighboring My Khe.
Witnesses told investigators that soldiers tossed grenades into shelters and shot women and children as they ran for cover or tried to flee. Over the next three days, members of the unit burned three sub-hamlets to the ground and tortured detainees with electric shocks, records say.
Officially, the unit said it killed 39 enemy combatants but recovered no weapons and suffered no casualties. Official South Vietnamese sources put the death toll at 80 to 90 noncombatants. Evidence of the killings surfaced during the My Lai inquiry, and the Army launched an investigation.
Platoon leader Lt. Thomas K. Willingham told an investigator that his troops had come under enemy fire and that he knew of no "unnecessary killings." He was charged with murder, but the charges were dropped on the advice of Army legal officers, who cited uncooperative witnesses and contradictory testimony. Other suspects had left the service and charges were not pursued.
A separate inquiry found a soldier had executed a boy during the assault on My Khe. The soldier, who had left the service, was not charged. -- Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2006
