Id received death threats over the phone, Thompson said in 2004. He told me not to say anything to anybody, and just tell the truth when I got there. Finally, when the sergeant said OK, Hugh thought hed convinced him and got back in the helicopter and we pulled out. When he had a heart attack he said he would slow down, but he didnt. But one of things the most infuriating is being called a whistleblower, as if we went and ratted someone out. My Lai And Hugh Thompson: A Man of Uncommon Courage Wed done what we could. PFC. 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. Hugh Thompson & Helicopter Crew Honored for Helping End My - YouTube Ive mulled this over for years. 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] Hugh Thompson was determined to stop the massacre. I thought that from a historical perspective, something needed to be in place so that when Im gone, what Hugh did at My Lai wont just fade into obscurity. In November 1970, the M Lai trials started and Hugh Thompson testified against William Calley. "I'd received death threats over the phone," he told the CBS News program "60 Minutes" in 2004. Only he would have known that. I imagine he wants to get right with God; hes not a young guy anymore. Sorry thats not what we did and I dont care what they think of me. 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 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. This is not how this military organization supposed to conduct operations. But it turns out he was 8. When you see your lieutenant or captain initiate these things, some enlisted men on the ground are more likely to do the same thing. Thats what keeps me going. As murderous bloodlust unfolded on the ground below, Thompson and crew confronted fellow GIs to save numerous civilians from the fate of some 500 others that morning. And on the 30th anniversary of the massacre, Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai. Testimony to the Truth: Smyth, Reverend Hugh P.: 9781163377390: Amazon I went back in 2008 for the 40th anniversary. Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? How did you get to the 123rd Aviation Battalion? You are the ones that deserve to be called American Soldiers. Hugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. the testimony he gave to the House Committees and the courts-martial of the . Kyle Hockenberry: For Those I love I will sacrifice, Adam Brown: The life and legacy of fearless Navy SEAL, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart: The real heroes of the Battle of Mogadishu, Ivica Jerak: The Croat who died as American hero. Glenn went down into the ditch and found the boy that he had seen moving and handed him up to me. Hugh alerted the low gunship as to what we had seen on the ground. U.S. ArmyHugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. I think it is deception, and that remains constant today. Court-martial me, and he left his weapon and walked away. What did you do after My Lai for the rest of your tour? On March 16, 1968, he was flying a mission in Vietnam and came across a large number of dead civilian bodies; and in pursuing surveillance, he discovered that those civilians had been killed, and the survivors were still under fire, by American forces. 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. 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. After the initial shock, I think some sort of a defensive mechanism kicked in. 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. There was some chatter since most of the people at Ft. 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. Medina and maybe higher. %%EOF Were you talking about this at the time? Now, if I had known then what I know now about some of the activity going on there, the rapes and barbarism. Hood and my CO called me in, said I had a phone call. We were told by the prosecuting attorneys to keep our mouths shut, and I didnt advertise the fact I was at My Lai. 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. This is not what Im here for.

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