hugh thompson testimony hugh thompson testimony

He retired as a VA counselor in Louisiana. He educatedhis children to act with discipline and integrity. As I understand, that part of brain doesnt develop until 25. We had no direct radio contact with the men on the ground. This fella stood up and said: Fuck you. 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. From his helicopter, Hugh Thompson could not communicate with Charlie Company on the ground. It has turned me into a cynic philosopher. 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. Ever reflect about how you are part of an event of such historical significance? 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 Interestingly, there are those toying with the idea of inviting him to make the trip back to My Lai to ask for the people there for forgiveness. Thats unlikely to improve anyones mental health, Letters to the Editor: Yes, we need to talk about Bidens age. We are inundated with information but we are not very well informed. Exactly what you saw. Since we were sitting shoulder to shoulder, we saw virtually the very same things. These people are going to die, Thompson said to his crew. I was hoping there would be justice, but what did it achieve? You started out on an OH-23 scout helicopter? 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. endstream endobj startxref And Hugh said, What about my crew? They said they didnt have any intention for awards of the crew. No, because the commander was on a different frequency. That was a point of no return for Thompson? Hugh Clowers Thompson Sr. was an electrician who served in the United States Navy during World War II. I didn't want to be a part of that. First He Castrated Himself. After My Lai, did you feel traumatized or feel like you carried a huge burden? It couldnt be gunships, they werent firing on people. As we flew around more, we started seeing small groups of people dead or dying in other parts of the village. They landed their helicopter between the American forces and the civilians, and they trained their guns on the advancing Americans. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Probably not. Since Hughs death, I have become the recipient of some of the hate mail he used to get. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. They didnt want to. And on the 30th anniversary of the massacre, Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai. William Calley, the officer who ordered the slaughter at M Lai. In 1999, Thompson and Colburn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. While the massacre took place, helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson and his crew flew over the jungle, offering air support. Nobody would be held responsible. There was a sergeant standing by the ditch by himself. Hood to give testimony in the basement war room of the Pentagon. Thompson felt obliged to return to military service when the Vietnam War began. He remembered how Glenn would put him down and pick him back up as he checked on other victims in the ditch. In the Peers inquiry testimony, I believe there were 14 rapes that were reported. These were infants, two-, three-, four-, five-year-olds, women, very old men, no draft-age people whatsoever.. We took him out of the area to a hospital and gave him to a nun. They were not combatants. Nearby, a squad of soldiers approached with weapons drawn. They were face to face, screaming at each other. Glenn went down into the ditch and found the boy that he had seen moving and handed him up to me. He wanted to give us some idea of what were getting into. 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. Weve been accused of many things, of being traitors. Thompson was later promoted to Major, but Thompson was a Warrant Officer in his heroic acts. I lost faith in the whole military organization and wanted to put it all behind me. 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 Ernest Medina and Lt. William Calley were court-martialed. 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. I flew with him dozens of times and saw sporadic action. We were the closest and should have been able to communicate, but thats the way it was structured. I now know why he wanted me to come with him to events. Any hesitation? 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. 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] As the wounded tried to crawl out, they were fired on by someone who had been left there to do just that. He started accusing me of being with CID. You had no radio contact with the men on the ground? Among those numbers were 17 pregnant women and 56 infants. Were you talking about this at the time? There were probably 10 in the squad. At some point they finally did call for a cease-fire, but by then it was too late. Wed 11 Jan 2006 08.06 EST. Glenn said, If we are going to do something, we better do it right now! So Hugh lands right between the approaching squad and the bunker. Thompson was more experienced than Lt. Calley, more ethical, more talented, and brighter, and probably recognized Calley didnt know what he was doing. What drove you to create the Hugh Thompson Foundation? 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. You still didnt understand what was actually happening? Thompson was vilified by many Americans for his testimony against United States Army personnel. Thompson spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have saved more lives. On March 16, 1968, did you have any expectations of serious action? The cause was cancer, Jay DeWorth, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center where Mr. Thompson died, told The Associated Press. Oh, no, Mr. Thompson, let me see what we can do, he said. When you see something like that happen, with no negative repercussions, you begin to think perhaps this is the method of operation. Hood and my CO called me in, said I had a phone call. Unfortunately, Lt. Calley and the rest of Company C never paid the price for the atrocities they committed. How many of them went on to draw military pay and benefits? After learning about the heroism of Hugh Thompson Jr. during the M Lai Massacre, read about the Gulf of Tonkin incident that started the Vietnam War. 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. A list of his survivors was not immediately available. He remembered Glenn picking him up, seeing me in the ditch. Would I have? People should realize that when atrocities are committed like this and covered up, it degrades us all. Meet Hugh Thompson, The Hero Who Stopped The M Lai Massacre And Was Branded A Traitor For It. Everybody walked. We came in from altitude down to low level. Likewise, what Hugh did has been ignored or glossed over in history texts, much the same way the incident has been. And then she finished her sentence: she said, So we could forgive them.'. How could I ever be prepared for something like that? Thompson left the Army in 1983 and became a private helicopter pilot in the South. He looked up and saw us and then took off for the tree line. 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. They were going to kill more, but they didnt because of what Thompson did. I know its great copy, but Ive tried to correct the record many times: No one pointed any weapons at anybody. They tried to make arrangements to get him there, but couldnt find him. 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. William Calley, the officer in charge of Charlie Company, ordered American soldiers to round up the villagers and open fire. At first, I just felt shock. You risked your lives, I said, to protect those Vietnamese civilians., Well, it didnt come to that, he replied. However, Ive spoken to survivors on different occasions who had been at the bottom of the pile. Hell, I didnt want to believe it, either, but I had no choice because I saw it. Mr. Thompson remained in combat, then returned to the United States to train helicopter pilots. The only radio communication we had was with the low gunship. 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?. 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. On the morning of March 16, 1968, the people of M Lai were making breakfast when soldiers stormed in. The . But in the end,. Thompson and his crew managed to evacuate the civilians and stop the massacre. When did you meet Hugh Thompson? Only he would have known that. 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.. Who were the people lying in the roads and in the ditch, wounded and killed? Ive tried to put myself in their position, tried to empathize. In 1964, Thompson received an honorable discharge from the Navy and returned to Stone Mountain to live a quiet life and raise a family with his wife. Upon seeing that, Hugh Thompson landed the helicopter, approached Calley, and talked to him. "I threatened never to fly again. If there was anything that was cleansing for me that was it. 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. 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. Hood were returnees, but no one really zeroed in on what was happening. 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. 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. 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. We went back to the ditch because we knew there were a lot of people there who could have been saved. Hugh was running scenarios through his head to figure it out. Our purpose for being there was to protect them. He was saying: Ill never fly again. What would I have done if I were a man on the ground? I thought someone else was getting recognition for something. The dead were women, old men and children. Those on station knew something about it but not many saw it up close and personal except for the men on the ground and a couple of helicopter crews. Letters to the Editor: Should speed humps be put around all L.A. elementary schools? I was always comfortable as the sidekick and enjoyed the time with Hugh. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. Among those numbers were 17 pregnant women and 56 infants. Friends I had on the division level told me they were taking volunteers for the 123rd Aviation Battalion. I waited in the hospital waiting room for about four hours to see a psychologist. Did you expect something would be done as a result? No one wants a president to die in office. I think it is deception, and that remains constant today. Youve been back a few times? hb```,(qaB3W[ 4 `Tfc" QB\%xv{ 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. If its not sincere, it doesnt mean anything. 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 . Hugh Thompson and his crew rescued a surviving child whom they flew to the nearest field hospital. Some were sent out into the field for 60-75 days straight, and they started getting the feeling somebody was trying to get rid of them. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Opinion: California wants more psychiatric detentions. After seeing U.S. troops advancing on a Vietnamese family, he landed his helicopter, called in gunships to rescue the civilians, and ordered his gunner to fire on any American who interfered. Thats when he crashed about five helicopters in five months. Innocent people didnt die that day They didnt just fly off the handle and engage a target that was borderline. 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. We also did a lot of recon missions and flying into free-fire zones to find enemy positions. You are not comfortable with being called a hero, either? Like most 18-year-old males I was nave, had no idea what risks were. I was a helicopter pilot that day, and I guess I was invited here to tell you about a day of my life. How many men were in squad and were they threatening? Even though the military has admitted to the massacre, many people are not capable of acknowledging and processing that information. You saw him again in 2008? 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. Hugh said, No, lets do it at the Wall. They said no, the weather might be bad or something. In an interview first broadcast in 2004, Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian spoke to Mr. Ive had PTSD issues for 42 years. We are developing the concept of a Hugh Thompson Medallion to do that. 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. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. That seemed suicidal to me, going out with next to no backup or firepower. "I'd received death threats over the phone," he told the CBS News program "60 Minutes" in 2004. On March 16, 1998, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Colburn attended a service at My Lai marking the 30th anniversary of the massacre. He showed no reaction at all. 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. Hugh alerted the low gunship as to what we had seen on the ground. He told me not to say anything to anybody, and just tell the truth when I got there. They had been writing to the Pentagon for years about Hugh, totally unbeknownst to Hugh. From the air, Thompson and his two-person crew quickly realized American soldiers were slaughtering innocent civilians. Thompson acted more instinctively, given his morals, character, and military training. I have come to understand him more now than I did when he was here. You are the ones that deserve to be called American Soldiers. Hugh said that was OK, because that was the appropriate place. Possibly we could have stopped things earlier. Thompson wanted you to also make a report? 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. Thompson and Colburn returned to Sn M to meet with survivors of the massacre at the Sn M Memorial in 1998. Afterwards Thompson testified at the trial of Lt. William Calley, the commanding officer during the massacre. I remember wearing the same fatigues and they were pretty much covered with blood stains from carrying the boy and being in that ditch. Then He Assassinated a US President. The troops also burned the village and Sn Ms surrounding hamlets to the ground and slaughtered the livestock. And I was just devastated. At that point, Hugh realizes hes got an aircraft that wont accommodate them. Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. Join Facebook to connect with Hugh Thompson and others you may know. I would be there from December 67 to December 68. U.S. ArmyHugh Thompson in his Army uniform, c. 1966. There was no time to get an ethics opinion or consult authorities. This is not how this military organization is supposed to conduct operations. There were real good highs, he told me, and very low lows. The low gun probably did because they had visual and were communicating with Hugh, and Hugh had been telling them what wed been seeing, hoping they were relating that up to the command craft that was flying above at altitude. Hugh and I were skeptical in 01, so we asked him a lot of questions and he told us things only he could have known. Andreotta died in action a few weeks later, but Thompson and Colburn were key witnesses in the investigations and trials to follow. . He threw his weapon down and said he wasnt going to do it. I have mine put away somewhere, but I think Hugh threw his away one night. He just said I was a prime candidate for PTSD. Still, Thompson had saved civilians who would have been killed if he had not intervened. I remember catching one of the soldiers eyes and I waved to him and he waved back. When Hugh realized it was our people doing this killing, he knew he had to take drastic measures. 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 was on the backup team that day and we went out to try to retrieve the bodies. The Army covered it up. When they started convicting people, I thought, now this is how it should unfold. I wish I was, but I wont lie to anybody. "Something terrible happened here 30 years ago today," Mr. Thompson was quoted as saying by CNN. At first, they only wanted to give it to Hugh at a private ceremony. 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. 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. California cities shouldnt be deterred. Hugh Clowers Thompson, Jr. (April 15, 1943 - January 6, 2006) was a United States Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. He was presumably mindful of the ostracism he had faced and the long wait for that medal ceremony in Washington. 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. But many in the Army and the public supported Calley over Thompson. Thats what they want to do. Then he assumed the Army initiated an investigation. That morning, Hugh said, This is supposed to be a VC stronghold, but you know G2. Usually, when intelligence said an area was hot, it wasnt, and visa versa. It was about six months ago that the S&P 500 dipped . Did the word about what happened at My Lai get around? Our main job was to fly close to the deck, entice fire to get the enemy to give up their position, mark it, suppress fire and get out of the gunships way. As we did, we heard automatic weapon fire. Im not going to let this happen, weve got to do something. 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.. 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. What did you do after My Lai for the rest of your tour? The high gun stayed in the air and circled. Glenn shouted, Hes firing into the ditch again!, How did Hugh react when reason failed? For the sake of any kind of lame justice, they should have been put to death for their atrocities. Id seen civilians get in the way and unfortunately lose their lives because of that. So I was not a good guy.. He made some notes on a legal pad and excused me and I left. Were you prepared to fire on the squad? Hugh told her he probably didnt have any family left. That aspect of it made me feel real good.. It wasn't war.". 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. Today theres a little museum in My Lai, where Thompson is honored, and which displays a list of the names and ages of people killed that day. We hope to link up with other organizations and grow some legs. After evacuating the people, you thought you could do more? At that point, no one had a clue beside you and Hugh? I think I may have been in shock to some extent. We didnt know what was happening. before the subcommittee, and then refused to release the transcripts of the testimony. The My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, stands as one of the darkest moments in U.S. military history. 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! 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. She enticed me to move to east Oregon, near a ski area. 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.. He is still tiny, but he remembers everything. You can imagine the emotions that surfaced. Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. was born on April 15, 1943, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, to Wessie and Hugh Clowers Thompson. Colburn came from Atlanta to be at his bedside. How did you and Hugh reconcile what you knew happened with the outpouring of public support for Calley and his men? The hero received death threats for speaking out about the massacre. Bettmann/Getty ImagesHugh Thompson on his way to testify against William Calley on November 23, 1970. When the orders came down, the CO called me into his office and demanded to know what they were for. Hugh Thompson reported the massacre to his commanding officer. When did you start talking to investigators? Hugh Thompson returned to M Lai in 1998 and met some of the people he saved. We loved those guys in the field. Billy Waugh, a fabled Special Forces Green Beret and CIA military operative, served in Vietnam and helped hunt for Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists. I was aghast at hearing how Lt William Calley got away with cold blooded murder, spending one day behind bars as a convicted criminal. This is not what Im here for. This ended his combat career in Vietnam. That same day, the cover up started. They interviewed Hugh Thompson and his crew. 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. Hugh told me to keep my mouth shut and I did. The truth of the M Lai massacre did not come out until a year and a half later when a soldier whod seen reports on the massacre contacted a journalist. Central to the case prosecuted by the Civilian Complaint. 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. Ronald L. Haeberle/U.S. It was absurd, but you have to be willing to pay the price. The second time, he touched down near a bunker in which a group of about 10 civilians were being menaced by American troops. They were taking volunteers for the 11th Brigade. In 2001 we went back and were reunited with the boy in the ditch. For a while we were going out on snatch missions, where wed basically kidnap draft-age males and take them in for interrogations. After the trial, Hugh Thompson received death threats. Thompson had a famous emotional outburst upon returning to base? We would have died for them. The eyewitness testimony of Thompson and his surviving crew member helped convict Calley at a court-martial. Where else in history has a massacre of civilians been stopped in the middle of the massacre? Justice Thompson was re-elected for additional six-year terms in 2000, 2006, and 2012. I figured, I was in the Army, so I should experience it where the action was. Months later you were surprised with a medal for action at My Lai? It was women, children and elders we saw. 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. He kept the aircraft and himself in between these people and the squad. But that was not to be the case. None. 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. Mercy Thompson, Testimony, Church of Christ in Missouri v. Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 70 F. 179 (8th Cir. Now we saw them again, but they were all lying on the road, dead or dying. Testimony to the Truth The conclusion Hugh and I came to was they were trying to keep us quiet by giving us a phony award. We want to recognize people in the military and all walks of life who really make difficult decisions the way Hugh did. View Hugh Thompson's professional profile on LinkedIn. The Army covered it up, but the facts eventually came to light and the responsible officer, Capt. US military helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson helped stop one of the most infamous massacres of the Vietnam War. The My Lai Massacre was and still is a huge, shameful event that will be hard for several generations to get past. Mr. Thompson, you and Mr. Colburn are indeed the heroes in this sordid story and I am ashamed at how they were treated. 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.. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? 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. For his interference. The outcome of the trails was disgraceful, and Hugh and I saw that it was a sham. It was Hugh and he told me that I would be getting orders to report to Washington. "Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. 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. PFC. Thompson spent the rest of his life wondering if he could have saved more lives. Did you fly with him much before My Lai? Then again, it was a Saturday morning and they were possibly going to market. 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. When I arrived at My Lai in 2008, no one knew where he was. But Ive had my episodes. I thank God to this day that everybody did stay cool and nobody opened up. 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 . 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. But when he returned to his Stateside home in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Thompson.