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. 

As many as five hundred residents of My Lai were murdered by American troops that day. The intervention of Thompson and his crew directly saved the lives of twelve, and likely more. Thompson made an official report on what he had seen at My Lai, and his report convinced American commanders to call a halt to operations in the area.

When the My Lai story broke publicly the following year, Thompson testified before Congress about what he had seen. The chair of the committee that questioned him said publicly that Thompson should be court-martialed for turning his gun on his fellow soldiers, and Thompson received considerable harassment — including death threats — in the months that followed. 

Only one American soldier, platoon leader William Calley, was ever convicted of a crime committed in the My Lai massacre. Calley, who personally committed or oversaw more than a hundred of the killings, was convicted of twenty-two counts of murder by a military court. One poll showed that 79% of Americans opposed his conviction, however, and he served just three years under house arrest before being released.

Hugh Thompson died of cancer in 2006.

William Calley is retired from the jewelry business, and lives in Atlanta.