Ronald Haeberle, right, at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii in November 1967 receiving a photography award before going out to Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Ronald Haeberle
In an interview for the BBC R4 documentary The My Lai Tapes, Ronald Haeberle described the situation he found on the ground when his group, the command group, landed just to the west of My Lai. They were the last group of soldiers from Charlie Company to be air-lifted to the location and the other platoons had already moved in.
A group of civilians in My Lai (4). Click the link below to hear Mr Haeberle telling General Peers what was happening when he took this photograph. By kind permission of Ronald Haeberle.
During his testimony before the Peers Inquiry, Ronald Haeberle described the circumstances when this photograph was taken
As part of his testimony before the Peers Inquiry, Ronald Haeberle drew this map of his route through the village of My Lai (4) on the morning of March 16th 1968
After checking the frame numbers of the colour transparencies he took with his own camera, Mr Haeberle was able to give a more accurate account of the route he took through My Lai
Ronald Haeberle’s contact sheets show the photos he took with his army issue camera. Seeing these images in the order they were taken gives a clear indication of the order in which events occurred. U.S. Army photos
Up to this point Mr Haeberle’s year in Vietnam with the Public Information Office had mainly consisted of recording official events. In his capacity as the assigned army photographer covering Charlie Company’s actions that day, Mr Haeberle took these black and white images. The photos show soldiers in action, the sort of pictures required by the PR officers he was working for. U.S. Army photos
Ronald Haeberle had no idea that anything out of the ordinary would happen on this assignment. He and Jay Roberts, a journalist, were simply assigned to record an action being undertaken by Task Force Barker, one of the units in the area. He expected that there would be exchanges of fire with the Viet Cong. After a while he realised that something out of the ordinary was happening. With his own camera, which was loaded with 35mm colour transparency film, Mr Haeberle was taking images for his own record. He knew the Public Information Office would never use any image that was not flattering to the army, but they could confiscate and destroy them. Eighteen months later, the pictures he took that day would provide unique and crucial visual evidence of a massacre. Photos used by kind permission of Ronald Haeberle
The first report on this action by Task Force Barker was published in Pacific Stars and Stripes, an army publication, on Monday, March 18th 1968. While the words are by Jay Roberts, the photo isn’t one of those Ronald Haeberle took