FOR this week's cover story on the Calley trial, we relied on two dozen correspondents in the U.S. and abroad to report on all aspects of the case and its aftermath. Two of the reporters--Washington's John Mulliken and Atlanta's Peter Range--have had experiences that put them unusually close to the issues and personalities involved in the assignment.

As TIME'S Pentagon man since 1963, Mulliken has made the military and the military mind his specialty. As an Army officer during World War II, he witnessed the behavior of soldiers under pressure. A 22-year-old platoon commander during the Battle of the Bulge, Mulliken stopped a sergeant from shooting German prisoners held in a farmhouse, though "no one would have been able to distinguish the bodies of those Germans from the ones already lying on the cold December ground outside." Mulliken, like most combat veterans, can understand how bystanders often become casualties during fierce fighting. This fact cannot justify My Lai, he feels, because neither the victims nor anyone else offered resistance.

Range began covering the military while in Germany. He reported on the tense atmosphere in West Berlin following the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1969, he interviewed Albert Speer, Hitler's Munitions Minister, who was found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg and wrote Inside the Third Reich. They struck up an acquaintanceship and still exchange letters.

After joining the Atlanta Bureau, Range was picked to cover Galley personally. He is close to Galley's age, and they share a taste for good food and drink. They first met three weeks after the trial started last year and subsequently had dozens of conversations, many over meals Galley cooked in his tiny quarters at Fort Benning, Ga. Galley was so fearful of newsmen that Range, even after gaining his confidence, rarely took notes in his presence until given the cover-story assignment last week. His observations played a significant part in our previous stories on the trial, as well as in this week's articles, which include a personality portrait of Galley. Range was the only reporter to talk to Galley after the conviction. The lieutenant's last words: "Take care, Pete."

The cover story represents a collaboration between Associate Editor Keith Johnson, an Army veteran and former National Guardsman who has reported from Viet Nam, and Senior Editor Robert Shnayerson, an ex-Navyman who has long been fascinated by the judiciary and who started TIME'S Law section seven years ago. Johnson concentrated on the verdict, its impact and its implications. Shnayerson dealt with the history and legal ramifications of war crimes.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.