hugh thompson testimony

We are developing the concept of a Hugh Thompson Medallion to do that. One of the ladies that we had helped out that day came up to me and asked, Why didnt the people who committed these acts come back with you? For his interference. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Opinion: California wants more psychiatric detentions. At that point, Hugh realizes hes got an aircraft that wont accommodate them. Out of the blue, our unit was called out onto the tarmac for an awards and decoration ceremony. Ive mulled this over for years. He just said I was a prime candidate for PTSD. Hell, I didnt want to believe it, either, but I had no choice because I saw it.. before the subcommittee, and then refused to release the transcripts of the testimony. When the officers take part in it, it just escalates things. We came to think we were indirectly killing these people ourselves by marking them with smoke. 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 was first appointed to the court on March 1, 1994, by Governor Zell Miller (D). When Hugh realized it was our people doing this killing, he knew he had to take drastic measures. 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:. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Every time Ive been back there, the survivors ask me, Why dont the men who committed the atrocities come back and ask for forgiveness so that we might forgive them. Theyre Buddhists you know, they can forgive, put it behind them and carry on. I know who I am, Im no hero, I was scared shitless most of the time. Thompson wanted you to also make a report? I lost faith in the whole military organization and wanted to put it all behind me. Hugh Thompson, the hero who stopped a massacre committed by US troops in the Vietnamese village of My Lai by landing his helicopter in the line of fire, 1968. If people have some confusion about that, thats their problem. He is an amazing person made me cry just reading the research about him. They were shooting women and children just like anybody else.. When the revelations about My Lai surfaced, he testified before Congress, a military inquiry and the court-martial of Lt. William L. Calley Jr., the platoon leader at My Lai, who was the only soldier to be convicted in the massacre. So he gave me prescriptions for several psychotropic drugs. As he told The Associated Press in 2004: "Don't do the right thing looking for a reward, because it might not come. Would I have? He told me not to say anything to anybody, and just tell the truth when I got there. How many of them were paid and paid well to rape and murder innocent babies, children, women and men? This fella stood up and said: Fuck you. 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. 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.. In the middle of a firefight I was an E4, what was I to do? That is completely false, there was no backstabbing going onwe were right in their face at My Lai, we were ready to confront those people then and there. This ended his combat career in Vietnam. Did you have any knowledge of who was being inserted into My Lai that morning? There was a guy at the ditch with Calley, shooting people not yet dead. 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. Everybodys 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. In unison, all three of us shouted, You son of a bitch! That was Captain Ernest Medina. When did you make your report of what happened? I wanted to survive and get home. What would I have done if I were a man on the ground? The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. Did the gunship crews know what was happening on the ground before this? Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. 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. Anyone can read what you share. These people appeared to be no threat at all, and we couldnt figure out why they were fired on and killed as they were leaving the area. The troops also burned the village and Sn Ms surrounding hamlets to the ground and slaughtered the livestock. In late December 1967, at the age of 25, Hugh Thompson was ordered to Vietnam and assigned to Company B, 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division. The eyewitness testimony of Thompson and his surviving crew member helped convict Calley at a court-martial. HUGH THOMPSON: I'm Hugh Thompson. This is not what Im here for. Glenn Andreotta was killed just a few weeks after My Lai? Hugh said: These people are going to die. People need to know who Hugh Thompson was, what he did and why he did it. One morning as I was prepping an aircraft for a mission, he came down and introduced himself. Hugh Thompson died in 2006, when he was only 62. But that was not to be the case. There was also testimony of absolute insanity. I had no idea what it was about. That one person will go on to tell 10 other people. Did you expect something would be done as a result? Calley was the only person found guilty out of the 14 charged. It all crystallized in that moment. There was a sergeant standing by the ditch by himself. We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere, he told me, people on the road dead, wounded. At 8 years old, he made his way about 10 miles through the jungle by himself to the village. Innocent people didnt die that day They didnt just fly off the handle and engage a target that was borderline. Im going to go over to the bunker myself and get these people out. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. They were taking volunteers for the 11th Brigade. You saw him again in 2008? Hes saved lives again. They had been writing to the Pentagon for years about Hugh, totally unbeknownst to Hugh. Hannah's Testimony. The villagers offered no resistance as U.S. soldiers shoved them into a ditch and opened fire with machine guns. At first, I just felt shock. Thompson felt obliged to return to military service when the Vietnam War began. I think Task Force Barkers intent was to create panic and drive the enemy forces out of the area. I was raised with a sense of duty. 1895), in United States testimony 1892, typescript, 247, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. He angered some GIs as he tried to photograph them as they fondled the breasts of a fifteen-year-old Vietnamese girl. 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. One of the ladies that we had helped out that day came up to me and asked, Why didnt the people who committed these acts come back with you? And I was just devastated. It was like he dropped out of the sky. Were you prepared to fire on the squad? On the morning of March 16, 1968, the people of M Lai were making breakfast when soldiers stormed in. It was women, children and elders we saw. I was always comfortable as the sidekick and enjoyed the time with Hugh. It was denial on the part of the public. 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. How did you and Hugh reconcile what you knew happened with the outpouring of public support for Calley and his men? We never thought we were heroes. There was some chatter since most of the people at Ft. The My Lai Massacre was and still is a huge, shameful event that will be hard for several generations to get past. Medina and maybe higher. I was aghast at hearing how Lt William Calley got away with cold blooded murder, spending one day behind bars as a convicted criminal. Mr. Thompson radioed for a helicopter gunship to evacuate the group, and then his crew chief, Glenn Andreotta, pulled a boy from a nearby irrigation ditch, and their helicopter flew him to safety. The cause was cancer, Jay DeWorth, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center where Mr. Thompson died, told The Associated Press. I have come to understand him more now than I did when he was here. Thank you both for being of upstanding and outstanding moral character and having the backbone to stand up for what you know is right! The My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, stands as one of the darkest moments in U.S. military history. She enticed me to move to east Oregon, near a ski area. It was Hugh and he told me that I would be getting orders to report to Washington. Join Facebook to connect with Hugh Thompson and others you may know. Does it worry you that it was, and remains, in our capacity to excuse or rationalize an atrocity like My Lai committed by Americans? . Youve got to love this guy. None. The Army covered it up, but the facts eventually came to light and the responsible officer, Capt. Everywhere wed look, wed see bodies. Calley was paroled just three years later, in 1974, after Richard Nixon commuted his sentence. I didnt write Hugh up for anything and he said he didnt write me up. Then he assumed the Army initiated an investigation. Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? People should realize that when atrocities are committed like this and covered up, it degrades us all. I was on the backup team that day and we went out to try to retrieve the bodies. Andreotta died in action a few weeks later, but Thompson and Colburn were key witnesses in the investigations and trials to follow. Ronald L. Haeberle/U.S. I was encouraged in that there was an investigation going on and they were going after some people in a big way. Using hand signals, Mr. Thompson persuaded the Vietnamese to come out while ordering his gunner and his crew chief to shoot any American soldiers who opened fire on the civilians. We thought that was good, that they would be out of the way. He had a great rapport with enlisted men, as he had been one himself. Then again, it was a Saturday morning and they were possibly going to market. 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. 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. Larry Colburn was a door gunner with crew chief Glenn Andreotta and Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson as pilot of a small scout helicopter during a combat assault at the village of My Lai on March 16, 1968. He said: They are coming this way. He educatedhis children to act with discipline and integrity. In harsh times, heroes are ordinary men doing extraordinary things. In an interview first broadcast in 2004, Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian spoke to Mr. Thompsons father played a central role in his childrens education. Letters to the Editor: Hey, leave linoleum out of the DeSantis-Disney fight. I met Thompson in 2000 and interviewed him for my radio program on KPFK in Los Angeles. You found later that that wasnt true? Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. It was a case of bloodlust. Then He Assassinated a US President. I would be there from December 67 to December 68. As we flew around more, we started seeing small groups of people dead or dying in other parts of the village. Calley pointed his weapon at him and threatened him with a court-martial. . He was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. Oh, no, Mr. Thompson, let me see what we can do, he said. 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. When you see your lieutenant or captain initiate these things, some enlisted men on the ground are more likely to do the same thing. . Company C (Charlie Company), 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment of Task Force Barker, led by Captain Ernest Medina, moved into Sn M. As the wounded tried to crawl out, they were fired on by someone who had been left there to do just that. I just thank God everybody kept their cool and no one made any quick moves. Finally, the Army launched an inquiry. After the trial, Hugh Thompson received death threats. That aspect of it made me feel real good.. Following graduation, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served in a naval mobile construction battalion at Naval Air Station Atlanta, Georgia, as a heavy equipment operator. As far as a place in history, thats not something I dwell on. Hugh Thompson was a United States Army Major and a former warrant officer in the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Division who helped end the My Lai Massacre of the South Vietnamese village known as Sn M on March 16, 1968. That seemed suicidal to me, going out with next to no backup or firepower. We kept flying back and forth, Thompson recalled, and it didnt take very long until we started noticing the large number of bodies everywhere. If Hugh knew that, it would have made everything he went through worthwhile for him. We had thought there were two or three, but there were about 10 in the bunker. Thompson left the Army in 1983 and became a private helicopter pilot in the South. They waited until the sun went down and they crawled out of that ditch. Well, Hugh told them, if you just give it to me Ill take the medal, with a camera crew, to the first mens room I can find and Ill flush it down the toilet. This is a colonel he is talking to. Ive had PTSD issues for 42 years. We were very protective of the men on the ground. None did. And the Army company only stopped because Thompson literally put himself between the soldiers and the civilians and threatened to shoot them if they didnt end the killings. It has turned me into a cynic philosopher. Mr. Thompson told of what he had seen when he returned to his base. So, how did you guys feel when you got the Soldiers Medals in 1998? We know that Americans committed a massacre 50 years ago today; and we also know that an American stopped it. In harsh times, heroes are ordinary men doing extraordinary things. On March 16, 1968, did you have any expectations of serious action? From his helicopter, Hugh Thompson could not communicate with Charlie Company on the ground. 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. I didn't want to be a part of that. So I was not a good guy.. Amid a flurry of corporate earnings releases and somewhat lackluster market activity last week, an important milestone went largely unnoticed. What drove you to create the Hugh Thompson Foundation? View Hugh Thompson's professional profile on LinkedIn. Court-martial me, and he left his weapon and walked away. In addition to scholarly publications with top presses, she has written for Atlas Obscura and Ranker. Harry claimed a 'secret agreement' stopped him bringing hacking claims earlier I dont know, at the time I thought about creating a diversion, discharging my weapon in another direction. 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. He retired as a VA counselor in Louisiana. Hugh landed and ran over and told the sergeant, These are civilians, we got to help them out. The sergeant agreed, telling Hugh hed help themout of their misery. Hugh continued to argue, said they were no threat, they had no weapons. Like the trials, it was forced. 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 But remember, at My Lai only about a third of the men participated in the massacre, but no one else tried to stop it. This is not how this military organization supposed to conduct operations. Hugh Thompson reported the massacre to his commanding officer. I went back in 2008 for the 40th anniversary. For a while we were going out on snatch missions, where wed basically kidnap draft-age males and take them in for interrogations. Nearby, a squad of soldiers approached with weapons drawn. Calley had many supporters, who condemned and harassed Thompson. He had to make sure his mother, brother and sister, killed in the ditch, were buried properly. Did the word about what happened at My Lai get around? He remembered how Glenn would put him down and pick him back up as he checked on other victims in the ditch. On March 16, 1968, a company of U.S. soldiers stormed into the Vietnamese village of Sn M and began shooting. Are you guys with me?. So he called our low gunship, piloted by a friend of his, Dan Millans, and said: Danny, I need a favor. Jan Swango Emerson and Hugh Feiss, eds., Imagining Heaven in the Middle Ages (New York: Garland, 2000); . We also did a lot of recon missions and flying into free-fire zones to find enemy positions. 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. 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. 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. Indeed, for a time, Thompson himself feared court-martial. So, what do you make of Calleys apology last year? Im not judge, jury and executioner. When the American people responded as they did in defense of Calley, it was really hard, especially for Hugh. When I arrived at My Lai in 2008, no one knew where he was. 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. What about those who didnt stand up to evil in their midst? Yes. "Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. He left the aircraft in flight idle, as rotor blades can be somewhat intimidating. Thompson ran over and said, These are civilians, we got to help them out.. Instead, the Army hid the slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, including 182 women and 173 children. I think that is probably what has helped me get through it all. We went back to the ditch because we knew there were a lot of people there who could have been saved. When you see something like that happen, with no negative repercussions, you begin to think perhaps this is the method of operation. You had no radio contact with the men on the ground? Could you have just reported this and left, knowing youd at least made an effort? I wish I was, but I wont lie to anybody. I dont know how they found me, but I gave a brief interview, and it appeared with the Life magazine photo spread in December 1969. Hugh was running scenarios through his head to figure it out. And when Thomson reported the horrific actions, the Army tried to cover up the M Lai massacre. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. He found 69 between the ages of 4 and 7, and 91 between the ages of 8 and 12. Thompson and Colburn returned to Sn M to meet with survivors of the massacre at the Sn M Memorial in 1998. Thompson spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have saved more lives. Id received death threats over the phone, Thompson said in 2004. I thought someone else was getting recognition for something. Facebook gives people the power to. Hugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. When they started convicting people, I thought, now this is how it should unfold. How many of them went on to draw military pay and benefits? He started accusing me of being with CID. ), 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. Now that the dynamics have changed with Hugh passing, I understand now how difficult it was for him, carrying it around in his gut, alone. I told him everything and he didnt know how to respond, he had no idea how to deal with it. 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 . They were not running, but just slowly moving out of the village. Like most 18-year-old males I was nave, had no idea what risks were. I flew in the 23 as a gunner through that summer, then I asked about throwing my hat into ring for a gunship where there was a little more armor and security. They could communicate with the command craft that was flying at altitude. I have a few lined up at some universities this year. It took the Army 30 years, but in 1998, they finally acknowledged that Thompson had done something good. All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. He wanted to give us some idea of what were getting into. When did you meet Hugh Thompson? He is best known for his role in stopping the My Lai Massacre, in which a group of US Army soldiers tortured and killed several hundred unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mutilating their bodies after they had been murdered. We had different missions. I read the citation and thought what? Back at the base, Thompson threw his flight helmet on the ground. But many in the Army and the public supported Calley over Thompson. Traces the life of U.S. Army helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, who tried to stop the infamous My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War Genres NonfictionHistoryWar BiographyMilitary HistoryMilitary Fiction 248 pages, Hardcover First published May 1, 1999 Book details & editions About the author Trent Angers 40 books6 followers Friends Following Thompson was later promoted to Major, but Thompson was a Warrant Officer in his heroic acts. 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. HUGH THOMPSON'S TESTIMONY: I'm Hugh Thompson. Genevieve Carlton earned a Ph.D in history from Northwestern University with a focus on early modern Europe and the history of science and medicine before becoming a history professor at the University of Louisville. 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.

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