March 17, 1968
South Vietnam
I don't know whats going on. I don't know what happened. Yesterday, yesterday something happened. There was this town. There were so many people. So many children. And now… now their all dead. I tried my best, I really did…. But my people…. My people are so scared and angry. They don't know whats going on, and they don't know what their fighting for.
Yesterday I was forced to watch as my fellow brothers in arms tortured, raped, and massacred hundreds of innocent people. Things that I thought id never have to see again. I don't know if Vietnam will ever be able to forgive us, to forgive me for what they….for what I have done.
I couldn't save them.
I tried though. As others were killing, me and 3 others from my platoon tried to rescue who we could. We tried to stop it! But there was blood…. So muck blood! Not even in the trenches had it been like this! There it had been warfare! Equal ground and a fair fight! This… this was slaughter. And I will burn in hell for what I have done. I sat scared. Sheltering a few bleeding children, saving them from death for a few more moments as I watched my platoon leader, William Calley, have the captured lined up and shot down. We are not heros here. We are the monsters. We are the cold blooded killers. And we will all burn in hell for the things we have done. I can only hope I can do enough good one day to right some of the wrongs of my people.
-Alfred F. Jones