Hugh Thompson Jr.

**Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr.** (15 April 1943 – 6 January 2006) was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. He is best-known for saving people's lives (villagers) during the My Lai Massacre, while operating a flight mission.

Thompson was born in Atlanta, he joined the United States Navy in 1961, later joined the United States Army in 1966 and was trained as helicopter pilot. He volunteered in the group Task Force Barker, flying over Vietnam's jungles which attracted the enemy's attention to determine their location.

Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn were two helicopter snipers in Thompson's helicopter, these two and Thompson will later be recognized for their actions in My Lai 30 years later in 1998 by giving them the Soldier's Medal which is the US Army's highest award for bravery to not contact directly to the enemy. However, Andreotta was killed three weeks after the massacre.

## The Massacre 
After flying over dead bodies of Vietnamese civilians outside of the My Lai village on 16 March 1968, Thompson lowered his UH-1 helicopter. Three people in the group signaled with green smoke meaning that there are some surviving Vietnamese civilians who need help. When returned to the helicopter, they saw Captain Ernest Medina running and shooting those who are marked to need help. The group flew the helicopter back to the village, Thompson faced Lieutenant Stephen Brooks who was preparing to blow many house with many Vietnamese civilians injured inside. Thompson let Andreotta and Colburn to aim the machine guns to every military unit and to fire any American soldier who do not listen to stop the massacre. No officers went against Thompson while his ranking was lower than some lieutenants there.

Thompson then commanded two other helicopters (the pilots were Dan Millians and Brian Livingstone) to carry eleven injured Vietnamese civilians for medical treatment. When leaving, Andreotta saw a small movement in a small channel and the helicopter was lowered again, revealing a child among the dead bodies, then transferring the remaining Vietnamese survivors to a Quảng Ngãi hospital.

Thompson reported the massacre to his superiors when the massacre was ongoing. The operation was halted later.

## After My Lai 
Thompson was ordered to continue his conducting reconnaissance missions, a task considered as punishment by some people for his actions in My Lai. Thompson was shot five times, the last time he was shot he broke his bone. He spent the rest of his life suffering psychologically for his time in Vietnam.

In 1998, 30 years after My Lai, three people who stopped the massacre were awarded the Soldier's Medal (Andreotta was posthumously awarded) for bravery to not combat directly with the enemy. In 1999, Thompson and Colburn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. In the final months of the year, they both co-chaired STONEWALK, activists gave them a one-ton stone that says "Unknown Civilians Killed in War" from Boston to Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1998, Thompson and Colburn revisited My Lai and met the people they saved including Đỗ Ba – a 8-year-old child that was rescued from that drainage ditch. They inaugurated a new primary school for children in the village.

In a 2004 60 Minutes interview, he mentioned the soldiers of the Charlie Company who participated in the massacre, he said that he wanted to "wish he were magnanimous enough" to say he forgave them but that God is "his witness" so he couldn't.

He served on the veterans' commission in Louisiana and gave a lecture at the United States Naval Academy in 2003 and at the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 2005 on the topic of professional military ethics.

At the age of 62, after a long battle with cancer, he stopped treating with drugs and died on 6 January 2006 at a veterans' hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana. Lawrence Colburn, former machine gun sniper in Thompson's group, flew from Atlanta to Thompson's deathbed. Thompson was buried in Lafayette, Louisiana with full military honors including a 21-gun salute and a helicopter escort.