hugh thompson testimony hugh thompson testimony

before the subcommittee, and then refused to release the transcripts of the testimony. The dead were women, old men and children. But many in the Army and the public supported Calley over Thompson. They also reported the massacre to higher officers, who ordered the troops on the ground to stop. Wed 11 Jan 2006 08.06 EST. But Ive had my episodes. It was absurd, but you have to be willing to pay the price. You felt pretty vulnerable in that little helicopter. Youve got to love this guy. %PDF-1.6 % When it was all happening, the feeling I had was, if this is how Im going to die, Im OK with it. 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. Thompson was buried in Lafayette, Louisiana, with full military honors, including a three-volley salute and a helicopter flyover. Thompson had become something of a professional witness. So he gave me prescriptions for several psychotropic drugs. Among those numbers were 17 pregnant women and 56 infants. 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. It is amazing to see the strength of the human spirit. He also wanted to be able to get out quickly if need be. When they started convicting people, I thought, now this is how it should unfold. I give credit to my sister Mary, who saw my condition when I came home. Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai in 1998 and met some of the people he saved. The cause was cancer, Jay DeWorth, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center where Mr. Thompson died, told The Associated Press. Central to the case prosecuted by the Civilian Complaint. At the same time, judging from Hendersons reactionhe seemed almost nonchalant, like it was just another day at the office. It had to be. How many men were in squad and were they threatening? Innocent people didnt die that day They didnt just fly off the handle and engage a target that was borderline. "Something terrible happened here 30 years ago today," Mr. Thompson was quoted as saying by CNN. You know, you think everybody feels you and you can ignore your own symptoms. They were finally recognized for the heroic act they did. Hugh was furious, ready to do anything to save these innocent people. Some peoplepublicly stated that they felt Thompson was the only soldier at My Lai who should be punished (for turning his weapons on fellow American troops) and wanted to see him court-martialed for his actions at My Lai. I told him everything and he didnt know how to respond, he had no idea how to deal with it. He was evacuated to a hospital in Japan and began a long rehabilitation period. Likewise, what Hugh did has been ignored or glossed over in history texts, much the same way the incident has been. This fella stood up and said: Fuck you. ArmyThe bodies of massacred villagers at M Lai, as captured by a U.S. Army photographer. 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. Today is the 50th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, when US soldiers raped and murdered 500 Vietnamese civilians and burned their homes. Upon returning from the mission, Thompson reported what he had seen and experienced to his. Hood and my CO called me in, said I had a phone call. They tried to make arrangements to get him there, but couldnt find him. 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. This thread is archived New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast 73K 94 2.4K 2.4K comments Best artnaqent 1 yr. ago Standing up for what's right, shouldn't be as hard as that. As he told The Associated Press in 2004: "Don't do the right thing looking for a reward, because it might not come. In front of Lt. Calley,Hugh Thompson was outranked. No. I flew from Ft. Hugh Thompson Jr. was a twenty-five-year-old helicopter pilot and Army warrants officer. The villagers offered no resistance as U.S. soldiers shoved them into a ditch and opened fire with machine guns. It is denial, a refusal to believe our young men could run amok the way they did. They were going to kill more, but they didnt because of what Thompson did. Im going to go over to the bunker myself and get these people out. Hugh Thompson is a genuine, bone-fide hero of the Vietnam war, protecting hundreds from being massacred by US troops at My Lai. Whats that make you, my buddy? So, just because guys served in the same theater doesnt necessarily mean we are all that close. When you see your lieutenant or captain initiate these things, some enlisted men on the ground are more likely to do the same thing. Hannah's Testimony. As the wounded tried to crawl out, they were fired on by someone who had been left there to do just that. Mr. Thompson worked as a veterans' counselor in Louisiana after leaving military service. But it was mostly done with a machine gun. Before the story broke, did you or Hugh consider going public with the story? We never thought we were heroes. Are you guys with me?. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. The second time, he touched down near a bunker in which a group of about 10 civilians were being menaced by American troops. How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. 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. We thought that was good, that they would be out of the way. Saw some advancing Americans coming that way. Did you expect something would be done as a result? These people are going to die, Thompson said to his crew. 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. How did you feel about that? He angered some GIs as he tried to photograph them as they fondled the breasts of a fifteen-year-old Vietnamese girl. 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. We had thought there were two or three, but there were about 10 in the bunker. Instead, the Army hid the slaughter of hundreds of innocent people, including 182 women and 173 children. The only radio communication we had was with the low gunship. But it turns out he was 8. Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot, had threatened to fire on the American troops in order to rescue Vietnamese women and children from the slaughter. He knew the importance of getting people who are struggling the attention they need so they can transition back into civilian life and deal with problems, be they physical or emotional. But he didnt even draw a sidearm as he walked up to the bunker and motioned to the people to come out. Id received death threats over the phone, Thompson said in 2004. In about 10-15 minutes we were back to the same spot where we saw the villagers on the road leaving. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Hugh Thompson discover inside connections to recommended job . After evacuating the people, you thought you could do more? Who were the people lying in the roads and in the ditch, wounded and killed? Hugh Clowers Thompson, Jr. (April 15, 1943 - January 6, 2006) was a United States Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. 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.. I didnt write Hugh up for anything and he said he didnt write me up. Hugh Thompson and his crew rescued a surviving child whom they flew to the nearest field hospital. As we found out from the farce of justice being served via trials of the monsters responsible, politicians and their cronies cant be trusted either. 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. Was this part of the cover up? It went on like that for another year and half until finally they agreed to award medals to all of us. And they recommended charging 28 officers for the massacre and coverup. At that point, Hugh realizes hes got an aircraft that wont accommodate them. The monsters involved in this Massacre are surely going to hell no matter if theyve led a squeaky-clean life since then. Hugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. I think it is deception, and that remains constant today. Harry's phone-hacking testimony contained 'troubling factual inconsistencies', hacking judge says. Only he would have known that. I think he broke his flight helmet, he threw it down so hard. He is still tiny, but he remembers everything. There was also testimony of absolute insanity. I was always comfortable as the sidekick and enjoyed the time with Hugh. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. The citation, bestowed in a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, said the three crewmen landed "in the line of fire between American ground troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians to prevent their murder.". I just figured it was time to do something, to not let these people get killed. He found 69 between the ages of 4 and 7, and 91 between the ages of 8 and 12. The Army covered it up, but the facts eventually came to light and the responsible officer, Capt. Then he assumed the Army initiated an investigation. In the Peers inquiry testimony, I believe there were 14 rapes that were reported. They were face to face, screaming at each other. As United States citizens, as representatives of the one country in this world that is supposed to protect human life, they are ones to be ashamed of, to be shunned, to be branded traitors. Anyone can read what you share. Unfortunately, Lt. Calley and the rest of Company C never paid the price for the atrocities they committed. It took the Army 30 years, but in 1998, they finally acknowledged that Thompson had done something good. You still didnt understand what was actually happening? 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. He walked about 50 meters and encountered the lieutenant who was leading the squad. . I walked in and told Henderson we saw unnecessary killing of many civilians. There were probably 10 in the squad. I enjoyed that. Thompson continued to fly and was hit eight times, in four of which incidents the aircraft was lost. They were not running, but just slowly moving out of the village. We hope to link up with other organizations and grow some legs. 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. Thompson felt obliged to return to military service when the Vietnam War began. An army helicopter piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson arrived in the My Lai vicinity about 9 a.m. Thompson noticed dead and dying civilians all over the village. Our purpose for being there was to protect them. 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. It was a dime short and day late for Hugh, 30 years after the factafter causing him griefthen theyre going to call him a hero? The My Lai story and Hugh Thompsons role in it is really important, but do you find most people are unaware of it? For hours, they raped, mutilated, and slaughtered innocent civilians until a helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson Jr. put his own life on the line to stop the massacre. The alternative was to be in an infantry unit, and I was told it would be a good idea to attach to an aviation company, better odds there. He tried to explain that these people appeared to be civilians, that we hadnt taken any fire and there was no evidence of combatants in that area. I waited in the hospital waiting room for about four hours to see a psychologist. So he called our low gunship, piloted by a friend of his, Dan Millans, and said: Danny, I need a favor. Hugh said, No, lets do it at the Wall. They said no, the weather might be bad or something. And he was a character, a real joker. So I was not a good guy.. A sergeant stood by the ditch. We were told by the prosecuting attorneys to keep our mouths shut, and I didnt advertise the fact I was at My Lai. When the orders came down, the CO called me into his office and demanded to know what they were for. You must have had some post-traumatic stress after your experience in Vietnam. And the people guilty of committing war crimes should have been dealt with. I have a few lined up at some universities this year. And you want to instill the spirit of Thompson in others. But when he returned to his Stateside home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Thompson. Then came the backlash. You and Hugh had the opportunity to tell your stories to young military officers. He threw his weapon down and said he wasnt going to do it. 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. Id never seen nor heard of anything like that before, except in World War II. Had you ever seen anything even approaching this before? Hell, I didnt want to believe it, either, but I had no choice because I saw it.. Sorry thats not what we did and I dont care what they think of me. PFC. I felt that my testimony validated Hughs, and that was why it was important. After the initial shock, I think some sort of a defensive mechanism kicked in. Facebook gives people the power to. Calley had many supporters, who condemned and harassed Thompson. Then, in 1998, the Army awarded him the Soldiers Medal for heroism. 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. And although he lived with post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, and nightmare disorder for decades, he eventually became a veterans counselor for the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs. We know that Americans committed a massacre 50 years ago today; and we also know that an American stopped it. Whenever I felt discouraged about things, Hugh would remind me that if we get through to just one person, its worth it. Hugh Thompson reported the massacre to his commanding officer. Thompson was more experienced than Lt. Calley, more ethical, more talented, and brighter, and probably recognized Calley didnt know what he was doing. Hood were returnees, but no one really zeroed in on what was happening. 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. Thompson spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have saved more lives. Wed talk a lot and if I was stressing I could always pick up the phone and Hugh could always talk me down. But I really didnt know what was going to happen or how to react. The lieutenant told him to mind his own business and get out of the way. At the time, I figured he was 3 or 4 years old, he was tiny. While the massacre took place, helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his crew flew over the jungle, offering air support. endstream endobj startxref Thats unlikely to improve anyones mental health, Letters to the Editor: Yes, we need to talk about Bidens age. Thompson spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have saved more lives. I knew General Peers had gotten in touch with Hugh and took him back over to the scene of the crime. 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. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? Mr. Thompson, you and Mr. Colburn are indeed the heroes in this sordid story and I am ashamed at how they were treated. You risked your lives, I said, to protect those Vietnamese civilians., Well, it didnt come to that, he replied. We want to recognize people in the military and all walks of life who really make difficult decisions the way Hugh did. His final term would have expired in December 2018; he retired in January 2017. Were you glad you got it? Since Hughs death, I have become the recipient of some of the hate mail he used to get. It was in their hands. Hugh told her he probably didnt have any family left. This ended his combat career in Vietnam. I stayed on gunships for rest of my time in Vietnam. Typically, when we post testimonies here on truthsaves, we're detailing conversion experiences. And I was just devastated. Hugh came back to the aircraft and because we had flight helmets on and the aircraft was running, we had to literally put our heads together as Hugh shouted instructions. 187 0 obj <>/Filter/FlateDecode/ID[<24715D214BB8264D9C081C2824AD5AA6><5B5B6AB10B516B4B92CEE481B23C2455>]/Index[171 29]/Info 170 0 R/Length 83/Prev 54619/Root 172 0 R/Size 200/Type/XRef/W[1 2 1]>>stream Even though the military has admitted to the massacre, many people are not capable of acknowledging and processing that information. I had an administrative MOS and was ordered to Hawaii where I was working as a courier. Except for the boy, it appeared the rest were already dead. At first, I just felt shock. To this day I cant remember exactly about that day reporting to Henderson. 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. Thompson was the first to communicate back to headquarters about the killing occurring on the ground. As he approached the soldiers, he told them to stop. Through the years, he continued to speak out, having been invited to West Point and other military installations to tell of the moral and legal obligations of soldiers in wartime. By this time, Lt. William Calleys Charlie Company was reaching My Lai? Wed done what we could. Just because you tell the truth, it doesnt mean everything always come up roses. 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. I lost faith in the whole military organization and wanted to put it all behind me. But I still dont think the topic really gets the exposure it really needs. As I understand, that part of brain doesnt develop until 25. 199 0 obj <>stream Many fellow GIs still dont think you did the right thing? The My Lai Massacre was and still is a huge, shameful event that will be hard for several generations to get past. So, he decided to do something. When we would come back to those we marked, wed find they were now dead. 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. I think I may have been in shock to some extent. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. 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. Back at the base, Thompson threw his flight helmet on the ground. 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. This is not what Im here for. I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. I believe Glenn got a Bronze Star too. As far as a place in history, thats not something I dwell on. The troops also burned the village and Sn Ms surrounding hamlets to the ground and slaughtered the livestock. We didnt talk about it. So, what do you make of Calleys apology last year? No, because the commander was on a different frequency. I flew with him dozens of times and saw sporadic action. What drove you to create the Hugh Thompson Foundation? It was fresh enough that things hadnt changed much. How many of them were paid and paid well to rape and murder innocent babies, children, women and men? They didnt want to. Did you have a sense that what you had seen at My Lai was and isolated incident or did you suspect similar atrocities were happening elsewhere? But one of things the most infuriating is being called a whistleblower, as if we went and ratted someone out. 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. Everywhere wed look, wed see bodies. To see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? Colburn said. Interview - Larry Colburn: Why My Lai, Hugh Thompson Matter. You saw him again in 2008? 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. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. Yes. Im a garden-variety human being and thats all there is to it. 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. All of the investigations led to nothing, Hugh and I felt like all three trials were just window dressing. On March 16, 1968, Chief Warrant Officer Thompson and his two crewmen were flying on a reconnaissance mission over the South Vietnamese village of My Lai when they spotted the bodies of men, women and children strewn over the landscape. Mercy Thompson, Testimony, Church of Christ in Missouri v. Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 70 F. 179 (8th Cir. There was a guy at the ditch with Calley, shooting people not yet dead. They were taking volunteers for the 11th Brigade. I was a helicopter pilot that day, and I guess I was invited here to tell you about a day of my life. Mr. Thompson landed twice in an effort to determine what was happening, finally coming to the realization that a massacre was taking place. We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere, he told me, people on the road dead, wounded. They were not listening, so he did the unbelievable, he drew his own sidearm and pointed it at them. The sergeant waited until Thompson left and then fired on the helpless civilians. All content is protected by copyright and may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written permission. He has had an impact on many young minds in the military. Were you vilified or the target of death threats the way Hugh Thompson was? We kept flying back and forth, Thompson recalled, and it didnt take very long until we started noticing the large number of bodies everywhere. He said youre a plant arent you. We started thinking what might have happened, but you didnt want to accept that thought, Thompson said in a 2000 interview, because if you accepted it, that means your own fellow Americans, people you were there to protect, were doing something very evil.. Testimony to the Truth They got some people to listen, and then there were others in the Pentagon trying to put it at the bottom of the stack. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Justice Thompson was re-elected for additional six-year terms in 2000, 2006, and 2012. Jon Wiener is professor emeritus of history at UC Irvine, and working, with Mike Davis, on a book on Los Angeles in the 1960s. It was denial on the part of the public, said Colburn. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. On the morning of March 16, 1968, the people of M Lai were making breakfast when soldiers stormed in. Ill have no part of this, Ill tear these wings off and never fly again!. 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. The eyewitness testimony of Thompson and his surviving crew member helped convict Calley at a court-martial. 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?. Charlie Company arrived in M Lai with orders to destroy the village. You can imagine the emotions that surfaced. Hugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. 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] He started accusing me of being with CID. That same day, the cover up started. Hugh said that was OK, because that was the appropriate place. How did you get to the 123rd Aviation Battalion? Yet in the midst of the chaos and bloodshed, one U.S. soldier followed his convictions. If Hugh knew that, it would have made everything he went through worthwhile for him. by Vietnam magazine 2/7/2011. Thompson acted more instinctively, given his morals, character, and military training. That particular morning we were to provide reconnaissance for a ground operation that was going on in My Lai . Could you have just reported this and left, knowing youd at least made an effort? Would I have? What would I have done if I were a man on the ground? Thompson and his crew managed to evacuate the civilians and stop the massacre. They couldnt have been killed by artillery. . As we flew around more, we started seeing small groups of people dead or dying in other parts of the village. The Army covered it up. Bettmann/Getty ImagesHugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. I wanted to survive and get home. I read the citation and thought what? At some point they finally did call for a cease-fire, but by then it was too late. We are inundated with information but we are not very well informed. It was like he dropped out of the sky. Did the boy have a recollection of March 16, 1968? Letters to the Editor: Hey, leave linoleum out of the DeSantis-Disney fight. Hugh struggled, but you see the people who survived are still in the same village, doing what they do. After Hugh died, I was invited to Annapolis to speak one more time. No. 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. When Hugh realized it was our people doing this killing, he knew he had to take drastic measures, recalled Larry Colburn, a gunner on Thompsons crew. Back at their base he filed a complaint about the killing of civilians that he had witnessed. First He Castrated Himself. 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 . Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. I testified in the trials of Henderson, Medina and Calley. I just thank God everybody kept their cool and no one made any quick moves. 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. People should realize that when atrocities are committed like this and covered up, it degrades us all. Some of Calleys men didnt follow Calleys orders and did nothing. It can be disturbing. Hugh said: These people are going to die. Ernest Medina and Lt. William Calley were court-martialed. I have come to understand him more now than I did when he was here. This meant that military prosecutors would be prohibited from calling those persons as witnesses . Thompson testified about the massacre in the U.S. government's military trials, but according to author Trent Angers, two Congressmen who were working in concert with Nixon, managed to seal that. If there was anything that was cleansing for me that was it. He educatedhis children to act with discipline and integrity. We came in from altitude down to low level. Michael Bernhardt, who was at M Lai. But eventually the journalist Seymour Hersh found out about the massacre, and his report made it worldwide news and a turning point in the war. Testimony of Dr. Hugh Thompson, HTA Engineering (Expert Witness) (Exhibit Allegra-10) Exhibit Allegra-10 includes Survey Notes and 12 photographs taken by HTA Engineering on January 12, 2010. I am sorry this world has lost you. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. ", 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.