±Recent Visitors

Recent Visitors to Com-Central!

±User Info-big


Welcome Anonymous

Nickname
Password

Membership:
Latest: HighestAce
New Today: 0
New Yesterday: 0
Overall: 6648

People Online:
Members: 0
Visitors: 234
Total: 234
Who Is Where:
 Visitors:
01: Community Forums
02: Community Forums
03: Statistics
04: Home
05: Home
06: Home
07: Home
08: Community Forums
09: Your Account
10: Community Forums
11: Home
12: Home
13: Community Forums
14: Home
15: Home
16: Community Forums
17: Community Forums
18: Community Forums
19: Home
20: Community Forums
21: Community Forums
22: Home
23: Home
24: Community Forums
25: Community Forums
26: Community Forums
27: Community Forums
28: Home
29: Community Forums
30: Home
31: Home
32: Home
33: Home
34: Home
35: Home
36: Home
37: Member Screenshots
38: Home
39: Home
40: Community Forums
41: Community Forums
42: Home
43: Statistics
44: Home
45: News Archive
46: Downloads
47: Community Forums
48: Home
49: Home
50: Community Forums
51: Photo Gallery
52: Community Forums
53: News
54: Community Forums
55: Home
56: Community Forums
57: Community Forums
58: Community Forums
59: Community Forums
60: Community Forums
61: Home
62: Home
63: Community Forums
64: Community Forums
65: Community Forums
66: Community Forums
67: Home
68: Downloads
69: Community Forums
70: Community Forums
71: Community Forums
72: Community Forums
73: Community Forums
74: Community Forums
75: Your Account
76: Community Forums
77: Community Forums
78: Home
79: Community Forums
80: Community Forums
81: Community Forums
82: Home
83: Community Forums
84: Community Forums
85: Home
86: Home
87: News Archive
88: Your Account
89: Downloads
90: Community Forums
91: Home
92: Community Forums
93: Home
94: Home
95: Home
96: Home
97: Downloads
98: Community Forums
99: Community Forums
100: Downloads
101: Community Forums
102: Community Forums
103: News Archive
104: Home
105: Community Forums
106: Community Forums
107: Home
108: Home
109: Home
110: Community Forums
111: Home
112: Community Forums
113: Home
114: Photo Gallery
115: Home
116: Home
117: Member Screenshots
118: Member Screenshots
119: Home
120: Community Forums
121: Community Forums
122: Community Forums
123: Downloads
124: Community Forums
125: Your Account
126: Community Forums
127: Downloads
128: Community Forums
129: Community Forums
130: Community Forums
131: Community Forums
132: Community Forums
133: Member Screenshots
134: Home
135: Home
136: Member Screenshots
137: Home
138: Community Forums
139: Community Forums
140: Community Forums
141: Community Forums
142: Community Forums
143: Community Forums
144: Community Forums
145: Community Forums
146: Your Account
147: Community Forums
148: Community Forums
149: Community Forums
150: Community Forums
151: Home
152: Community Forums
153: News
154: Community Forums
155: Member Screenshots
156: Community Forums
157: Home
158: News Archive
159: Home
160: Community Forums
161: Photo Gallery
162: Home
163: Community Forums
164: Community Forums
165: Home
166: Community Forums
167: Home
168: Your Account
169: Home
170: Home
171: Home
172: Community Forums
173: Community Forums
174: Community Forums
175: Community Forums
176: Community Forums
177: Downloads
178: Home
179: Downloads
180: Community Forums
181: Community Forums
182: Home
183: Member Screenshots
184: Home
185: Community Forums
186: Home
187: Community Forums
188: Your Account
189: Community Forums
190: News Archive
191: Home
192: News
193: Member Screenshots
194: Member Screenshots
195: Community Forums
196: Statistics
197: Home
198: Community Forums
199: Community Forums
200: Community Forums
201: Community Forums
202: Home
203: Community Forums
204: Community Forums
205: Community Forums
206: Your Account
207: Home
208: Home
209: Home
210: Member Screenshots
211: Statistics
212: Home
213: Community Forums
214: Community Forums
215: Member Screenshots
216: Community Forums
217: Community Forums
218: Home
219: Home
220: Home
221: Home
222: Your Account
223: Home
224: Community Forums
225: Member Screenshots
226: Home
227: Home
228: News Archive
229: Home
230: Downloads
231: Member Screenshots
232: Home
233: Home
234: Your Account

Staff Online:

No staff members are online!
A true hero passes.... :: Archived
A general meeting place for all pilots!
Post new topic    Revive this topic    Printer Friendly Page     Forum Index ›  Officer's Club

Topic Archived View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
JG300-Ascout
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 05, 2005
Posts: 6257
Location: Cyberspace
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 3:18 am
Post subject: A true hero passes....

The very best kind of soldier...
__________________________________________________________
My Lai Hero Hugh Thompson Jr. Dies at 62

By JESSICA BUJOL, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 6, 6:00 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Hugh Thompson Jr., a former Army helicopter pilot honored for rescuing Vietnamese civilians from his fellow GIs during the My Lai massacre, died early Friday. He was 62.
Thompson, whose role in the 1968 massacre did not become widely known until decades later, died at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alexandria, hospital spokesman Jay DeWorth said.

Trent Angers, Thompson's biographer and family friend, said Thompson died of cancer.

"These people were looking at me for help and there was no way I could turn my back on them," Thompson recalled in a 1998 Associated Press interview.

Early in the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, door-gunner Lawrence Colburn and crew chief Glenn Andreotta 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.

Colburn and Andreotta had provided cover for Thompson as he went forward to confront the leader of the U.S. forces. Thompson later coaxed civilians out of a bunker so they could be evacuated, and then landed his helicopter again to pick up a wounded child they transported to a hospital. Their efforts led to the cease-fire order at My Lai.

In 1998, the Army honored the three men with the prestigious Soldier's Medal, the highest award for bravery not involving conflict with an enemy. It was a posthumous award for Andreotta, who had been killed in battle three weeks after My Lai.

"It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," Army Maj. Gen. Michael Ackerman said at the 1998 ceremony. The three "set the standard for all soldiers to follow."

Lt. William L. Calley, a platoon leader, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killings, but served just three years under house arrest when then-President Nixon reduced his sentence.

Author Seymour Hersh won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for his expose of the massacre in 1969 while working as a freelance journalist. The massacre became one of the pivotal events as opposition to the war was growing in the United States.

Hersh called Thompson "one of the good guys."

"You can't imagine what courage it took to do what he did," Hersh said.

Although Thompson's story was a significant part of Hersh's reports, and Thompson testified before Congress, his role in ending My Lai wasn't widely known until the late 1980s, when David Egan, a professor emeritus at Clemson University, saw an interview in a documentary and launched a letter-writing campaign that eventually led to the awarding of the medals in 1998.

"He was the guy who by his heroic actions gave a morality and dignity to the American military effort," Tulane history professor Douglas Brinkley said.

For years Thompson suffered snubs and worse from those who considered him unpatriotic. He recalled a congressman angrily saying that Thompson himself was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai.

As the years passed, Thompson became an example for future generations of soldiers, said Col. Tom Kolditz, head of the U.S. Military Academy's behavioral sciences and leadership department. Thompson went to West Point once a year to give a lecture on his experience, Kolditz said.

"There are so many people today walking around alive because of him, not only in Vietnam, but people who kept their units under control under other circumstances because they had heard his story. We may never know just how many lives he saved."

_________________
"All facts go to clearly prove that Shades is a thrice-cursed traitor & mentally deranged person steeped in inveterate enmity toward mankind"
Back to top
View user's profile Photo Gallery
JG300-Stoopy
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 05, 2005
Posts: 5840
Location: Group W bench
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:04 am
Post subject: Re: A true hero passes....

Sorry to hear this, and the details of this story are inspiring. What a fine example to follow. Hope he's enjoying his time with his previously fallen comrades now, and probably even still looking out for some folks.....spirits like that live on and on, and all the best to his.

_________________
"Once your reputation is ruined, you can live quite freely."
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website Photo Gallery
Shadow_Bshwackr
Janitor

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 21, 2005
Posts: 7019
Location: Central Illinois, USA
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:46 pm
Post subject: Re: A true hero passes....

Sad
Back to top
View user's profile Visit poster's website Photo Gallery
Uhu_Fledermaus
Aircraft Demolition Expert

Offline Offline
Joined: Nov 28, 2004
Posts: 4369
Location: Blaricum, The Netherlands ~GMT+1
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 12:59 pm
Post subject: Re: A true hero passes....

Crying or Very sad
Back to top
View user's profile ICQ Number MSN Messenger Photo Gallery
JG300-Ascout
Power User

Offline Offline
Joined: Jan 05, 2005
Posts: 6257
Location: Cyberspace
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:42 pm
Post subject: Re: A true hero passes....

see links:

Great pics: www.ntcsites.com/acadi...raphs2.htm

www.answers.com/topic/...hompson-jr

www.cnn.com/US/9803/06....ceremony/

_________________
"All facts go to clearly prove that Shades is a thrice-cursed traitor & mentally deranged person steeped in inveterate enmity toward mankind"
Back to top
View user's profile Photo Gallery
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic    Revive this topic    Printer Friendly Page    Forum Index ›  Officer's Club
Page 1 of 1
All times are GMT - 6 Hours

Archive Revive
Username:
This is an archived topic - your reply will not be appended here.
Instead, a new topic will be generated in the active forum.
The new topic will provide a reference link to this archived topic.