Pilot Hugh Thompson, Door Gunners Glenn Andreotta & Lawrence Colburn: The Heroes of My Lai, 1968
In November 1969, America learned about a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by US troops. Several newspapers carried the report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. The massacre occurred on March 16, 1968 at an obscure village called My Lai. Three soldiers tried to stop the carnage. http://pierretristam.com/Bobst/library/wf-200.htm
30 years after My Lai, OH-23 Raven helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his door gunners Glenn Andreotta & Lawrence Colburn, were awarded the Soldier’s Medal, the Army’s highest award for non-combat action (“heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy“). Andreotta’s medal was awarded posthumously because he died shortly after My Lai when his helicopter was shot down:
“Warrant Officer Thompson landed his helicopter in the line of fire between fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pursuing American around troops to prevent their murder. He then personally confronted the leader of the American ground troops and was prepared to open fire on those American troops should they fire upon the civilians. Warrant Officer Thompson, at the risk of his own personal safety, went forward of the American lines and coaxed the Vietnamese civilians out of the bunker to enable their evacuation. Leaving the area after requesting and overseeing the civilians’ air evacuation, his crew spotted movement in a ditch filled with bodies south of My Lai Four. Warrant Officer Thompson again landed his helicopter and covered his crew as they retrieved a wounded child from the pile of bodies. He then flew the child to the safety of a hospital at Quang Ngai. Warrant Officer Thompson’s relayed radio reports of the massacre and subsequent report to his section leader and commander resulted in an order for the cease fire at My Lai and an end to the killing of innocent civilians.” http://www.usna.edu/Ethics/_files/documents/ThompsonPg1-28_Final.pdf
Thompson reports the following exchange when he confronted Lt. Calley on the ground at My Lai in 1968:
“Thompson: What’s going on here, Lieutenant?
Calley: This is my business.
Thompson: What is this? Who are these people?
Calley: Just following orders.
Thompson: Orders? Whose orders?
Calley: Just following…
Thompson: But, these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.
Calley: Look Thompson, this is my show. I’m in charge here. It ain’t your concern.
Thompson: Yeah, great job.
Calley: You better get back in that chopper and mind your own business.
Thompson: You ain’t heard the last of this!
The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story, pp 119–120, Angers, 1999
In a 1998 interview with Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, Wallace quoted Captain Medina (Lt. Calley’s CO) who in 1969 said:
“We had lost a lot of good people that had served their country in Vietnam in a mine field, due to sniper fire, due to mines and booby traps. The entire area was heavily infested with mines and booby traps. When infantrymen approach an area, the women and children will place these things out.”
Thompson responded:
“And I suppose he believes the theory if you don’t want those mines and booby traps planted, it’s okay to kill every child and woman. I just don’t feel that way. We have a different opinion on that, obviously”
Thompson added”
“What do you call it when you march 100 or 200 people down in a ditch and line up on the side with machine guns and start firing into it? Reminds me of another story that happened in World War II, about the Nazis.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/return-to-my-lai/
In 1969, Thompson was rewarded for his action at My Lai by being called a traitor by some blowhard congressman:
“In November the following year, Thompson finally testified and was vilified by high ranking members of the military, as well as various senators. Congressman Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, even accused him of being a traitor to his country and unsuccessfully attempted to have him court-martialed….Back home “I’d received death threats over the phone,” he told the CBS News program “60 Minutes” in 2004. “Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. So I was not a good guy.” https://www.warhistoryonline.com/reviews/raf-camera-1950s-review.html
In an interview with the Seattle Times, Door Gunner Lawrence Colburn recalled:
Thompson said “I’m going to go over and get them out of the bunker myself. If the squad opens up on them, shoot ’em.”
Colburn also said:
“Oh, the children. That’s what struck all of us. It appeared to be automatic weapons fire, small arms, from pretty close range. When a high-velocity round hits a child, there’s not a lot of mass there and yeah, it was grotesque. Sure. Babies. Lying with their mothers and grandmothers. Baskets right there.
That’s when Mr. Thompson, we all, started trying to figure out what happened. The last thing we wanted to admit to ourselves was that it was our own men.
People had been herded up systematically, made to get down in this irrigation ditch, and they were executed. We started marking some of the bodies that were still alive with green smoke, (dropping smoke grenades from the helicopter) so the medics on the ground could help them. We marked this one woman who had chest wounds. She was moving one arm, feebly, asking for help, so we marked her. Mr. Thompson backed up 20, 30 feet and hovered there 10 feet off the ground because he saw a soldier coming over to her. That was (Capt. Ernest) Medina. We pointed down to her. He kicked her, stepped back and blew her away right in front of us. That’s when we simultaneously said something like: “You son of a bitch.” Then we knew. The mystery was solved. It was people from Charlie Company.”
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20020310&slug=pgunner10
After being taken off life support, Thompson died of cancer in 2006 at a VA Hospital in Louisiana. Colburn was at his bedside.
Lawrence Colburn passed away in 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/world/asia/larry-colburn-my-lai-massacre-dies.html
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