So we continued our recon. Testimony to the Truth [Smyth, Reverend Hugh P.] on Amazon.com. Well, it wasnt really an apology, was it? 171 0 obj <> endobj 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. When Hugh gave his order, I distinctly remember pointing my weapon directly down at the ground, so there was no question. I looked at them and the first thing I saw was, Reason: to conduct necessary military business. So thats all I would tell the CO. They could communicate with the command craft that was flying at altitude. Hood were returnees, but no one really zeroed in on what was happening. Only he would have known that. 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. Larry Colburn talks about his late friend Hugh Thompson, the My Lai massacre, the subsequent cover up, investigations and trials. When I got to Vietnam I was attached to a headquarters company. Glenn shouted, Hes firing into the ditch again!, How did Hugh react when reason failed? On March 6, 1998, the Army presented the Soldier's Medal, for heroism not involving conflict with an enemy, to Mr. Thompson; to his gunner, Lawrence Colburn; and, posthumously, to Mr. Andreotta, who was killed in a helicopter crash three weeks after the My Lai massacre. At the time, I figured he was 3 or 4 years old, he was tiny. I thought someone else was getting recognition for something. The conclusion Hugh and I came to was they were trying to keep us quiet by giving us a phony award. We started noticing these large numbers of bodies everywhere, he told me, people on the road dead, wounded. Hugh Clowers Thompson, Jr. (April 15, 1943 - January 6, 2006) was a United States Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. They got some people to listen, and then there were others in the Pentagon trying to put it at the bottom of the stack. I was 17 when I enlisted in 1966 with some friends. He walked about 50 meters and encountered the lieutenant who was leading the squad. 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. Thompson continued to fly and was hit eight times, in four of which incidents the aircraft was lost. What did you see when first flying over My Lai? Like most 18-year-old males I was nave, had no idea what risks were. 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. 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. 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. Billy Waugh, Famed Special Forces Warrior and CIA Legend, Dies At 93. 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. Today is the 50th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, when US soldiers raped and murdered 500 Vietnamese civilians and burned their homes. Back at the base, Thompson threw his flight helmet on the ground. Hugh told her he probably didnt have any family left. If its not sincere, it doesnt mean anything. In 1999, Thompson and Colburn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. Ill have no part of this, Ill tear these wings off and never fly again!. 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! We are developing the concept of a Hugh Thompson Medallion to do that. That was a point of no return for Thompson? I may have clipped him but he made it to the trees. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Of course anyone thinking of making a career in the military probably pretended they never heard anything. It was absurd, but you have to be willing to pay the price. 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. 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. I read the citation and thought what? 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. If they fire on these people, or fire on me while Im doing that, shoot em!. Court-martial me, and he left his weapon and walked away. This is not what Im here for. A sergeant stood by the ditch. There were probably 10 in the squad. I remember wearing the same fatigues and they were pretty much covered with blood stains from carrying the boy and being in that ditch. I had an administrative MOS and was ordered to Hawaii where I was working as a courier. As he approached the soldiers, he told them to stop. They were not listening, so he did the unbelievable, he drew his own sidearm and pointed it at them. Sometimes we did and sometimes we didnt. While the massacre took place, helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his crew flew over the jungle, offering air support. I thought Hugh would pull it off, when I saw some pull their rucksacks off and leave it to the lieutenant to have it out with Hugh. The photos document the free, unobstructed flow of water through the easement area between the base of the dam and the drop inlets on the Hugh Thompson died in 2006, when he was only 62. Mr. Thompson landed twice in an effort to determine what was happening, finally coming to the realization that a massacre was taking place. He was very helpful to General Peers and it seemed like he wasnt just going through the motions, it was like he really wanted to know what happened. 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. He wanted to give us some idea of what were getting into. To see people herded up like so many animals, marched into a ditch and machine-gunned? Colburn said. That seemed suicidal to me, going out with next to no backup or firepower. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. They interviewed Hugh Thompson and his crew. That aspect of it made me feel real good.. Ive tried to put myself in their position, tried to empathize. We didnt talk about it. "Something terrible happened here 30 years ago today," Mr. Thompson was quoted as saying by CNN. PFC. What about those who didnt stand up to evil in their midst? There was some chatter since most of the people at Ft. Where else in history has a massacre of civilians been stopped in the middle of the massacre? If you are an American who thinks all of our foreign policy and actions over the years is as pure as the driven snow, well that is just not reality. 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. 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. Then he assumed the Army initiated an investigation. They were not running, but just slowly moving out of the village. I walked in and told Henderson we saw unnecessary killing of many civilians. Nobody would be held responsible. If we would have had direct contact, we could have told them that these people are unarmed, no threat. He just lateraled the ball to Medina. And he was a character, a real joker. So I was not a good guy.". Weve been accused of many things, of being traitors. At the age of 62, after extensive cancer treatment, Thompson was removed from life support and died on January 6, 2006, at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Pineville, Louisiana. Hugh struggled, but you see the people who survived are still in the same village, doing what they do. I think Task Force Barkers intent was to create panic and drive the enemy forces out of the area. Thats what keeps me going. 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 . Thompson was the first to communicate back to headquarters about the killing occurring on the ground. %PDF-1.6 % Having redeemed himself for other peoples mistakes, his heroic act was written in US Military history. With Hugh, usually the more tense the situation, the more comical he would be. 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. In the last incident, his helicopter was brought down by enemy machine-gun fire, and he broke his back in the resulting crash landing. Were you glad you got it? %%EOF 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. It was about six months ago that the S&P 500 dipped . The dead were women, old men and children. 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. He started accusing me of being with CID. Wed 11 Jan 2006 08.06 EST. You are not comfortable with being called a hero, either? Had you ever seen anything even approaching this before? 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, a pilot of the 123rd Aviation Battalion of the 23rd Americal Division, flew an observational helicopter supporting Task Force Barker on March 16, 1968. We also want to carry on Hughs passionate advocacy for all veterans, not just Vietnam vets. When you see something like that happen, with no negative repercussions, you begin to think perhaps this is the method of operation. He was saying: Ill never fly again. Upon entering Sn M, officers and soldiers of Company C moved through the Song My Village and vicinity, murdering civilians, raping women, and setting fire to huts. The outcome of the trails was disgraceful, and Hugh and I saw that it was a sham.