RIP, Lt. Thompson, hero of My Lai

First Lieutenant Hugh Thompson Jr. died of cancer Friday at the age of 62. As some of you may remember, Thompson and his crew "came upon U.S. ground troops killing Vietnamese civilians in and around the village of My Lai. They landed the helicopter in the line of fire between American troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pointed their own guns at the U.S. soldiers to prevent more killings."

His two crew members, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, provided cover for Thompson as the confronted "the leader of the U.S. forces." (I assume the news is referring to Lt. William Calley here.) You can read the whole article at the link below, but a few things of note now:

• He was initially reviled after the incident became known. "Fellow servicemen refused to speak with him. H e received death threats and found animal carcasses on his porch . . . a congressman angrily [said] that Lt. Thompson was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai."
• He served in the Navy from 1961 to 1964.
• He served in the army from 1966 to 1983, when he retired.
• While in Viet Nam, he was hit eight times by enemy fire and lost five helicopters in combat. A combat crash broke his back. He was awarded a Purple Heart and the Distinguished flying Cross.
• Thompson, Colburn, and Andreotta were finally awarded the Soldier's Medal, "the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy," in 1998. (Andreotta had been killed three weeks after My Lai.)
• Seymour Hersh, who won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his report on the massacre, called Thompson "one of the good guys . . . You can't imagine what courage it took to do what he did."

Rest in peace.

Here's one link. There are other versions out there.