We are inundated with information but we are not very well informed. I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. In addition to scholarly publications with top presses, she has written for Atlas Obscura and Ranker. The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (First Edition He is best known for his role in stopping the My Lai Massacre, in which a group of US Army soldiers tortured and killed several hundred unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mutilating their bodies after they had been murdered. You felt pretty vulnerable in that little helicopter. It was Hugh and he told me that I would be getting orders to report to Washington. You must have had some post-traumatic stress after your experience in Vietnam. Thompson landed his helicopter next to a ditch that contained 150 people many dead, but many others wounded and trying to escape. That particular morning we were to provide reconnaissance for a ground operation that was going on in My Lai . The military was forced after an eight-year letter writing campaign by David Egan, a professor at Clemson University, and a businessman named William Cavanaugh. According to Miriam-Webster.com, the word "testimony means: proof or evidence that something exists or is true, firsthand authentication of a fact, an open acknowledgment, a public profession of religious experience . Thompson had become something of a professional witness. We loved those guys in the field. No, we had no knowledge of who they were, we just knew they were Americans on the ground and we would have done anything for them. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. DOC HUGH THOMPSON'S TESTIMONY: - Social Studies with Miss Daniel When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (thats the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). Through the years, he continued to speak out, having been invited to West Point and other military installations to tell of the moral and legal obligations of soldiers in wartime. The villagers offered no resistance as U.S. soldiers shoved them into a ditch and opened fire with machine guns. 1st Platoon of Company C, commanded by Lieutenant William Laws Calley Jr., forced approximately 7080 villagers, mostly women and children, into an irrigation ditch and murdered the civilians with knives, bayonets, grenades, and small arms fire. Letters to the Editor: Should speed humps be put around all L.A. elementary schools? There was also testimony of absolute insanity. However, Ive spoken to survivors on different occasions who had been at the bottom of the pile. When did you see those particular villagers again? I met Thompson in 2000 and interviewed him for my radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles. Testimony to the Truth [Smyth, Reverend Hugh P.] on Amazon.com. In unison, all three of us shouted, You son of a bitch! That was Captain Ernest Medina. Landed the aircraft in between the Americans and the Vietnamese, told my crew chief and gunner to cover me, got out of the aircraft, went over to the American side.. But when he returned to his Stateside home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Thompson received death threats and insults, while Calley was pardoned by President Nixon. How do you think your story, of an event now long in the past, can make a difference? endstream endobj 172 0 obj <. Id received death threats over the phone, Thompson said in 2004. From his helicopter, Hugh Thompson could not communicate with Charlie Company on the ground. It wasn't war.". History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. They waited until the sun went down and they crawled out of that ditch. You are the ones that deserve to be called American Soldiers. They were old women, old men, children, kids, babies., Then Thompson and his crew chief, Glenn Andreotta, and his gunner, Lawrence Colburn, saw some civilians hiding in a bunker, cowering, looking out the door. 171 0 obj <> endobj Whats going on? And we started thinking what might have happened, but you didnt want to accept that thought because if you accepted it, that means your own fellow Americans, people you were there to protect, were doing something very evil.. We thought that was good, that they would be out of the way. By then I was a civilian and was trying to attend college on the GI Bill, but I kept getting subpoenas. I imagine he wants to get right with God; hes not a young guy anymore. We went back to the ditch because we knew there were a lot of people there who could have been saved. In front of Lt. Calley,Hugh Thompson was outranked. Hugh landed and ran over and told the sergeant, These are civilians, we got to help them out. The sergeant agreed, telling Hugh hed help themout of their misery. Hugh continued to argue, said they were no threat, they had no weapons. Hugh Thompson and My Lai - CounterPunch.org If people have some confusion about that, thats their problem. Instead, the Army hid the slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, including 182 women and 173 children. In late December 1967, at the age of 25, Hugh Thompson was ordered to Vietnam and assigned to Company B, 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division. The hero received death threats for speaking out about the massacre. You know, you think everybody feels you and you can ignore your own symptoms. Some of Calleys men didnt follow Calleys orders and did nothing. This is not how this military organization is supposed to conduct operations. A forgotten hero stopped the My Lai massacre 50 years ago today - Los I said, Thank you, sir, and went back to work. That morning, Hugh said, This is supposed to be a VC stronghold, but you know G2. Usually, when intelligence said an area was hot, it wasnt, and visa versa. I remember wearing the same fatigues and they were pretty much covered with blood stains from carrying the boy and being in that ditch. I would be there from December 67 to December 68. Remember, this was later in the morning approaching noon, most of the killing had already been done. I thought someone else was getting recognition for something. I just figured it was time to do something, to not let these people get killed. I was back in Mount Vernon, outside Washington, and I got a call from my mother saying there were some people at the house who wanted to talk to me. Larry Colburn talks about his late friend Hugh Thompson, the My Lai massacre, the subsequent cover up, investigations and trials, https://www.historynet.com/interview-larry-colburn-why-my-lai-hugh-thompson-matter/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot. Court-martial me, and he left his weapon and walked away. Kyle Hockenberry: For Those I love I will sacrifice, Adam Brown: The life and legacy of fearless Navy SEAL, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart: The real heroes of the Battle of Mogadishu, Ivica Jerak: The Croat who died as American hero. He showed no reaction at all. What would I have done if I were a man on the ground? No. Upon entering Sn M, officers and soldiers of Company C moved through the Song My Village and vicinity, murdering civilians, raping women, and setting fire to huts. Thompson and Colburn returned to Sn M to meet with survivors of the massacre at the Sn M Memorial in 1998. Exactly what you saw. Since we were sitting shoulder to shoulder, we saw virtually the very same things. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? It had to be. We took him out of the area to a hospital and gave him to a nun. Yet in the midst of the chaos and bloodshed, one U.S. soldier followed his convictions. As we flew around more, we started seeing small groups of people dead or dying in other parts of the village. Meet the Soldier Who Prevented More Killings During the My Lai Massacre It is denial, a refusal to believe our young men could run amok the way they did. Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. Hugh Thompson was a volunteer officer in the Vietnam War who turned his squad's weapons on American soldiers to stop them raping and murdering more women and . All of a sudden I hear my name called, I had no advance knowledge, no idea what was happening until they pinned the Bronze Star with Valor on me. NYPD officers face departmental trial over shooting death of mentally How many of them went on to draw military pay and benefits? He is an amazing person made me cry just reading the research about him. They had been writing to the Pentagon for years about Hugh, totally unbeknownst to Hugh. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. I didnt write Hugh up for anything and he said he didnt write me up. Calley was convicted, and Medina was acquitted. We didnt talk too much about it ourselves because we reported on it and we were, frankly, preoccupied with the next mission. This thread is archived New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast 73K 94 2.4K 2.4K comments Best artnaqent 1 yr. ago Standing up for what's right, shouldn't be as hard as that. In 1999, Thompson and Colburn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. He received a life sentence in 1971 for premeditated murder which was later reduced to 10 years. Did you have any knowledge of who was being inserted into My Lai that morning? Trent Angers, Thompsons biographer and friend, analyzed the list and found about 50 there who were 3 years old or younger. Larry Colburn was a door gunner with crew chief Glenn Andreotta and Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson as pilot of a small scout helicopter during a combat assault at the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot who rescued Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai massacre, reported the killings to his superior officers in a rage over what he had seen, testified at the inquiries and received a commendation from the Army three decades later, died yesterday in Alexandria, La. Did you consider bringing gunships to ferry out others from the ditch? And it turned out it was a good thing that they did. And the people guilty of committing war crimes should have been dealt with. I think I may have been in shock to some extent. Hugh said, Im going to take him on the right, which meant he was my target. When I moved to the East Coast, I stopped at a VA hospital and had a list of things I thought I should get out. Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. was born on April 15, 1943, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, to Wessie and Hugh Clowers Thompson. %%EOF I hope to take as many speaking engagements as I can. They awarded him the Soldiers Medal for heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy., On the 30th anniversary of the massacre, Thompson went back to My Lai and met some of the people whose lives he had saved. the testimony he gave to the House Committees and the courts-martial of the . Michael Bernhardt, who was at M Lai. These people appeared to be no threat at all, and we couldnt figure out why they were fired on and killed as they were leaving the area. Friends I had on the division level told me they were taking volunteers for the 123rd Aviation Battalion. Oh, no, Mr. Thompson, let me see what we can do, he said. Hugh Thompson Jr., The Army Major Who Stopped The My Lai Massacre She asked me what it was about, and I said I wasnt sure. Did you have a sense that what you had seen at My Lai was and isolated incident or did you suspect similar atrocities were happening elsewhere? They were going to kill more, but they didnt because of what Thompson did. In this exclusive interview with Vietnam magazine and VietMag.com, Larry Colburn talks about his late friend Hugh Thompson, the My Lai massacre, the subsequent cover up, investigations and trials, his journeys back to Vietnam and meetings with survivors and the Hugh Thompson Foundation, which he formed after Thompsons death in 2006. I wish I was, but I wont lie to anybody. The . Any hesitation? Just then Glenn spotted some people in an earthen bunker, saw faces peering out of the entry. The My Lai story and Hugh Thompsons role in it is really important, but do you find most people are unaware of it? The second time, he touched down near a bunker in which a group of about 10 civilians were being menaced by American troops. Bettmann/Getty ImagesHugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. I didn't want to be a part of that. It took the Army 30 years, but in 1998, they finally acknowledged that Thompson had done something good. Glenn took a .51-caliber in the head, he was dead before he hit the ground. No. Hugh struggled, but you see the people who survived are still in the same village, doing what they do. But it turns out he was 8. U.S. ArmyHugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. Harry claimed a 'secret agreement' stopped him bringing hacking claims earlier But to see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? I know its great copy, but Ive tried to correct the record many times: No one pointed any weapons at anybody. U.S. ArmyWilliam Calley, the officer who ordered the slaughter at M Lai. PDF Testimony of Dr. Hugh Thompson, HTA Engineering (Expert Witness Innocent people didnt die that day They didnt just fly off the handle and engage a target that was borderline. In an interview first broadcast in 2004, Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian spoke to Mr. And Hugh said, What about my crew? They said they didnt have any intention for awards of the crew. All of the investigations led to nothing, Hugh and I felt like all three trials were just window dressing. Back at the base, Thompson threw his flight helmet on the ground. He educatedhis children to act with discipline and integrity. Mercy Thompson and the Revelation on Marriage - The Church of Jesus Yes. The cause was cancer, Jay DeWorth, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center where Mr. Thompson died, told The Associated Press. Glenn shouted, Hes firing into the ditch again!, How did Hugh react when reason failed? The low gun probably did because they had visual and were communicating with Hugh, and Hugh had been telling them what wed been seeing, hoping they were relating that up to the command craft that was flying above at altitude. It was in their hands. For a while we were going out on snatch missions, where wed basically kidnap draft-age males and take them in for interrogations. He was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. At the same time, judging from Hendersons reactionhe seemed almost nonchalant, like it was just another day at the office. We were told by the prosecuting attorneys to keep our mouths shut, and I didnt advertise the fact I was at My Lai. Billy Waugh, Famed Special Forces Warrior and CIA Legend, Dies At 93. The dead were women, old men and children. When they started convicting people, I thought, now this is how it should unfold. He ranked higher than a warrant officer. As the wounded tried to crawl out, they were fired on by someone who had been left there to do just that. And the Army company only stopped because Thompson literally put himself between the soldiers and the civilians and threatened to shoot them if they didnt end the killings. Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot, had threatened to fire on the American troops in order to rescue Vietnamese women and children from the slaughter. If you are an American who thinks all of our foreign policy and actions over the years is as pure as the driven snow, well that is just not reality. We would have died for them. US military helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson helped stop one of the most infamous massacres of the Vietnam War. Everybody walked. He had a great rapport with enlisted men, as he had been one himself. Im not that much of a man., I always questioned, in my mind, did anybody know we all arent like that? He was 62. Ive tried to put myself in their position, tried to empathize. Ultimately, it was a pubic relations move, they had to give the medal. Wed talk a lot and if I was stressing I could always pick up the phone and Hugh could always talk me down. Hugh Thompson reported the massacre to his commanding officer. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else.. Hugh Thompsons actions may be unique. When I finally got in to see the guy, he was a major, he wouldnt make eye contact as I read my list. And on the 30th anniversary of the massacre, Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai. hbbd``b`:$WXWkZ ["|Ab b:H2@#H@ ( I did hear that the men on the ground were told to pretend like it never happened. I read the citation and thought what? ' Thompson recalled. My Lai massacre was a bloody stain of the Vietnam War, but one man changed the course of the battle and went from traitor to hero. What happened next was one of the most remarkable events of the entire war, and perhaps unique: Thompson told the American troops that, if they opened fire on the Vietnamese civilians in the bunker, he and his crew would open fire on them. Now Trent Angers, who chronicled Hugh Thompson's heroism during the My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians in 1968, believes he has uncovered information about an unseen adversary Thompson fought . And you want to instill the spirit of Thompson in others. Hugh told her he probably didnt have any family left. There was a guy at the ditch with Calley, shooting people not yet dead. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Hugh Thompson Profiles | Facebook So he gave me prescriptions for several psychotropic drugs. The bodies of massacred villagers at M Lai, as captured by a U.S. Army photographer. Jan Swango Emerson and Hugh Feiss, eds., Imagining Heaven in the Middle Ages (New York: Garland, 2000); . For more information about the Hugh Thompson Foundation, visit www.designaire.com/HughThompson, Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, []. Now, if I had known then what I know now about some of the activity going on there, the rapes and barbarism. Hugh came back to the aircraft and because we had flight helmets on and the aircraft was running, we had to literally put our heads together as Hugh shouted instructions. At the age of 62, after extensive cancer treatment, Thompson was removed from life support and died on January 6, 2006, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pineville, Louisiana. 199 0 obj <>stream We came in from altitude down to low level. by Vietnam magazine 2/7/2011. Having redeemed himself for other peoples mistakes, his heroic act was written in US Military history. So I was not a good guy.. "I cannot explain why it happened. Hugh Thompson was a helicopter pilot in 1968, on a day American soldiers gunned down more than 500 unarmed civilians in a village called My Lai. You are not comfortable with being called a hero, either? Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? They landed their helicopter between the American forces and the civilians, and they trained their guns on the advancing Americans.
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