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and For The Children – Innocence Lost!
My Lai hero Hugh Thompson Jr. dies at 62
Former helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, Jr., left, and his gunner Lawrance Colburn leave the My Lai Memorial, in Quang Ngai, Vietnam, March 15, 1998 after a reunion with two female villagers they rescued during the massacre. Hugh Thompson Jr., a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from being killed by fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died early Friday, Jan. 6, 2006. He was 62. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
Hersh called Thompson “one of the good guys.”
“You can’t imagine what courage it took to do what he did,” Hersh said.
Although Thompson’s story was a significant part of Hersh’s reports, and Thompson testified before Congress, his role in ending My Lai wasn’t widely known until the late 1980s, when David Egan, a professor emeritus at Clemson University, saw an interview in a documentary and launched a letter-writing campaign that eventually led to the awarding of the medals in 1998.
“He was the guy who by his heroic actions gave a morality and dignity to the American military effort,” Tulane history professor Douglas Brinkley said.
For years Thompson suffered snubs and worse from those who considered him unpatriotic. He recalled a congressman angrily saying that Thompson himself was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai.
Just A Few Links…
Of Who Hugh was, along with his Crew!
Heroes: Hugh Thompson: Reviled, then honored, for his actions at …
CNN – Cold War: Chat with Hugh Thompson
60min. CBS News | An American Hero | May 9, 2004 18:52:03
He Personified what Most Military Personal Truly Are, no matter what you hear or see!
Thanks for posting this Jim. There are so many men who carry Vietnam in their hearts. As far as I’m concerned, even if they come home – anybody who goes is a casualty of war.
When will we give up this poison we have become addicted to? War – hueungh! What is it good for?
Rest in peace Hugh.
A GENUINE Hero Has Died
by aybayb [Subscribe]
Sat Jan 07, 2006 at 01:14:51 AM EST
It’s on the Passing of ‘Hugh Thompson’ A True American, and What We Should All Be, ‘Humane’!!!
While it’s a Simple Diary Posting, at the Daily KOS, the Many Links and Comments Posted should be Read and Visited about this Simple Man, and Chopper Crew, who Acted out of Courage and Humanity in the Inhumanity of Conflict!
As stated in an Article yesterday on his passing:
“There are so many people today walking around alive because of him, not only in Vietnam, but people who kept their units under control under other circumstances because they had heard his story. We may never know just how many lives he saved.”
One of the Links posted is a Song Written About Hugh:
Song for Hugh Thompson
Lyrics
Jim, what can I say, other than, thank you, for posting this diary.
My heart greives. The story is amazing to anyone who choses to know about this man and the affair that brought him to the place he is in our history. God rest his soul..RIP my hero….
I’m glad this story is being picked up around the Internet and in some newspapers. It is a good reminder that war doesn’t always mean you have to sacrifice your humanity and doing the right thing. If only there were thousands more like him serving in Iraq/Afghanistan today. I wonder how many My Lai’s we(the Iraqi’s are no doubt already aware and know about to many actions similar to My Lai) will find out about once the Iraq War is finally over..we already know some of them as in Fallujah but I suspect that is only the tip of the whole rotting iceberg(if icebergs could rot) over there.
It’s always hard for me to imagine how screwed up things can become when someone who undertakes a decent and moral action-at great personal expense to themselves- and can become vilified for that action.
Thanks so much for this. The first of your links has this powerful bit:
My Lai did produce true heroes, says William Eckhardt, who served as chief prosecutor for the My Lai courts-martial. “When you have evil, sometimes, in the midst of it, you will have incredible, selfless good. And that’s Hugh Thompson.”