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Hugh Thompson Jr. died of cancer last Friday. His is a story worth knowing - he and a few others were the heroes of My Lai. And heroes they were...
The Heroes of My Lai
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Myl_hero.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/06/60minutes/main615997.shtmlHugh Thompson was a helicopter pilot in 1968, on a day American soldiers gunned down more than 500 unarmed civilians in a village called My Lai.
The dead were women, old men and children. And even more of them would have died if Thompson had not confronted his fellow soldiers, stopped their murderous rampage and airlifted a number of civilians to safety.
...Approximately 170 people were marched down in there, including women, old men, babies. And GIs stood up on the side with their weapons on full automatic and machine gun fire.
“There were no weapons captured. There were no draft-age males killed. They were civilians,” says Colburn, referring to the ditch filled with bodies. “It was full … some of the people were still, they were dying, they weren't all dead.”
As Thompson and Colburn were recalling the horrors of that day for 60 Minutes, an elderly woman walked toward us. She said that she had been dumped in the ditch back in 1968, but had survived, shielded by the bodies of the dead and the dying...
...he [Thompson] was inducted on the first ballot into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame
The Heroes of My Lai
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Myl_hero.html
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