And you want to instill the spirit of Thompson in others. Thompson was vilified by many Americans for his testimony against United States Army personnel. When did you start talking to investigators? Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai in 1998 and met some of the people he saved. I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (First Edition When the American people responded as they did in defense of Calley, it was really hard, especially for Hugh. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Hugh Thompson discover inside connections to recommended job . We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere, he told me, people on the road dead, wounded. 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. Afterwards Thompson testified at the trial of Lt. William Calley, the commanding officer during the massacre. I knew General Peers had gotten in touch with Hugh and took him back over to the scene of the crime. We took him out of the area to a hospital and gave him to a nun. Harry claimed a 'secret agreement' stopped him bringing hacking claims earlier 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. Ultimately, it was a pubic relations move, they had to give the medal. If there was anything that was cleansing for me that was it. Then, in 1998, the Army awarded him the Soldiers Medal for heroism. Thompson left the Army in 1983 and became a private helicopter pilot in the South. 0 We didnt talk about it. He wanted to give us some idea of what were getting into. Id seen civilians get in the way and unfortunately lose their lives because of that. This is not how this military organization supposed to conduct operations. I think it is deception, and that remains constant today. Hugh Thompson, a pilot of the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Americal Division, flew an observational helicopter supporting Task Force Barker on March 16, 1968. Were you vilified or the target of death threats the way Hugh Thompson was? Inside Brianna Maitland's Chilling Disappearance And The Bizarre Clues Left Behind, How Ken Miles Helped Ford Beat Ferrari Before Dying Tragically Behind The Wheel, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. 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. When I got to Vietnam I was attached to a headquarters company. Medina and maybe higher. The villagers offered no resistance as U.S. soldiers shoved them into a ditch and opened fire with machine guns. No Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. When I arrived at My Lai in 2008, no one knew where he was. That one person will go on to tell 10 other people. 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. We know that Americans committed a massacre 50 years ago today; and we also know that an American stopped it. 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. The high gun stayed in the air and circled. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? He remembered how Glenn would put him down and pick him back up as he checked on other victims in the ditch. I now know why he wanted me to come with him to events. My Lai massacre hero Hugh Thompson on being shunned - BBC News We were very protective of the men on the ground. I thought someone else was getting recognition for something. Thompson ran over and said, These are civilians, we got to help them out.. You still didnt understand what was actually happening? It went on like that for another year and half until finally they agreed to award medals to all of us. The monsters involved in this Massacre are surely going to hell no matter if theyve led a squeaky-clean life since then. I would be there from December 67 to December 68. Hugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. Heroes of My Lai - University of Missouri-Kansas City Had you ever seen anything even approaching this before? Hugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. Charlie Company arrived in M Lai with orders to destroy the village. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, Opinion: Why my Taiwanese American identity has become more complicated. When you testified in Washington for the Army investigation led by General William Peers, did you feel they were after the real story? HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Back at their base he filed a complaint about the killing of civilians that he had witnessed. My Lai And Hugh Thompson: A Man of Uncommon Courage This is not what Im here for. Having redeemed himself for other peoples mistakes, his heroic act was written in US Military history. After the trial, Hugh Thompson received death threats. As the wounded tried to crawl out, they were fired on by someone who had been left there to do just that. Now, if I had known then what I know now about some of the activity going on there, the rapes and barbarism. Particularly because of the Peers and the IG investigations, I thought there were people sincere about upholding the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In the middle of a firefight I was an E4, what was I to do? Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? Thompson landed his helicopter next to a ditch that contained 150 people many dead, but many others wounded and trying to escape. Upon seeing that, Hugh Thompson landed the helicopter, approached Calley, and talked to him. There were probably 10 in the squad. Harry's phone-hacking testimony contained 'troubling factual So he gave me prescriptions for several psychotropic drugs. Any hesitation? The photos document the free, unobstructed flow of water through the easement area between the base of the dam and the drop inlets on the 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. He tried to persuade him to stop the attack but with no success. They were taking volunteers for the 11th Brigade. I walked in and told Henderson we saw unnecessary killing of many civilians. What would I have done if I were a man on the ground? And we did, the best we could. There were real good highs, he told me, and very low lows. There was no time to get an ethics opinion or consult authorities. Hell, I didnt want to believe it, either, but I had no choice because I saw it.. William Calley, the officer who ordered the slaughter at M Lai. Of course anyone thinking of making a career in the military probably pretended they never heard anything. Months later you were surprised with a medal for action at My Lai? 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. They were going to kill more, but they didnt because of what Thompson did. Back at the base, Thompson threw his flight helmet on the ground. 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. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. . Like the trials, it was forced. I said, Thank you, sir, and went back to work. I testified in the trials of Henderson, Medina and Calley. Could you have just reported this and left, knowing youd at least made an effort? They also reported the massacre to higher officers, who ordered the troops on the ground to stop. 199 0 obj <>stream To do something like that in the whirlwind of war was downright insane, and thats exactly what he did. The Army covered it up, but the facts eventually came to light and the responsible officer, Capt. Only he would have known that. Mr. Thompson worked as a veterans' counselor in Louisiana after leaving military service. How do you think your story, of an event now long in the past, can make a difference? 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 It was time to stop it, and I figured, at that point, that was the only way the madness, or whatever you want to call it, could be stopped.. 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. Hugh Thompson and his crew rescued a surviving child whom they flew to the nearest field hospital. And Hugh said, What about my crew? They said they didnt have any intention for awards of the crew. Hugh Thompson - Ballotpedia Thompson told his crew, Im going to go over to the bunker myself and get these people out. This meant that military prosecutors would be prohibited from calling those persons as witnesses . When it was all over, hundreds of unarmed civilians had been murdered by American forces. He has had an impact on many young minds in the military. You felt pretty vulnerable in that little helicopter. . How many of them went on to draw military pay and benefits? I was on the backup team that day and we went out to try to retrieve the bodies. William Calley, the officer in charge of Charlie Company, ordered American soldiers to round up the villagers and open fire. 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.
Where Is J Furniture Made,
Flamboyant Gamine Kpop,
Living Church Of God Telecast,
Female Esports Toronto,
Articles H