hugh thompson testimony

Does it worry you that it was, and remains, in our capacity to excuse or rationalize an atrocity like My Lai committed by Americans? We even started marking the wounded with smoke, thinking the men on ground would come assist them. When Hugh gave his order, I distinctly remember pointing my weapon directly down at the ground, so there was no question. Except for the boy, it appeared the rest were already dead. 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] What led you to enlist in the Army? On March 16, 1968, did you have any expectations of serious action? hb```,(qaB3W[ 4 `Tfc" QB\%xv{ You were a witness for the prosecution in the trials that followed? I now know why he wanted me to come with him to events. Still, Thompson had saved civilians who would have been killed if he had not intervened. Could you have just reported this and left, knowing youd at least made an effort? 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. Meet Hugh Thompson, The Hero Who Stopped The M Lai Massacre And Was Branded A Traitor For It. Sometimes we did and sometimes we didnt. Just then Glenn spotted some people in an earthen bunker, saw faces peering out of the entry. People need to know who Hugh Thompson was, what he did and why he did it. I was always comfortable as the sidekick and enjoyed the time with Hugh. U.S. ArmyHugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. "I cannot explain why it happened. In the Peers inquiry testimony, I believe there were 14 rapes that were reported. . I think that is probably what has helped me get through it all. The military was forced after an eight-year letter writing campaign by David Egan, a professor at Clemson University, and a businessman named William Cavanaugh. Finally, when the sergeant said OK, Hugh thought hed convinced him and got back in the helicopter and we pulled out. So, what do you make of Calleys apology last year? We had no direct radio contact with the men on the ground. He told me not to say anything to anybody, and just tell the truth when I got there. We didnt talk about it. In the midst of it, they had a conversation like this: Remember those old guys from Vietnam and what they told us back at Annapolis?. 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. For a while we were going out on snatch missions, where wed basically kidnap draft-age males and take them in for interrogations. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. He retired as a VA counselor in Louisiana. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. It was fresh enough that things hadnt changed much. One of the instructors told me a story that he wished Hugh could hear. Harry's phone-hacking testimony contained 'troubling factual inconsistencies', hacking judge says. How did you get to the 123rd Aviation Battalion? As he approached the soldiers, he told them to stop. What happened next was one of the most remarkable events of the entire war, and perhaps unique: Thompson told the American troops that, if they opened fire on the Vietnamese civilians in the bunker, he and his crew would open fire on them. And it turned out it was a good thing that they did. 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. I just thank God everybody kept their cool and no one made any quick moves. Medina and maybe higher. Today is the 50th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, when US soldiers raped and murdered 500 Vietnamese civilians and burned their homes. Yet in the midst of the chaos and bloodshed, one U.S. soldier followed his convictions. 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 the inquiries and received a commendation from the Army three decades later, died yesterday in Alexandria, La. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Ernest Medina and Lt. William Calley were court-martialed. The high gun stayed in the air and circled. At the time, I figured he was 3 or 4 years old, he was tiny. When I moved to the East Coast, I stopped at a VA hospital and had a list of things I thought I should get out. When did you make your report of what happened? As we watched from about 15 feet off the ground, back maybe 20 meters, we saw this captain approach the woman, look down at her, kick her, step back and then blow her away. That was the only enemy combatant we saw that day. That particular morning we were to provide reconnaissance for a ground operation that was going on in My Lai . Hugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. I guess thats the $64,000 question isnt it? Whats that make you, my buddy? So, just because guys served in the same theater doesnt necessarily mean we are all that close. When we would come back to those we marked, wed find they were now dead. At that point, Hugh realizes hes got an aircraft that wont accommodate them. Hugh was furious, ready to do anything to save these innocent people. What about those who didnt stand up to evil in their midst? So I was not a good guy.. We also want to carry on Hughs passionate advocacy for all veterans, not just Vietnam vets. Are you guys with me?. Any hesitation? "I threatened never to fly again. Hugh was the generals personal pilot. 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. I was hoping there would be justice, but what did it achieve? Thompson had become something of a professional witness. Landed the aircraft in between the Americans and the Vietnamese, told my crew chief and gunner to cover me, got out of the aircraft, went over to the American side.. Mr. Thompson worked as a veterans' counselor in Louisiana after leaving military service. I was a helicopter pilot that day, and I guess I was invited here to tell you about a day of my life. Nicholas Goldberg: Is God on the side of blasphemy laws? 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. I was back in Mount Vernon, outside Washington, and I got a call from my mother saying there were some people at the house who wanted to talk to me. You can imagine the emotions that surfaced. But to see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? You are the ones that deserve to be called American Soldiers. HOANG DINH NAM/AFP via Getty ImagesHugh Thompson returned to M Lai in 1998 and met some of the people he saved. How many men were in squad and were they threatening? 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. And yes, they did know that. Billy Waugh, Famed Special Forces Warrior and CIA Legend, Dies At 93. Thompson was vilified by many Americans for his testimony against United States Army personnel. 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 hope to link up with other organizations and grow some legs. Afterwards Thompson testified at the trial of Lt. William Calley, the commanding officer during the massacre. They waited until the sun went down and they crawled out of that ditch. The story of My Lai is well known: On the morning of March 16, 1968, a company of U.S. soldiers killed as many as 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in My Lai, a village in South Vietnam. We came to think we were indirectly killing these people ourselves by marking them with smoke. Everybody walked. Mr. Thompson told of what he had seen when he returned to his base. He left the aircraft in flight idle, as rotor blades can be somewhat intimidating. It wasn't war.". Well, I took the prescriptions, ripped them up into little pieces and walked out. He tried to persuade him to stop the attack but with no success. At some point they finally did call for a cease-fire, but by then it was too late. Im sorry. Hugh Thompson, who has died aged 62, was the helicopter pilot who tried to halt the My Lai massacre of more than 500 villagers by American troops during the Vietnam war . From his helicopter, Hugh Thompson could not communicate with Charlie Company on the ground. Larry Colburn talks about his late friend Hugh Thompson, the My Lai massacre, the subsequent cover up, investigations and trials, https://www.historynet.com/interview-larry-colburn-why-my-lai-hugh-thompson-matter/, Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot. Thompson kept testifying against the butchers of My Lai in hopes of securing justice for the civilians killed that day. And when Hugh Thompson testified against William Calley, the officer who ordered the massacre, Thompson received death threats. When Hugh asked me to come with him and report what had happened, he said: Just tell the truth. Hugh transmitted what he could to the low gun in hopes that it would get up to the commander and someone would make a decision to stop it. I went back in 2008 for the 40th anniversary. He was saying: Ill never fly again. In the middle of a firefight I was an E4, what was I to do? I didn't want to be a part of that. The sergeant waited until Thompson left and then fired on the helpless civilians. There could be a reason for doing it, or there could have simply been a complete breakdown in leadership. He is an amazing person made me cry just reading the research about him. Upon returning from the mission, Thompson reported what he had seen and experienced to his. Thompson was the first to communicate back to headquarters about the killing occurring on the ground. 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. But when he returned to his Stateside home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Thompson. ' Thompson recalled. How could I ever be prepared for something like that? PFC. They tried to make arrangements to get him there, but couldnt find him. Ultimately, it was a pubic relations move, they had to give the medal. Typically, when we post testimonies here on truthsaves, we're detailing conversion experiences. Do you think most people realize there was more than just the killing that was going on? By then I was a civilian and was trying to attend college on the GI Bill, but I kept getting subpoenas. Did the word about what happened at My Lai get around? Had you ever seen anything even approaching this before? Our purpose for being there was to protect them. To see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? Colburn said. You felt pretty vulnerable in that little helicopter. You still didnt understand what was actually happening? There was a guy at the ditch with Calley, shooting people not yet dead. 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. You found later that that wasnt true? 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. There was also testimony of absolute insanity. On the morning of March 16, 1968, the people of M Lai were making breakfast when soldiers stormed in. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Opinion: California wants more psychiatric detentions. It was Hugh and he told me that I would be getting orders to report to Washington. You saw him again in 2008? Indeed, for a time, Thompson himself feared court-martial. He told the story of what happened that day, when he and his two-man crew flew over My Lai, in support of troops who were looking for Viet Cong fighters. He said youre a plant arent you. The eyewitness testimony of Thompson and his surviving crew member helped convict Calley at a court-martial. No, but Hugh was sent on missions in his OH-23 with his back up another OH-23no gunshipsinto Dragon Valley, where there was rocket activity. Thompson landed his helicopter next to a ditch that contained 150 people many dead, but many others wounded and trying to escape. According to Miriam-Webster.com, the word "testimony means: proof or evidence that something exists or is true, firsthand authentication of a fact, an open acknowledgment, a public profession of religious experience . I wish we could have done more to thank him. In November 1970, the M Lai trials started and Hugh Thompson testified against William Calley. That morning was clear and as we came over a hilltop we saw a suspect in uniform with a pack, carrying a carbine in the middle of a rice paddy. So we continued our recon. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Hugh Thompson discover inside connections to recommended job . Ive had PTSD issues for 42 years. When I finally got in to see the guy, he was a major, he wouldnt make eye contact as I read my list. 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. Youve got to love this guy. 0 Justice Thompson was re-elected for additional six-year terms in 2000, 2006, and 2012. And I was just devastated. I didnt write Hugh up for anything and he said he didnt write me up. Nick Turse investigated violence in Vietnam against noncombatants for his book Kill Anything that Moves. He concluded after a decade of research in Pentagon archives and more than 100 interviews with American veterans and Vietnamese survivors that Americans killing civilians in Vietnam was pervasive and systematic. One soldier told him there had been a My Lai a month.. You started out on an OH-23 scout helicopter? I give credit to my sister Mary, who saw my condition when I came home. When I got to Vietnam I was attached to a headquarters company. The My Lai Massacre was and still is a huge, shameful event that will be hard for several generations to get past. Calley was the only person found guilty out of the 14 charged. .d,H2F That same day, the cover up started. US military helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson helped stop one of the most infamous massacres of the Vietnam War. There were real good highs, he told me, and very low lows. 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. When the American people responded as they did in defense of Calley, it was really hard, especially for Hugh. We had different missions. Central to the case prosecuted by the Civilian Complaint. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. My Lai massacre was a bloody stain of the Vietnam War, but one man changed the course of the battle and went from traitor to hero. They were not listening, so he did the unbelievable, he drew his own sidearm and pointed it at them. He angered some GIs as he tried to photograph them as they fondled the breasts of a fifteen-year-old Vietnamese girl. Then He Assassinated a US President. 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. Having redeemed himself for other peoples mistakes, his heroic act was written in US Military history. No. How do you think your story, of an event now long in the past, can make a difference? Spec Ops Magazine 2023 All Rights Reserved. The outcome of the trails was disgraceful, and Hugh and I saw that it was a sham. His final term would have expired in December 2018; he retired in January 2017. If they fire on these people, or fire on me while Im doing that, shoot em! Now Hugh really had no idea who or what was in that bunker, could have been an AK47 waiting for him there. Thats what keeps me going. For the sake of any kind of lame justice, they should have been put to death for their atrocities. I felt that my testimony validated Hughs, and that was why it was important. We were very protective of the men on the ground. %PDF-1.6 % I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. I was encouraged in that there was an investigation going on and they were going after some people in a big way. Everywhere wed look, wed see bodies. Hugh told me to keep my mouth shut and I did. And just sitting there saying, God, howd this happen? When I first joined the company, the commander took the volunteers to the flight line and showed us bullet holes in the aircraft and asked us if we knew what they were. He has had an impact on many young minds in the military. Since Hughs death, I have become the recipient of some of the hate mail he used to get. And he was a character, a real joker. As we flew around more, we started seeing small groups of people dead or dying in other parts of the village. We couldnt come up with an explanation until Hugh marked a woman we saw who had a chest wound and decided to just move back in a hover when we saw a squad coming near. I dont know who did what. He wanted to give us some idea of what were getting into. And then she finished her sentence: she said, So we could forgive them. Im not man enough to do that. Testimony to the Truth [Smyth, Reverend Hugh P.] on Amazon.com. Yes. Friends I had on the division level told me they were taking volunteers for the 123rd Aviation Battalion. They also reported the massacre to higher officers, who ordered the troops on the ground to stop. It couldnt be gunships, they werent firing on people. You and Hugh had a pretty low profile during and after the trials? No Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. I thought someone else was getting recognition for something. I figured, I was in the Army, so I should experience it where the action was. Join Facebook to connect with Hugh Thompson and others you may know. In front of Lt. Calley,Hugh Thompson was outranked. We loved those guys in the field. But I really didnt know what was going to happen or how to react. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. Oh, no, Mr. Thompson, let me see what we can do, he said. 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. However, Ive spoken to survivors on different occasions who had been at the bottom of the pile. In about 10-15 minutes we were back to the same spot where we saw the villagers on the road leaving. Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? From Testimony to Tragedy: My Lai in Personal Perspective Michael W. Flamm Michael W. Flamm Michael W. Flamm is professor of history at Ohio Wesleyan University. %%EOF When the officers take part in it, it just escalates things. He is still tiny, but he remembers everything. Jon Wiener is professor emeritus of history at UC Irvine, and working, with Mike Davis, on a book on Los Angeles in the 1960s. Wed talk a lot and if I was stressing I could always pick up the phone and Hugh could always talk me down. 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. Are you guys with me?. U.S. ArmyWilliam Calley, the officer who ordered the slaughter at M Lai. I think I may have been in shock to some extent. None. Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. I said Im not really at liberty to say. 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. No, we had no knowledge of who they were, we just knew they were Americans on the ground and we would have done anything for them. 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 took the Army 30 years, but in 1998, they finally acknowledged that Thompson had done something good. He showed no reaction at all. Id seen civilians get in the way and unfortunately lose their lives because of that. When Hugh realized it was our people doing this killing, he knew he had to take drastic measures. Mr. Thompson remained in combat, then returned to the United States to train helicopter pilots. And you want to instill the spirit of Thompson in others. I hope to take as many speaking engagements as I can. They were not running, but just slowly moving out of the village. 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. When he had a heart attack he said he would slow down, but he didnt. Larry Colburn talks about his late friend Hugh Thompson, the My Lai massacre, the subsequent cover up, investigations and trials. They were old women, old men, children, kids, babies., Then Thompson and his crew chief, Glenn Andreotta, and his gunner, Lawrence Colburn, saw some civilians hiding in a bunker, cowering, looking out the door. Were you prepared to fire on the squad? He remembered how Glenn would put him down and pick him back up as he checked on other victims in the ditch. How did you and Hugh reconcile what you knew happened with the outpouring of public support for Calley and his men? That aspect of it made me feel real good.. I think Task Force Barkers intent was to create panic and drive the enemy forces out of the area. When you see something like that happen, with no negative repercussions, you begin to think perhaps this is the method of operation. When it was all happening, the feeling I had was, if this is how Im going to die, Im OK with it. But one of things the most infuriating is being called a whistleblower, as if we went and ratted someone out. 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 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. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. It was denial on the part of the public, said Colburn. But remember, at My Lai only about a third of the men participated in the massacre, but no one else tried to stop it. ", Hugh Thompson, 62, Who Saved Civilians at My Lai, Dies, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/us/hugh-thompson-62-who-saved-civilians-at-my-lai-dies.html. First He Castrated Himself. I said, Thank you, sir, and went back to work. Where else in history has a massacre of civilians been stopped in the middle of the massacre? He started accusing me of being with CID. People should realize that when atrocities are committed like this and covered up, it degrades us all. After we took the boy to Quang Nai, we went back to our base, and Hugh Thompson and I reported to Colonel Oran Henderson. I saw them shoot an M79 [grenade launcher] into a group of people who were still alive, said Sgt. It is denial, a refusal to believe our young men could run amok the way they did. He made some notes on a legal pad and excused me and I left. I always thought the American people deserved to know what was going on and I just thought it was good the public got a color photo layout of what happened at My Lai. Probably not. 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.. The cause was cancer, Jay DeWorth, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center where Mr. Thompson died, told The Associated Press. He was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. Hugh Thompsons actions may be unique. But many in the Army and the public supported Calley over Thompson. Thompson told his crew, Im going to go over to the bunker myself and get these people out. I wanted to survive and get home. When we first saw him in 2001, he said all he wanted was to get out of Ho Chi Minh City where he worked in a factory at low wages, and get back to village and find a wife. Ronald L. Haeberle/U.S. 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. At first, I just felt shock. I just figured it was time to do something, to not let these people get killed. Jan Swango Emerson and Hugh Feiss, eds., Imagining Heaven in the Middle Ages (New York: Garland, 2000); . They could communicate with the command craft that was flying at altitude. View Hugh Thompson's professional profile on LinkedIn. Mercy Thompson, Testimony, Church of Christ in Missouri v. Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 70 F. 179 (8th Cir. Who were the people lying in the roads and in the ditch, wounded and killed? 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. Ive tried to put myself in their position, tried to empathize. Michael Bernhardt, who was at M Lai. 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. How do you intend to spread the word about the foundation? We came across a ditch, with probably 150 or more people in it and the wounded trying to crawl out.

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