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Horrified, Thompson spotted similar scenes unfolding at an irrigation ditch nearby. He immediately landed his helicopter, attempting to stop the murder.

“These are human beings!" He yelled at the Lieutenant there, leading the killing. "Unarmed civilians sir!”

The Lieutenant told Thompson he was stepping outside his authority and ordered him back into his helicopter. /4

From this point on, it was clear to Thompson and his crew that nobody was going to restrain the ground forces.

Thompson had no direct radio to those on the ground, nor to their commanders back at base, so began demanding the other aerial forces present - who did have radio communications with them - intervene.

They stayed silent. /5

While Thompson continued to demand intervention, his crew spotted 2nd Platoon Charlie Company, under Lieutenant Brooks closing on a group of fleeing women, children and old men to the north.

Thompson immediately threw his scout helicopter round and towards them. He grounded it between the advancing soldiers and the terrified civilians. /6

Jumping out of the helicopter with only his side arm, he turned to Colburn, who was on the helicopter's fixed machine gun, and issued him an order Colburn later said he would never forget.

Thompson told him that if Charlie Company fired on Thompson OR the civilians...

“Open up on ‘em. Blow ‘em away.”

With Thompson and the helicopter now blocking Brooks' path to the civilians, Brooks demanded Thompson and his crew move.

He refused. /7

For the next 20 minutes, an angry standoff took place on the ground. The helicopter crew starred down 2nd Platoon, while Thompson continued to beg and swear over the radio at the other units in the air, demanding help.

Eventually, two helicopters broke away and landed behind them, ushering the civilians onboard to safety.

Thompson recognised them as friends of the crew. /8

At LZ Dottie, Thompson stormed into HQ loudly announcing to all present what was happening at My Lai.

"It's mass murder out there. They're rounding them up and herding them in ditches and then just shooting them."

Other officers told him to calm down and not get involved. He would not be quieted. Despite efforts to stop him, he forced his way into operational command. /10

There, Thompson raged loudly that the American soldiers on the ground were acting no better than Nazis. It caused enough of storm that, spooked, the Task Force’s commander radioed through an order that all operations at My Lai should cease immediately. Any killing should stop.

Now fully refuelled, Thompson and his crew returned to make sure it did. /11

Whereas others tried to whitewash what had happened, Thompson’s post-operation report into the incident held back nothing.

My Lai was now becoming uncomfortable for the US forces. Rumours were circulating. Thompson's account was problematic.

They quietly issued him a Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for "bravery under crossfire." in hope it would quieten him.

He threw it away. That fire was from his own countrymen killing civilians. /12

Eventually, Thompson was seriously wounded in action and sent back to the US where he continued to serve, but lost contact with his former crewmates Colburn and Andreotta.

Still an officer, under continuing pressure to stay silent and unwilling to break his oath of loyalty to the Army, he remained vocal internally but felt unable to to go public with what he had seen. /13

This changed the moment the first public account of the massacre appeared. Thompson broke cover.

He refused to keep quiet or minimise the crimes committed, despite pressure from press, the military and a hostile Congress determined to cast him as a traitor.

He stood up. He testified at the public enquiry. He was vilified by many. /14

Thompson was forced to watch as those involved in the massacre, including Medina, were publicly cleared and presented as heroes in difficult circumstances.

Meanwhile, Thompson and his family received death threats. Dead animals were left on his porch. He was threatened with court-martial for ordering his crew to draw weapons on Charlie Company.

All this, he was told privately, would go away if he changed his account.

Thompson refused, but was forced to retreat from public life for safety /15

Twenty years later in 1988 Michael Bilton, a British filmmaker, was trying to make a documentary about My Lai. He kept coming across Thompson's name, and his account and eventually managed to track him down.

Bilton asked Thompson if he would go on camera and tell people what happened. Would he risk going through all that again, to tell the truth?

Thompson agreed, without a moment of hesitation. /16

You can watch "Four hours in My Lai" below. Made for Yorkshire Television, it won a British Academy award, an Emmy and spawned a successful book. It helped shift the dial. Finally, after decades, the process of recognising what had been done was happening. /17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NwnnLnvQYA

Thompson's first appearance is about 29mins in. Colburn, his former gunner, makes an appearance as well. Bilton had managed to track him down, too.

This was the to the delight of both Thompson and Colburn, who had been trying to find each other for years.

Their friendship was immediately renewed. /18

The process of official acknowledgement and apology for My Lai remained frustratingly slow. But Thompson, now reinvigorated, became a key voice pushing for it to happen as part of "Veterans for Peace".

"My Lai…was no accident whatsoever." He would say. "Pure, premeditated murder. Are we too big to apologize?" /19

In 1989 David Egan, a professor at Clemson University, launched a letter-writing campaign to encourage the government to honour Thompson’s heroism at My Lai.

Ten years later, they finally decided to award him the Soldier’s Medal, the highest non-combat award in the US army. /20

When Thompson learned that he - and ONLY he - would be issued the Soldier's Medal he warned the US army that he would publicly refuse it.

He demanded Colburn and Andreotta (who had since died) both be awarded the medal as well, for their own actions that day. The crew stood together that day, he said, the crew should be recognised together.

Fearing a PR backlash, the army relented. All three were recognised. /21

In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to My Lai. Unsure how they would be received, they felt mixed emotions when they were welcomed as honoured guests as part of a grand ceremony to commemorate those lost in the massacre.

Later Thompson and Colburn privately returned to the site of their stand-off with 2nd Platoon. They were approached by 2 women, who revealed they were people the men had saved.

“I just wish our crew that day could have saved more people than we did.” Thompson apologised /22

As Thompson broke down in tears, one of the women told him that what had happened that day wasn’t his fault. She then asked him why the survivors of Charlie Company - those who had perpetrated the killings - hadn’t come back with them. Not to be subject to their anger, but so they could see, and be forgiven. /23

Thompson would later confess to a journalist that what the woman said devastated him.

Not just because of the humanity and strength it showed, but because forgiving Charlie Company was something he felt he himself could never do.

“I’m not man enough to do that.” He said, tearily. “I’m sorry. I wish I was, but I won’t lie to anybody. I’m not that much of a man.” /24

Hugh Thompson Jnr died of cancer at the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Pineville Louisiana in 2006, aged 62.

Lawrence Colburn was sat at his bedside.

He had travelled all the way from Atlanta to be there, at the end, for his former officer, friend, and fellow hero. /25

Thompson remains, to my mind, one of the finest examples of leadership and courage, military or otherwise, you will find.

It is easy to just "follow orders", pretend you don't see what's happening or that you're just doing what your country needs you to do "for patriotism". /26

Thompson not only refused to accept any of the above and acted, but he continued to stand up for what was right as many of those around him, in the press, and in public, while the country he loved and served branded him a traitor.

Because he knew that REAL patriotism was doing what was right, not what he was told. /27

I ran a version of this thread on twitter a few years ago. But today is the 55th anniversary of My Lai, and I feel that Thompson's story is more relevant today than it has been for many years.

Hopefully it was informative, for those unfamiliar with events that day or Thompson's involvement.

If you did, then please feel free (but not obliged!) to buy my a coffee here, if you like: https://ko-fi.com/garius /28

For more detailed information on My Lai itself, and the grim actions of Charlie Company on the ground, I recommend starting with the original "Four Hours in My Lai" book that followed the documentary. It remains an important, but harrowing read.

There is also now, finally, a biography of Thompson that is worth a read too, by Trent Angers. /END https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Hero-My-Lai-Thompson/dp/0925417904/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23RE1VVPBYKYY&keywords=the+forgotten+hero+of+my+lai&qid=1658479261&sprefix=the+forgotten+hero+of+my+lai%2Caps%2C54&sr=8-1

@ailbhe yes. He was brought with them back to Dottie, where the crew were able to get him into the care of the base medical staff while Thompson was attempting to secure an order to get the operation stopped.