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Today would have been Hugh Thompson’s 66th birthday.
Hugh Thompson was a 24-year-old helicopter pilot in the US Army in March 1968 when he flew a mission over the town of My Lai in Vietnam.
Providing aerial support to American troops operating in My Lai, Thompson and his crew discovered evidence that US soldiers were massacring unarmed villagers, including children and the elderly. When Thompson spotted a group of eleven unarmed people — including several children — fleeing American soldiers, he landed his helicopter between them and the troops. As he got out of the helicopter, he ordered his gunner to shoot the American soldiers if the soldiers opened fire on the civilians.
Thompson was able to secure the evacuation of those eleven, and as he was flying back to base to report on what he had seen, his gunner spotted and rescued an eight-year-old boy from a drainage ditch in which as many as a hundred people — including his mother and his younger sister and brother — lay dead.
When Thompson returned to base, he was able to convince a high-ranking officer to order a cease fire.
