 Two communications specialists , Larry Levine and James Crume , said that they remembered orders to fire on the refugees , coming to the 2nd Battalion command post from a higher level , probably from 1st Cavalry Division . They recalled the ground fire beginning with a mortar round landing among the refugee families , followed by what Levine called a " frenzy " of small @-@ arms fire . Some battalion veterans recalled front @-@ line company officers ordering them to open fire . " It was assumed there were enemy in these people , " said ex @-@ rifleman Herman Patterson . " They were dying down there . I could hear the people screaming , " recalled Thomas H. Hacha of the sister 1st Battalion , observing nearby . Others said that some soldiers held their fire . 
