Just learned this sad news yesterday (http://tinyurl.com/c9lho) : Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died of cancer early Friday at the age of 62.
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson%2C_Jr.):
Early in the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glen Andreotta, came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai.
They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings.
Colburn and Andreotta had provided cover for Thompson as he went forward to confront the leader of the U.S. forces. Thompson later coaxed civilians out of a bunker so they could be evacuated, and then landed his helicopter again to pick up a wounded child they transported to a hospital. Their efforts led to the cease-fire order at My Lai.
Exactly thirty years later, in 1998, the three men were awarded the Soldier's Medal (Andreotta posthumously for he died three weeks after the event), the United States Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy.
In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to the village in My Lai, where they met with some of the villagers saved through their actions — including 8 year old Do Hoa pulled from an irrigation ditch. They also dedicated a new elementary school for the children of the village.
In a 2004 interview with 60 Minutes, Thompson was quoted referring to C-Company's men involved in the massacre, "I mean, I wish I was a big enough man to say I forgive them, but I swear to God, I can't."
Lt. William L. Calley, the platoon leader who directed the massacre, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, but served just three years under house arrest when then-President Nixon reduced his sentence. Author Seymour Hersh won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his expose of the massacre in 1969 while working as a freelance journalist. In spite of a whitewash by Colin Powell (yes, that Colin Powell), the massacre became one of the pivotal events that fueled the growing opposition to the war in the United States. Although Thompson's story was a significant part of Hersh's reports, and Thompson testified before Congress, his role in ending My Lai wasn't widely known until the late 1980s, when David Egan, a professor emeritus at Clemson University, saw an interview in a documentary and launched a letter-writing campaign that eventually led to the awarding of the medals in 1998. For years Thompson suffered snubs and worse from those who considered him unpatriotic. He recalled a congressman angrily saying that Thompson himself was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai. As the years passed, Thompson became an example for future generations of soldiers, and went to West Point once a year to give a lecture on his experience. There are so many people today walking around alive because of him, not only in Vietnam, but people who kept their units under control under other circumstances because they had heard his story. We may never know just how many lives he saved. Rest in peace, Hugh Thompson Jr. More links about Hugh Thompson Jr.: http://tinyurl.com/65al8,
http://tinyurl.com/bnwyg
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/714.html
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