William Calley was born on June 8, 1943 and grew up in Miami, Florida. He attended Palm Beach Junior College for a short time before dropping out due to poor grades. Calley decided to work in the civilian sector in a variety of different jobs before joining the Army at 23 years old. He graduated from Officer Candidate School (OCS) in 1967, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant upon graduation, and immediately assigned as leader of the First Platoon of Charlie Company.
In Vietnam, Calley led the first group of soldiers into My Lai. He was the one to ordered that the soldiers kill everyone. As one soldier recalled, the order was "to literally shoot anything that moved. If it was growing, cut it down. If it was a building, burn it. If it was a well, poison it. If it was alive, kill it." As a result of this, it was reported that as many as 500 innocent civilians died.
Calley was one of 14 people who were convicted of war crimes. Calley was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. He later appealed the case and the sentence was changed to house arrest. President Nixon later gave Calley a presidential pardon after having served three years of his sentence. After Calley's release, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to live with his son. Calley publicly apologized for the My Lai event in 2009, saying:
"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry....If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd Lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them—foolishly, I guess."