Posted on 01/06/2006 11:59:39 AM PST by Borges
NEW ORLEANS A former Army helicopter pilot who saved Vietnamese civilians from American G-I's during the My Lai (mee ly) massacre, has died.
Hugh Thompson, whose role in the 1968 massacre wasn't known until decades later, was 62. A friend and biographer says Thompson died of cancer.
Thompson landed a helicopter among U-S troops who were killing Vietnamese civilians. He and others pointed their own guns at their fellow troops to prevent other deaths.
He told The Associated Press in a 1998 interview that the people in My Lai "were looking at me for help and there was no way I could turn my back on them."
Thompson and two others received the Soldier's Medal, which is the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy.
Hugh news!
It's a rare man, that gets to go through life with such a clear cut, positive action behind him.
Good man. Rest in peace, you're home now.
Unfortunate Calley has outlived him; he should have been shot 30 years ago.
ping
Yeah, he led the kind of life you could "hang your hat on".
I'll never forget first reading about My Lai in LIFE Magazine at a PX in Ft. Ord California in the fall of 1969, getting ready to pack my bags for RVN.
Years later, I met one of the officers implicated in the coverup. He was never tried except in the newspapers. A few years back, he called me one Veteran's Day and gave me his best wishes.
I still hold him in high regard and always will.
"It's a rare man, that gets to go through life with such a clear cut, positive action behind him."
Thompson's was an action that received wide acclaim.
There were other unrecognized acts of heroism and good will towards the Vietnamese - maybe not the scope of what Hugh Thompson did - but good nonetheless.
Fair skies and a following wind, Hugh.
Were you there the day this went down? How about the weeks or months preceeding My Lai? If not, then why do you say that Lt. Calley should have been shot? Calley was the scapegoat for a lot of senior officers, that had ordered him to clean that cesspool out! Until you have blood on your hands and guts splattered all over your body from your buddies who were killed by some soldier on the other side, then maybe you will have the right to write what you just posted. I was there, and you weren't, we were three clicks away when this happened, getting the crap kicked out of us by a large force of VC and NVA regulars. So you tell me who was right and who was wrong then. Calley suffered enough to last a man ten lifetimes, and still suffers today. I understand what happened, and there isn't any way in hell you will too, IF YOU WEREN'T THERE!!
Pathetic people make excuses for that criminal.
Nice job rolling out the old Nuremberg trial Nazi "just following orders" defense for him, though.
I had a newly-minted JAG brother who was involved in the case; basically Calley's "minder." Told stories of all the support Calley had in the public, mainly from people who dismissed the whole thing as "doesn't matter, was just a bunch of Gooks anyway."{
There were plenty of people like Thompson who were closer to the event than you to whom it was very obvious what was going on and it was wrong.
I will grant that perhaps Calley shouldn't have been shot. He should have been hung.
People like Calley contributed just as much to the loss of that war as Jane Fonda.
"Calley was the scapegoat for a lot of senior officers, that had ordered him to clean that cesspool out!"
The only orders given prior to the operation were to burn the villes, kill the livestock, detroy foodstuffs and "possibly" close the wells. There were not any written orders, or at least none were ever located for the operation. Perhaps adding to the confusion was the knowledge that the civilian population was known to be sympathetic to the VC and that those who were to conduct the operation were advised that most of the civilian population would be gone to market.
An artillery prep proceeded the operation to soften up landing zones.
This is taken from the Peers Report which is the official Army report of the massacre and the subsequent cover-up.
The report concluded that orders were not given to kill civilians.
Complicating matters is the fact that the CO of Task Force Barker, LTC, Frank Barker was killed a short time after My Lai.
The cover-up is another story.
I served in the area a couple years after, what unit were you with?
I do not excuse what happened, only the fact that the ones who should have been locked up (Medina, et.all.) weren't! Your sorry response shows me you have no idea of what happened, and because of that, you choose to believe what the press told you to. That is your problem, not mine! As far as "only following orders" re: Nuremberg trials, is poppycock, and you know it too! I think you should ask Calley what really happened there. He lives in Columbus, Georgia and is in the jewelery business. After that, maybe you will begin to see the light of day. As far as Thompson and the others go, I admire their bravery and their tenacity in saving those folks from certain death. I hope he finds a nice spot in Heaven to rest for eternity.
...the press made sure of that.
I remember the headlines, the stories...
..and always thought, personally, Calley was a scapegoat.
Medina got off.
Perhaps we should move along to Thang Phong now, to broaden our perspective.
Whatever floats your boat or sinks your submarine! :0 )
Another self-confessed war criminal is still on the loose.
I think he lost the last presidential election. That should be investigated, along with his discharge papers.
"There were other unrecognized acts of heroism and good will towards the Vietnamese - maybe not the scope of what Hugh Thompson did - but good nonetheless."
Absolutely, countless good acts from our individual soldiers and our military institutions towards the Vietnamese people. I simply meant that his good deed was so public and easy to understand for the average person, it involved elements of visual clarity that most acts of heroism don't have. As I'm sure you know most soldiers acts of courage don't travel well outside the company of fellow vets.
Thanks for your response.
I knew what you meant, I just wanted to expound a bit.
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