"The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and the unarmed."
- General Douglas MacArthur
Hugh Thompson died Friday. In this Georgian was the decency, courage, and strength we hold as being at the core of the American soldier.
On March 16, 1968, Hugh Thompson stopped the My Lai massacre.
Oh, you didn't know someone stopped it? Not a lot of people do.
Thompson, a helicopter pilot charged with flying recon, and confused by all the civilian bodies he was seeing down in "Pinkville," grew less confused when he saw how they were getting that way. Three times he dropped smoke next to injured civilians to signal they needed help. Three times he saw the people he had ask to be helped instead be murdered. The officers were out of control and they had taken their demoralized men down with them. He radioed back to base about what he was seeing. He landed several times and asked what was being done to help the wounded civilians. The answers he got, such as "Mind your own business" and "Yeah, we'll help 'em--help 'em out their misery," filled him with anger.
When Warrant Officer Thompson saw an officer and his soldiers approaching a group of civilians in a bunker, he knew he had to act. He told his crew, gunner Larry Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta, that if another civilian was shot, to open fire on the troops. Then he landed his helicopter in between the civilians and the troops and summoned two gunships for a two-fold unusual mission: to serve as medivacs and to get civilians clear of rampaging American soldiers. He got out of the helicopter and gathered the civilians there around him. He told Lt. Stephen Brooks that his crew had their guns trained on him and his men.
After those civilians were safely off, he and his crew themselves took off, only to land again so Andreotta could climb into a ditch full of dead civilians because he had seen movement. He grabbed a bloody but uninjured child he found there and they took off. On the ground a cease fire was called. Hugh Thompson went back to his unit to report his terrible tale. He repeated it again three years later at the Court Martial of Lt. William Calley.
Then he fell off the map of history. In 1998 he and his crew were remembered and awarded the Soldier's Medal.
On Friday Hugh Thompson died. Remember a soldier who had great personal and moral courage. Remember a true American hero.
Not all the soldiers there that day participated in the massacre. Some refused direct orders. One soldier shot himself instead. My Lai was an anomaly and has served as an object lesson of what can happen when a unit has poor leadership. Never make excuses for bad officers: there's too much riding on it, and there might not always be a Hugh Thompson around to step in and do the right thing.
(Via Silent Running.)
Posted by floridacracker at January 8, 2006 03:45 AMThank you very much, Donnah, for bringing this soldier's truly noble deeds to light. Much to my misfortune, I had never learned the story of his actions.
Posted by: kyer at January 8, 2006 05:42 PMNo single person on the ground knew all what was going on in that village. But he was in the air, flying back and forth over it, and he saw. Then he did something about it.
A great man.
They sure don't make 'em like him anymore.
God rest his soul.
Posted by: Trambo at January 8, 2006 11:21 PMThe fact this guy's name and heroics are known to almost no one while John Kerry launched a decades-long Senate career based on mostly imagined atrocities tell you what kind of man and soldier he was.
Rest in peace.
Posted by: TallDave at January 9, 2006 02:11 PMGod rest his soul. I heard about this on my car radio on Friday night. I had not known of him before. Thanks to your posting I can read more. Thank you.
Posted by: Maggie45 at January 9, 2006 07:43 PMI just read the article/interview with Larry Colburn to which you linked, and I am almost at a loss for words. Colburn was 18, Andreotta was 20, and Thompson was 24. What astounding courage it took to face down an officer and fellow soldiers, who had just slaughtered hundreds of civilian including children and not knowing if they'd be gunned down themselves by stopping the slaughter, and rescuing the survivors. And then to be safely in the air, and landing again because they saw movement among the bodies. God bless them.
Posted by: Maggie45 at January 9, 2006 08:26 PMI love that Larry Colburn said that Thompson had taken us one rung higher up the evolutionary ladder.
I've often thought of the impression Hugh must have made on the young gunner that day.
Yes, Hugh Thompson was totally outranked. He was also very worried later, and with good reason, that he had threatened to shoot an officer.
Ahh, as my sister always says, "There are guys and there are MEN."
Hugh Thompson was one hell of a man.
wow. i didn't know.
Posted by: mlah at January 9, 2006 09:33 PMIn June, 2005, my wife and I visited My Lai. There is a small, unglamourous,`exhbition' hall there, containing many photographs - by USA photographers - of the dreadful scenes of '68.
There is not a lot one can say to the old lady there who survived the massacre itself. But, through our tears we were able to point to the photograph of Hugh Thompson. She nodded her understanding.
Yes, a true Hero, as were his two colleagues. I hope someone will see fit to ensure that he is buried in the USA's most hallowed ground at Arlington. God bless Hugh Thompson and the real America he represents.
Posted by: Brian at January 12, 2006 08:58 AMWonderful comment, Brian. Thank you.
Posted by: Donnah at January 12, 2006 05:30 PMWhat a hero Hugh was. Thanks for posting this. Are you really from Winter Haven? So am I.
Posted by: Cathy at January 13, 2006 11:50 PMI'm from Lee County. Reader S. is the Winter Haven girl.
Posted by: Donnah at January 14, 2006 12:09 AM