DESCRIPTION:
William Calley song: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/JBrummer/vietnam_war__my_lai_and_lt__william_calley_songs/
Tom Parrott, born in Washington D.C., USA, in 1944, a prominent member of the contemporary folk scene in the 1960s, wrote many political songs addressing the Vietnam War, such as the song "The Freedoms We've Been Fighting For" (1967) and the song "Hole in the Ground" (1968). He appeared frequently in the New York mimeographed publication Broadside, with eleven songs published.

This included the song "Pinkville Helicopter" (Broadside Records # BRS 312), which appeared on the front cover in edition # 105, February-March 1970. Pinkville refered to the US army codeword for the hamlet My Lai, considered to be a Viet Cong stronghold. The song took an anti-war position, and strongly criticised the soldiers involved, describing them as a "pack of mad dogs, just killing to see people dying". He noted that the Lieutenant's gun (a reference to William Calley) was "smoky and hot from the killing". The narrator also praised the efforts of a helicopter pilot that rescued wounded villagers, a reference to Hugh Thompson, Jr., who tried to stop the My Lai Massacre. John Maciewicz on second guitar and harmonica.

"As they flew over Pinkville, the choppers could see
The slaughter going on below them
And they radioed the dying of the women and kids
So that general headquarters would know them
Then one circled down to a place on the ground
Where there were children who were wounded and crying
Took them in the chopper to fly them out...
They were on their way out when below them they saw
A little two year old baby
So they went down again and the pilot got out
Muttering 'the world had gone crazy'
The baby was cradled in the pilot's arms
Wounded and crying and bloody
When a Lieutenant came up and said 'put the kid down
Get your chopper on out of here, buddy'
The pilot looked down at the Lieutenant's gun
It was smoky and hot from the killing
He said 'If I have to give my life for this child
Then, by God, you know that I'm willing'...
So they flew the kids out to the medics who said
'War is hell, even babies get wounded'
The pilot just looked at his gunner and shook
Said 'to kill them was what was intended'
The things that we've seen up in Pinkville today
We won't even try to describe them
But this wasn't war, it was a pack of mad dogs
Just killing to see people dying"