Hugh Thompson, Jr.: 1943 – 2006
I just found out that Hugh C. Thompson, Jr., the Warrant Officer who saved the last surviving villagers of the hamlet of My Lai in the village of Son My from being murdered by other officers and soldiers of the US Army, died earlier this year. Upon seeing Capt. Ernest Medina shooting the Vietnamese whom he and his team had marked for medical aid, Thompson and his crew put their helicopter between the other soldiers and the remaining villagers. He threatened open fire on them if they did not stand down from the massacre.
Would you have done the same? He ended up continuing the dangerous duty, being shot down five times, the last breaking his back. Lt. Calley, the only person involved in the massacre or its command chain to be convicted, was freed after three years of house arrest and now lives in Georgia where he is a jeweler. Capt. Medina was not convicted, although tried.
The articles about My Lai, like those about abuses in any time, often leave you thinking, “How bad can it really have been?” To get the full story, look at the photographs or read what the soldiers told the Army investigators.
Thompson’s passing was worth noting.
“I wish I was a big enough man to say I forgive them, but I swear to God, I can’t.”
