by Michael Bilton
Wednesday January 11, 2006 : A Guardian Report
Hugh Thompson, who has died aged 64, was the helicopter pilot who
tried to halt the My Lai massacre of more than 500 villagers by
American troops during the Vietnam war. At one point, he rescued 15
defenceless civilians while training his machine guns on US
infantrymen commanded by the infamous Lieutenant William Calley,
threatening to shoot if they did not stop the slaughter.
By the time he arrived in Vietnam in late December 1967, Thompson was
a 25-year-old chief warrant officer reconnaissance pilot with the
123rd Aviation Battalion. On March 16 1968, he was flying his H-23
scout helicopter, with its three-man crew, over a part of Quang Ngai
province known as Pinkville, supporting a three company
search-and-destroy assault on several villages, which faulty
intelligence had indicated were heavily defended by Vietcong troops.
The US 1/20th Infantry Battalion attack was led by Charlie Company,
commanded by Captain Ernest Medina, who sent in the 1st platoon, led
by Calley, to clear out My Lai and several neighbouring hamlets.
Charlie Company was bent on revenge; days earlier several of its
members had been killed by Vietcong mines and booby traps. Without a
shot being fired against them, Calley's men began slaughtering anyone
they could find - old men, women and children. Groups of villagers, 20
and 30 at a time, were lined up and mown down. In the four-hour
assault, the men of the 2nd and 3rd platoons joined in.
Early on, Thompson spotted a young woman injured in a field. He
dropped a smoke cannister to indicate she needed medical help; he
claimed in a court martial later that Medina went over and shot her.
During the massacre, Thompson discovered the bodies of 170 executed
villagers in a drainage ditch. One of his crew rescued a child and
flew it to hospital at Quang Ngai.
In another incident, he challenged Calley to help a group of civilians
hiding in a bunker rather than attack them. When Calley refused,
Thompson ordered his helicopter gunners to open fire on the 1st
platoon if they advanced any closer. He then called down gunships to
rescue the civilians.
On returning to Chu Lai military base, Thompson reported everything to
his commanding officer. But a local inquiry whitewashed his
complaints, claiming the civilian deaths had been caused by artillery
fire. An elaborate cover-up ensued and Thompson was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross for saving the lives of Vietnamese
civilians "in the face of hostile enemy fire" - he threw the medal
away, believing his commanders wanted to buy his silence.
A year later, the Pentagon learned the truth and a high-level inquiry
was conducted by Lieutenant General William Peers. Thompson later
appeared as a witness at the courts martial of several men involved in
the massacre or the cover-up, though the only person convicted was
Calley, who served a few months in jail before having his life
sentence reduced and being given parole.
During his time in Vietnam, Thompson was shot down five times, finally
breaking his backbone. He received a commission, but back in America
some colleagues regarded him as a turncoat. When evidence of the
atrocity was finally made public in late 1969, he was castigated by
pro-Vietnam war politicians in Washington.
It was only 30 years later that Thompson was recognised as a genuine
American hero by the Pentagon, after a nine-year letter-writing
campaign. The US army had initially wanted his Soldier's Medal, the
military's highest award for bravery in peacetime, to be presented
quietly, preferring to keep what happened at My Lai in the background.
But Thompson resisted. He wanted a ceremony at the Vietnam memorial in
Washington, DC, and the bravery of his fellow crew members recognised
as well. In March 1998, he finally got his wish.
Thompson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to strict Episcopalian parents,
and moved to nearby Stone Mountain when he was three years old. His
father served with both the US army and navy during the second world
war and spent 30 years with the naval reserve. His paternal
grandfather was a full-blooded Cherokee Native American, forced off
tribal land in North Carolina in the 1850s and resettled in Georgia.
Thompson joined the US navy in 1961, and spent three years with a
Seebees construction unit. After a brief return to civilian life in
1964, during which he became a funeral director, he re-enlisted in the
army, as it was becoming engaged in Vietnam.
The My Lai experience affected him badly. He grappled with alcohol and
had several failed marriages. After service in Korea, he returned to
the US, dropping the name Hugh and calling himself Buck as a way of
distancing himself from past events. He left the army briefly and then
re-enlisted, flying with medical evacuation units and instructing
trainee pilots. He retired from the army in November 1983 and worked
as a helicopter pilot for oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico. Later
he was involved with the Louisiana department of veteran affairs for
six years, giving lectures to students and schoolchildren and speaking
about ethics to military academies.
After his role in trying to stop the massacre was recognised in the
US, Thompson and his surviving crew member, Larry Colburn, were taken
back to My Lai, where they were introduced to three women who had
survived the massacre. On a second visit three years later, he met an
electrician from Ho Chi Minh City who, aged nine, had been one of the
children Thompson had rescued from the bunker.
Thompson is survived by three sons and his partner Mona Gossen.
· Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr, pilot and whistleblower, born April 15
1943; died January 6 2006
Courtesy : The Guardian
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