View the profiles of people named Hugh Thompson. In 2001 we went back and were reunited with the boy in the ditch. He told the story of what happened that day, when he and his two-man crew flew over My Lai, in support of troops who were looking for Viet Cong fighters. As we got back on station, we saw a lot of villagers leaving and figured that we may have dropped leaflets or had fired some artillery in morning. 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. It has turned me into a cynic philosopher. My father landed on Normandy Beach and as a kid I watched the television series Victory at Sea and went to bed praying never to have to face the fire like those men on Normandy. Hugh and I went in 1998 with 60 Minutes, just after we were given the Soldiers Medal. Somehow they trusted him and they came out. As we did, we heard automatic weapon fire. Sorry thats not what we did and I dont care what they think of me. 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. We had different missions. the testimony he gave to the House Committees and the courts-martial of the . As I understand, that part of brain doesnt develop until 25. So we continued our recon. He was 62. Then, take a look through these declassified Vietnam War photos. Were you glad you got it? William Calley, the officer in charge of Charlie Company, ordered American soldiers to round up the villagers and open fire. 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. He threw his weapon down and said he wasnt going to do it. Are you guys with me?. Ill always know that we did was morally right, we did what we could to help people who could not defend themselves. They were face to face, screaming at each other. 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. Instead, the Army hid the slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, including 182 women and 173 children. I had an administrative MOS and was ordered to Hawaii where I was working as a courier. "They said I was screaming quite loud," he told U.S. News & World Report in 2004. Glenn shouted, Hes firing into the ditch again!, How did Hugh react when reason failed? So he called our low gunship, piloted by a friend of his, Dan Millans, and said: Danny, I need a favor. The sergeant waited until Thompson left and then fired on the helpless civilians. It was like he dropped out of the sky. 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. He tried to persuade him to stop the attack but with no success. After Hugh died, I was invited to Annapolis to speak one more time. Hugh said: These people are going to die. Before the story broke, did you or Hugh consider going public with the story? They landed their helicopter between the American forces and the civilians, and they trained their guns on the advancing Americans. The conclusion Hugh and I came to was they were trying to keep us quiet by giving us a phony award. Did you know when the story was about to break? So I was not a good guy.. Did you expect something would be done as a result? Hugh said, No, lets do it at the Wall. They said no, the weather might be bad or something. We didnt talk too much about it ourselves because we reported on it and we were, frankly, preoccupied with the next mission. Among those numbers were 17 pregnant women and 56 infants. Ive tried to put myself in their position, tried to empathize. And when Hugh Thompson testified against William Calley, the officer who ordered the massacre, Thompson received death threats. View Hugh Thompson's professional profile on LinkedIn. Thompson was buried in Lafayette, Louisiana, with full military honors, including a three-volley salute and a helicopter flyover. Thompson ran over and said, These are civilians, we got to help them out.. It was a case of bloodlust. But to see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? Glenn went down into the ditch and found the boy that he had seen moving and handed him up to me. Then, in 1998, the Army awarded him the Soldiers Medal for heroism. But many in the Army and the public supported Calley over Thompson. I read the citation and thought what? 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. All of the investigations led to nothing, Hugh and I felt like all three trials were just window dressing. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. He looked up and saw us and then took off for the tree line. At first, I just felt shock. When did you see those particular villagers again? ' Thompson recalled. Upon returning from the mission, Thompson reported what he had seen and experienced to his. It couldnt be gunships, they werent firing on people. On March 16, 1968, Chief Warrant Officer Thompson and his two crewmen were flying on a reconnaissance mission over the South Vietnamese village of My Lai when they spotted the bodies of men, women and children strewn over the landscape. But remember, at My Lai only about a third of the men participated in the massacre, but no one else tried to stop it. Afterwards Thompson testified at the trial of Lt. William Calley, the commanding officer during the massacre. Hannah's Testimony. But he didnt even draw a sidearm as he walked up to the bunker and motioned to the people to come out. We didnt talk about it. "I cannot explain why it happened. Thompson had a famous emotional outburst upon returning to base? I have come to understand him more now than I did when he was here. Interview - Larry Colburn: Why My Lai, Hugh Thompson Matter. Hes saved lives again. No. When I got to Vietnam I was attached to a headquarters company. No Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. Larry Colburn talks about his late friend Hugh Thompson, the My Lai massacre, the subsequent cover up, investigations and trials. 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. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. Did you experience retaliation for what you did that day, or for talking to Henderson? But I still dont think the topic really gets the exposure it really needs. Hugh alerted the low gunship as to what we had seen on the ground. Thompson wanted you to also make a report? He showed no reaction at all. Hugh Thompsonsdefiance and courage with that of his crew had given a new lease of life to others that they saved and will be remembered by all in the face of Humanity and History. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. 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 They interviewed Hugh Thompson and his crew. 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 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. They were not running, but just slowly moving out of the village. Anyone can read what you share. When you testified in Washington for the Army investigation led by General William Peers, did you feel they were after the real story? Thank you both for being of upstanding and outstanding moral character and having the backbone to stand up for what you know is right! I am sorry this world has lost you. Ultimately, it was a pubic relations move, they had to give the medal. Ronald L. Haeberle/U.S. After evacuating the people, you thought you could do more? We took him out of the area to a hospital and gave him to a nun. I flew from Ft. Calley told Thompson that he was following orders, presumably from Capt. He remembered how Glenn would put him down and pick him back up as he checked on other victims in the ditch. Jon Wiener is professor emeritus of history at UC Irvine, and working, with Mike Davis, on a book on Los Angeles in the 1960s. It wasn't war.". Hugh Thompson, who has died aged 62, was the helicopter pilot who tried to halt the My Lai massacre of more than 500 villagers by American troops during the Vietnam war . 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. But I really didnt know what was going to happen or how to react. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? He struggled too. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. I didnt write Hugh up for anything and he said he didnt write me up. For the sake of any kind of lame justice, they should have been put to death for their atrocities. Do you think most people realize there was more than just the killing that was going on? Hugh Thompson reported the massacre to his commanding officer. From the air, Thompson and his two-person crew quickly realized American soldiers were slaughtering innocent civilians. before the subcommittee, and then refused to release the transcripts of the testimony. You and Thompson must have been good mutual support. At first, they only wanted to give it to Hugh at a private ceremony. I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. In November 1970, the M Lai trials started and Hugh Thompson testified against William Calley. He was evacuated to a hospital in Japan and began a long rehabilitation period. 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. "I threatened never to fly again. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a49bccbef3b55dea5fdfe48a500a42a9" );document.getElementById("c08a1a06c7").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Content on this website is free to use and share, but please provide a link back to Spec Ops Magazine as a source. I got there and Ill never forget my mother taking me into the kitchen and telling me if I didnt want to tell these people anything, I didnt have to. Im going to go over to the bunker myself and get these people out. Calley was paroled just three years later, in 1974, after Richard Nixon commuted his sentence. Mr. Thompson worked as a veterans' counselor in Louisiana after leaving military service. He told me not to say anything to anybody, and just tell the truth when I got there. They were going to kill more, but they didnt because of what Thompson did. How did you get to the 123rd Aviation Battalion? I was on the backup team that day and we went out to try to retrieve the bodies. If they fire on these people, or fire on me while Im doing that, shoot em! Now Hugh really had no idea who or what was in that bunker, could have been an AK47 waiting for him there. We came to think we were indirectly killing these people ourselves by marking them with smoke. Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. That particular morning we were to provide reconnaissance for a ground operation that was going on in My Lai 4, which was better known to us as Pinkville." It was supposed to be a real big operation that day. The troops also burned the village and Sn Ms surrounding hamlets to the ground and slaughtered the livestock. Mr. Thompson, you and Mr. Colburn are indeed the heroes in this sordid story and I am ashamed at how they were treated. He was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. And then she finished her sentence: she said, So we could forgive them.'. Glenn and I were staring them down and watching to see how it would unfold. Mr. Thompson told of what he had seen when he returned to his base. The My Lai story and Hugh Thompsons role in it is really important, but do you find most people are unaware of it? Would I have? What drove you to create the Hugh Thompson Foundation? A defendant charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, who testified that he believed he was "following presidential orders" from President Donald Trump when he stormed the building. That aspect of it made me feel real good.. And on the 30th anniversary of the massacre, Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai. When he had a heart attack he said he would slow down, but he didnt. He just said I was a prime candidate for PTSD. 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. Many fellow GIs still dont think you did the right thing? Thompson and his crew managed to evacuate the civilians and stop the massacre. 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. There was a sergeant standing by the ditch by himself. Glenn had a visual on some sort of movement in the ditch, so Hugh landed, and Glenn and I got out. He recounted in a CBS 60 Minutes television program in 2004, "I'd received death threats over the phone.Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up." [14] [7] There could be a reason for doing it, or there could have simply been a complete breakdown in leadership. 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 . As Hugh jumped out, he told us to take our weapons down off the bungee cords and take some belted ammo and backup weapons and set up a little perimeter around the aircraft. Did you have any knowledge of who was being inserted into My Lai that morning? The squad leader ordered Thompson and his men to get out of the way. That was a point of no return for Thompson? Hugh told her he probably didnt have any family left. I believe Glenn got a Bronze Star too. Where else in history has a massacre of civilians been stopped in the middle of the massacre? Hugh told me that was what was going through his mind, he was thinking of Nazi Germany, people digging trenches, forced to march into those trenches, mass graves.. Hugh Thompson Jr. was a twenty-five-year-old helicopter pilot and Army warrants officer. While the massacre took place, helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his crew flew over the jungle, offering air support. 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. In front of Lt. Calley,Hugh Thompson was outranked. Well, I took the prescriptions, ripped them up into little pieces and walked out. He left the aircraft in flight idle, as rotor blades can be somewhat intimidating. The bodies of massacred villagers at M Lai, as captured by a U.S. Army photographer. by Vietnam magazine 2/7/2011. After My Lai, did you feel traumatized or feel like you carried a huge burden? You are the ones that deserve to be called American Soldiers. I just thank God everybody kept their cool and no one made any quick moves. 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 . I had no idea what it was about. I saw them shoot an M79 [grenade launcher] into a group of people who were still alive, said Sgt. At the time, I figured he was 3 or 4 years old, he was tiny. 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. Meet Hugh Thompson, The Hero Who Stopped The M Lai Massacre And Was Branded A Traitor For It. Friends I had on the division level told me they were taking volunteers for the 123rd Aviation Battalion. Thompson acted more instinctively, given his morals, character, and military training. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. Billy Waugh, Famed Special Forces Warrior and CIA Legend, Dies At 93. The villagers offered no resistance as U.S. soldiers shoved them into a ditch and opened fire with machine guns. Glenn Andreotta was killed just a few weeks after My Lai? 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. Justice Thompson was re-elected for additional six-year terms in 2000, 2006, and 2012. Testimony of Dr. Hugh Thompson, HTA Engineering (Expert Witness) (Exhibit Allegra-10) Exhibit Allegra-10 includes Survey Notes and 12 photographs taken by HTA Engineering on January 12, 2010. Hugh told me that was what was going through his mind, he was thinking of Nazi Germany, people digging trenches, forced to march into those trenches, mass graves. I imagine he wants to get right with God; hes not a young guy anymore. That is what other people say. It was Hugh and he told me that I would be getting orders to report to Washington. In 1998, 30 years after the massacre, Hugh Thompson and the two other crew members, Andreotta and Colburn, were awarded the Soldiers Medal (Andreotta posthumously), the United States Armys highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy. Yes, and we were checking the perimeter as they were coming in and starting the combat assault. Ive mulled this over for years. I told him everything and he didnt know how to respond, he had no idea how to deal with it. They killed everything. After the initial shock, I think some sort of a defensive mechanism kicked in. U.S. ArmyWilliam Calley, the officer who ordered the slaughter at M Lai. You must have had some post-traumatic stress after your experience in Vietnam. 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. Thompson landed his helicopter next to a ditch that contained 150 people many dead, but many others wounded and trying to escape. 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. Hugh Clowers Thompson Sr. was an electrician who served in the United States Navy during World War II. William Calley, the officer who ordered the slaughter at M Lai. As United States citizens, as representatives of the one country in this world that is supposed to protect human life, they are ones to be ashamed of, to be shunned, to be branded traitors. Exactly what you saw. Since we were sitting shoulder to shoulder, we saw virtually the very same things. I remember catching one of the soldiers eyes and I waved to him and he waved back. He found 69 between the ages of 4 and 7, and 91 between the ages of 8 and 12. He remembered Glenn picking him up, seeing me in the ditch. 1895), in United States testimony 1892, typescript, 247, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. Were you vilified or the target of death threats the way Hugh Thompson was? From Testimony to Tragedy: My Lai in Personal Perspective Michael W. Flamm Michael W. Flamm Michael W. Flamm is professor of history at Ohio Wesleyan University. I have mine put away somewhere, but I think Hugh threw his away one night. If people have some confusion about that, thats their problem. That morning was clear and as we came over a hilltop we saw a suspect in uniform with a pack, carrying a carbine in the middle of a rice paddy. Harry's phone-hacking testimony contained 'troubling factual inconsistencies', hacking judge says. 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:. At some point they finally did call for a cease-fire, but by then it was too late. He wanted to give us some idea of what were getting into. Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. (April 15, 1943 - January 6, 2006) was a United States Army Major, and a former warrant officer in the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division.He is credited with ending the M Lai Massacre of the South Vietnamese village known as Sn M on March 16, 1968, alongside and hierarchically above Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn. I know who I am, Im no hero, I was scared shitless most of the time. Hugh and I were skeptical in 01, so we asked him a lot of questions and he told us things only he could have known. "Something terrible happened here 30 years ago today," Mr. Thompson was quoted as saying by CNN. He angered some GIs as he tried to photograph them as they fondled the breasts of a fifteen-year-old Vietnamese girl. They were not combatants. Im giving interviews and working with students. Anyway, they remembered our story about My Lai, and instead of just lighting up a target, they took the time to analyze and study the situation. What would I have done if I were a man on the ground? When did you make your report of what happened? And it turned out, after we dropped him off with the nun at the hospital, he didnt stay 24 hours. So, what do you make of Calleys apology last year? He made some notes on a legal pad and excused me and I left. Im not that much of a man., I always questioned, in my mind, did anybody know we all arent like that? There was also testimony of absolute insanity. You know, you think everybody feels you and you can ignore your own symptoms. Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot, had threatened to fire on the American troops in order to rescue Vietnamese women and children from the slaughter. Amid a flurry of corporate earnings releases and somewhat lackluster market activity last week, an important milestone went largely unnoticed. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. The eyewitness testimony of Thompson and his surviving crew member helped convict Calley at a court-martial. And then she finished her sentence: she said, So we could forgive them. Im not man enough to do that. Instead, the Army hid the slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, including 182 women and 173 children. I have accompanied Hugh when he has spoken at West Point, the Naval and Air Force Academies, to the Red Cross, in Norway, Australia and elsewhere. And Hugh said, What about my crew? They said they didnt have any intention for awards of the crew. Some of Calleys men didnt follow Calleys orders and did nothing. 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. In harsh times, heroes are ordinary men doing extraordinary things. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. It is denial, a refusal to believe our young men could run amok the way they did. Like most 18-year-old males I was nave, had no idea what risks were. Weve been accused of many things, of being traitors. Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. Particularly because of the Peers and the IG investigations, I thought there were people sincere about upholding the Uniform Code of Military Justice. You and Hugh had a pretty low profile during and after the trials? Any hesitation? Id seen civilians get in the way and unfortunately lose their lives because of that. As we flew around more, we started seeing small groups of people dead or dying in other parts of the village. This is not what Im here for. The only radio communication we had was with the low gunship. They had been writing to the Pentagon for years about Hugh, totally unbeknownst to Hugh. Hugh Thompson Jr. graduated from Stone Mountain High School on June 5, 1961. Hell, I didnt want to believe it, either, but I had no choice because I saw it.. We want to recognize people in the military and all walks of life who really make difficult decisions the way Hugh did. I just wish our crew that day could have helped more people than we did.". History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. When it was all happening, the feeling I had was, if this is how Im going to die, Im OK with it. Nicholas Goldberg: Is God on the side of blasphemy laws? "Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else.. Possibly we could have stopped things earlier. But still, who do you shoot? Now we saw them again, but they were all lying on the road, dead or dying. Dont salute me or call me sir, he said, Just Mr. Thompson. He didnt believe in that no fraternization stuff, he was really one of the fellows, he knew both sides. He didnt have much support for decades. 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. I did hear that the men on the ground were told to pretend like it never happened. Wed 11 Jan 2006 08.06 EST. It took several weeks of time, and several volumes of testimony to satisfy the United States pen<rion bureau that "Old Reliable" was the identical soldier who had enlisted in Company H, Fifteenth Ohio volunteer Infantry, in 1862, and who was last reported "wounded and missing In battle of . We thought that was good, that they would be out of the way. I have a few lined up at some universities this year. In the middle of a firefight I was an E4, what was I to do? We didnt know what was happening. In 1966, Thompson enlisted in the United States Army and completed the Warrant Officer Flight Program training at Fort Wolters, Texas, and Fort Rucker, Alabama. Thompson had become something of a professional witness. Im Irish so Im to suffer. We are inundated with information but we are not very well informed. He walked about 50 meters and encountered the lieutenant who was leading the squad. If its not sincere, it doesnt mean anything. 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. Hood to give testimony in the basement war room of the Pentagon. The Army covered it up, but the facts eventually came to light and the responsible officer, Capt. We know that Americans committed a massacre 50 years ago today; and we also know that an American stopped it. I think that is probably what has helped me get through it all. And I was just devastated. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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.. What about those who didnt stand up to evil in their midst? What did you do after My Lai for the rest of your tour? It was an enemy tactic to blur the lines between combatants and noncombatants. With Hugh, usually the more tense the situation, the more comical he would be. Thompson and his crew stood in front of the bunker, protecting the civilians. I knew General Peers had gotten in touch with Hugh and took him back over to the scene of the crime. Central to the case prosecuted by the Civilian Complaint. We had thought there were two or three, but there were about 10 in the bunker. Upon coming home, he got death threats and the like. People should realize that when atrocities are committed like this and covered up, it degrades us all.
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