There were probably 10 in the squad. Harry's phone-hacking testimony contained 'troubling factual inconsistencies', hacking judge says. I flew with him dozens of times and saw sporadic action. In mid-March 2022, posts about a warrant officer named Hugh Thompson and his role in the My Lai massacre circulated on social media, including a tweet describing that time period as the 50-year anniversary of that incident:. Furious, Hugh Thompson landed again, this time in front of a bunker where civilians were hiding. Hugh said that was OK, because that was the appropriate place. When the orders came down, the CO called me into his office and demanded to know what they were for. Except for the boy, it appeared the rest were already dead. Some were sent out into the field for 60-75 days straight, and they started getting the feeling somebody was trying to get rid of them. So he gave me prescriptions for several psychotropic drugs. We couldnt come up with an explanation until Hugh marked a woman we saw who had a chest wound and decided to just move back in a hover when we saw a squad coming near. In the last incident, his helicopter was brought down by enemy machine-gun fire, and he broke his back in the resulting crash landing. Hugh Thompson Jr. graduated from Stone Mountain High School on June 5, 1961. I told him everything and he didnt know how to respond, he had no idea how to deal with it. Out of the blue, our unit was called out onto the tarmac for an awards and decoration ceremony. 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. But many in the Army and the public supported Calley over Thompson. You risked your lives, I said, to protect those Vietnamese civilians., Well, it didnt come to that, he replied. What did you do after My Lai for the rest of your tour? Fortunately for the monsters that committed these crimes against everything that is good, the generations that remember this (I remember the headlines and I was only 11 years old) are dying off and the current generations of American citizens think the world revolves around them and cant see past the end of their cell phones. And he was a character, a real joker. We came in from altitude down to low level. Ill have no part of this, Ill tear these wings off and never fly again! Fortunately, people calmed him down before he reported to Colonel Henderson. He tried to explain that these people appeared to be civilians, that we hadnt taken any fire and there was no evidence of combatants in that area. They were not listening, so he did the unbelievable, he drew his own sidearm and pointed it at them. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. In November 1970, the M Lai trials started and Hugh Thompson testified against William Calley. Where else in history has a massacre of civilians been stopped in the middle of the massacre? I always thought the American people deserved to know what was going on and I just thought it was good the public got a color photo layout of what happened at My Lai. But eventually the journalist Seymour Hersh found out about the massacre, and his report made it worldwide news and a turning point in the war. On March 16, 1968, a company of U.S. soldiers stormed into the Vietnamese village of Sn M and began shooting. The outcome of the trails was disgraceful, and Hugh and I saw that it was a sham. They were face to face, screaming at each other. At first, I just felt shock. Of course anyone thinking of making a career in the military probably pretended they never heard anything. You are the ones that deserve to be called American Soldiers. Weve been accused of many things, of being traitors. I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. He educatedhis children to act with discipline and integrity. Did you experience retaliation for what you did that day, or for talking to Henderson? The high gun stayed in the air and circled. When he had a heart attack he said he would slow down, but he didnt. Back at their base he filed a complaint about the killing of civilians that he had witnessed. When he arrived, American soldiers had already killed 504 Vietnamese civilians (thats the Vietnamese count; the U.S. Army said 347). Mercy Thompson, Testimony, Church of Christ in Missouri v. Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 70 F. 179 (8th Cir. Hugh Thompson & Helicopter Crew Honored for Helping End My - YouTube Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Opinion: California wants more psychiatric detentions. Medina and maybe higher. Hugh Thompson is a genuine, bone-fide hero of the Vietnam war, protecting hundreds from being massacred by US troops at My Lai. 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.. No, but Hugh was sent on missions in his OH-23 with his back up another OH-23no gunshipsinto Dragon Valley, where there was rocket activity. That is completely false, there was no backstabbing going onwe were right in their face at My Lai, we were ready to confront those people then and there. I said, Thank you, sir, and went back to work. This meant that military prosecutors would be prohibited from calling those persons as witnesses . "Something terrible happened here 30 years ago today," Mr. Thompson was quoted as saying by CNN. He knew the importance of getting people who are struggling the attention they need so they can transition back into civilian life and deal with problems, be they physical or emotional. Who were the people lying in the roads and in the ditch, wounded and killed? When Mr. Thompson returned home, it seemed to him that he was viewed as the guilty party. When I first joined the company, the commander took the volunteers to the flight line and showed us bullet holes in the aircraft and asked us if we knew what they were. Hugh Thompson - Tom Joad They were not combatants. Facebook gives people the power to. Hugh said, Im going to take him on the right, which meant he was my target. He remembered Glenn picking him up, seeing me in the ditch. I went back in 2008 for the 40th anniversary. I have a few lined up at some universities this year. He struggled too. made a statement in Congress honoring Thompson, stating that the United States has lost a true hero, and the State of Louisiana has lost a devoted leader and dear friend. Just then Glenn spotted some people in an earthen bunker, saw faces peering out of the entry. Its like the line from the movie No Country for Old Men when the Vietnam veteran played by Josh Brolin, who responds to another guy who introduced himself and says he was in Nam too: Oh, you were in Vietnam too. He told me not to say anything to anybody, and just tell the truth when I got there. How many of them were paid and paid well to rape and murder innocent babies, children, women and men? 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 monsters involved in this Massacre are surely going to hell no matter if theyve led a squeaky-clean life since then. Interview: Larry Colburn | American Experience | PBS They waited until the sun went down and they crawled out of that ditch. After evacuating the people, you thought you could do more? And although he lived with post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, and nightmare disorder for decades, he eventually became a veterans counselor for the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs. TIE LOST SOLDIER Hugh Thompson's Strange Life Will Fill a Book Does it worry you that it was, and remains, in our capacity to excuse or rationalize an atrocity like My Lai committed by Americans? We were the closest and should have been able to communicate, but thats the way it was structured. I know who I am, Im no hero, I was scared shitless most of the time. It was fresh enough that things hadnt changed much. I just figured it was time to do something, to not let these people get killed. 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. Are you guys with me?. 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. Thats what they want to do. I met Thompson in 2000 and interviewed him for my radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Larry Colburn was a door gunner with crew chief Glenn Andreotta and Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson as pilot of a small scout . It was so blatantly wrong what they were doing, we had no choice, we had to do what we did. A list of his survivors was not immediately available. I was a helicopter pilot that day, and I guess I was invited here to tell you about a day of my life. 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. I remember wearing the same fatigues and they were pretty much covered with blood stains from carrying the boy and being in that ditch. We loved those guys in the field. "Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. Our main job was to fly close to the deck, entice fire to get the enemy to give up their position, mark it, suppress fire and get out of the gunships way. People need to know who Hugh Thompson was, what he did and why he did it. He threw his weapon down and said he wasnt going to do it. 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. We know that Americans committed a massacre 50 years ago today; and we also know that an American stopped it. You found later that that wasnt true? The citation, bestowed in a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, said the three crewmen landed "in the line of fire between American ground troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians to prevent their murder.". Hood to give testimony in the basement war room of the Pentagon. This is not what Im here for. There was no time to get an ethics opinion or consult authorities. I have mine put away somewhere, but I think Hugh threw his away one night. 171 0 obj <> endobj It was women, children and elders we saw. Thompson risked his life and career and had Lt. Calley shoot him. There are those hardcore people who do still say we shouldnt have told the truth, that we should have covered for those guys in the field; that we didnt know what it was like on the ground. %%EOF "I'd received death threats over the phone," he told the CBS News program "60 Minutes" in 2004. Hugh Thompson reported the massacre to his commanding officer. 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. And we did, the best we could. Id received death threats over the phone, Thompson said in 2004. As we did, we heard automatic weapon fire. I saw them shoot an M79 [grenade launcher] into a group of people who were still alive, said Sgt. That particular morning we were to provide reconnaissance for a ground operation that was going on in My Lai . Everywhere wed look, wed see bodies. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. And it turned out it was a good thing that they did. Calley was the only person found guilty out of the 14 charged. Unfortunately, Lt. Calley and the rest of Company C never paid the price for the atrocities they committed. 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? I was hoping there would be justice, but what did it achieve? "I cannot explain why it happened. Thompson was vilified by many Americans for his testimony against United States Army personnel. 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. I stayed on gunships for rest of my time in Vietnam. He was very helpful to General Peers and it seemed like he wasnt just going through the motions, it was like he really wanted to know what happened. 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. Was this part of the cover up? We had no direct radio contact with the men on the ground. Then he assumed the Army initiated an investigation. Glenn shouted, Hes firing into the ditch again!, How did Hugh react when reason failed? A sergeant stood by the ditch. In an interview first broadcast in 2004, Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian spoke to Mr. After Hugh died, I was invited to Annapolis to speak one more time. That is what other people say. hb```,(qaB3W[ 4 `Tfc" QB\%xv{ We kept flying back and forth, Thompson recalled, and it didnt take very long until we started noticing the large number of bodies everywhere. He studied mortuary science and became a licensed funeral director. At some point they finally did call for a cease-fire, but by then it was too late. Yes, and we were checking the perimeter as they were coming in and starting the combat assault. Document points to Nixon in My Lai cover-up attempt - CBS News He didnt want to appear to be frantic; he wanted to be taken seriously by Henderson. When you see your lieutenant or captain initiate these things, some enlisted men on the ground are more likely to do the same thing. From Testimony to Tragedy: My Lai in Personal Perspective The . These people are going to die, Thompson said to his crew. 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. Hugh Thompson Jr. was a twenty-five-year-old helicopter pilot and Army warrants officer. 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. His final term would have expired in December 2018; he retired in January 2017. With Hugh, usually the more tense the situation, the more comical he would be. Thats unlikely to improve anyones mental health, Letters to the Editor: Yes, we need to talk about Bidens age. They couldnt have been killed by artillery. Hugh Thompson, the hero who stopped a massacre committed by US troops in the Vietnamese village of My Lai by landing his helicopter in the line of fire, 1968. ArmyThe bodies of massacred villagers at M Lai, as captured by a U.S. Army photographer. Testimony to the Truth [Smyth, Reverend Hugh P.] on Amazon.com. Hugh M. Thompson IV on LinkedIn: Weekly market wrap Then, as I was in this crowd, I turned around and there he waswith his beautiful wife and new baby boy. Some peoplepublicly stated that they felt Thompson was the only soldier at My Lai who should be punished (for turning his weapons on fellow American troops) and wanted to see him court-martialed for his actions at My Lai. In the middle of a firefight I was an E4, what was I to do? I would be there from December 67 to December 68. Hugh Clowers Thompson, Jr. (April 15, 1943 - January 6, 2006) was a United States Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. After the initial shock, I think some sort of a defensive mechanism kicked in. And then she finished her sentence: she said, So we could forgive them. Im not man enough to do that. So, he decided to do something. Then, take a look through these declassified Vietnam War photos. Hugh Thompson was a United States Army Major and a former warrant officer in the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division who helped end the My Lai Massacre of the South Vietnamese village known as Sn M on March 16, 1968. 187 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<24715D214BB8264D9C081C2824AD5AA6><5B5B6AB10B516B4B92CEE481B23C2455>]/Index[171 29]/Info 170 0 R/Length 83/Prev 54619/Root 172 0 R/Size 200/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream Did you know when the story was about to break? Hugh Thompson Profiles | Facebook Glenn said, If we are going to do something, we better do it right now! So Hugh lands right between the approaching squad and the bunker. That same day, the cover up started. I give credit to my sister Mary, who saw my condition when I came home. I am sorry this world has lost you. Interview - Larry Colburn: Why My Lai, Hugh Thompson Matter. He remembered how Glenn would put him down and pick him back up as he checked on other victims in the ditch. It all crystallized in that moment. Hugh was being jovial. He just said I was a prime candidate for PTSD. Some soldiers even jumped on the water buffalos, riding them around while trying to kill them with their bayonets. 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. The squad leader ordered Thompson and his men to get out of the way. He looked up and saw us and then took off for the tree line. He found 69 between the ages of 4 and 7, and 91 between the ages of 8 and 12. The hero received death threats for speaking out about the massacre. He was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. By this time, Lt. William Calleys Charlie Company was reaching My Lai? But Ive had my episodes. Hugh alerted the low gunship as to what we had seen on the ground. Did you fly with him much before My Lai? Prepared Testimony and Statement for the Record of Hugh Thompson Chief Technology Officer Hearing on "Bolstering the Government's Cybersecurity: Lessons Learned from WannaCry" Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Oversight and Subcommittee on Research and Technology He teaches the U.S. history survey since 1877 and specialized courses on Vietnam, 1960s America, and U.S. foreign relations. He has had an impact on many young minds in the military. Thompson and his crew managed to evacuate the civilians and stop the massacre. 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. He was 62. Bettmann/Getty ImagesHugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. Just because you tell the truth, it doesnt mean everything always come up roses. One of the instructors told me a story that he wished Hugh could hear. Hugh Thompson and his crew rescued a surviving child whom they flew to the nearest field hospital. He started accusing me of being with CID. Possibly we could have stopped things earlier. We never thought we were heroes. Hugh was running scenarios through his head to figure it out. They interviewed Hugh Thompson and his crew. Meet the Participants | American Experience | Official Site | PBS Nixon and the My Lai massacre coverup - New York Post No. PDF Testimony of Dr. Hugh Thompson, HTA Engineering (Expert Witness 30 years after the massacre, Thompson and the two other members of his crew, Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn, were awarded the Soldier's Medal (Andreott. Thompson was the first to communicate back to headquarters about the killing occurring on the ground. Hugh Thompson Jr. - Wikiwand I lost faith in the whole military organization and wanted to put it all behind me. Thompson and his crew stood in front of the bunker, protecting the civilians. Billy Waugh, Famed Special Forces Warrior and CIA Legend, Dies At 93. We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere, he told me, people on the road dead, wounded. That seemed suicidal to me, going out with next to no backup or firepower. Amid a flurry of corporate earnings releases and somewhat lackluster market activity last week, an important milestone went largely unnoticed. We want to recognize people in the military and all walks of life who really make difficult decisions the way Hugh did. Two young infantrymen in Iraq came upon a situation where a number of civilians were questionable and the men werent sure whether to engage or not. But I still dont think the topic really gets the exposure it really needs. And then she finished her sentence: she said, So we could forgive them.'. by Vietnam magazine 2/7/2011. To see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? Colburn said. I was 17 when I enlisted in 1966 with some friends. Mr. Thompson remained in combat, then returned to the United States to train helicopter pilots. Court-martial me, and he left his weapon and walked away. It was about six months ago that the S&P 500 dipped . 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 . Now, if I had known then what I know now about some of the activity going on there, the rapes and barbarism. The daring act of a man in defiance of combat differences in saving unarmed civilians from being deliberately butchered by his own side while under combat orders. I figured, I was in the Army, so I should experience it where the action was. Thompson and Colburn returned to Sn M to meet with survivors of the massacre at the Sn M Memorial in 1998. We thought that was good, that they would be out of the way. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? They were not running, but just slowly moving out of the village. Calley told Thompson that he was following orders, presumably from Capt. From his helicopter, Hugh Thompson could not communicate with Charlie Company on the ground. That Is little Hugh!" It was "Little Hugh" sure enough. It was absurd, but you have to be willing to pay the price. I may have clipped him but he made it to the trees. He showed no reaction at all. The villagers offered no resistance as U.S. soldiers shoved them into a ditch and opened fire with machine guns. What about those who didnt stand up to evil in their midst? The cause was cancer, Jay DeWorth, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center where Mr. Thompson died, told The Associated Press. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? The My Lai story and Hugh Thompsons role in it is really important, but do you find most people are unaware of it? Did you consider bringing gunships to ferry out others from the ditch? Before the story broke, did you or Hugh consider going public with the story? No, because the commander was on a different frequency. Ultimately, it was a pubic relations move, they had to give the medal. But I really didnt know what was going to happen or how to react. . My Lai Massacre: Vietnam War & Colin Powell - HISTORY I guess thats the $64,000 question isnt it? Only he would have known that. Did the gunship crews know what was happening on the ground before this? I knew General Peers had gotten in touch with Hugh and took him back over to the scene of the crime. So you were encouraged at that point? No Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. When Hugh gave his order, I distinctly remember pointing my weapon directly down at the ground, so there was no question. I had no idea what it was about. Testimony in the case against Officers Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis is scheduled for Tuesday, with follow-ups expected in May. For hours, they raped, mutilated, and slaughtered innocent civilians until a helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson Jr. put his own life on the line to stop the massacre. They killed everything. They could communicate with the command craft that was flying at altitude. Mr. Thompson, you and Mr. Colburn are indeed the heroes in this sordid story and I am ashamed at how they were treated. He received a life sentence in 1971 for premeditated murder which was later reduced to 10 years. Everybody's heard of the My Lai massacre March 16, 1968, 50 years ago today but not many know about the man who stopped it: Hugh Thompson, an Army helicopter pilot. Colburn came from Atlanta to be at his bedside. All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. Were you prepared to fire on the squad? Those on station knew something about it but not many saw it up close and personal except for the men on the ground and a couple of helicopter crews.

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