50th Anniv. My Lai Massacre: Heroes were High Thompson and Flight Crew

[laserhaas]

Link to tweet

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Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted.

Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence,

but served only three and a half years under house arrest

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Wikipedia details https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
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Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned, and even denounced as traitors by several U.S. Congressmen, including Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Only after thirty years were they recognized and decorated, one posthumously, by the U.S. Army for shielding non-combatants from harm in a war zone. Along with the No Gun Ri massacre in Korea eighteen years earlier, Mỹ Lai was one of the largest single massacres of civilians by U.S. forces in the 20th century.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I half-expected Trump to pardon Calley on the 50th anniversary of My Lai.

[Tanuki]

2. Hugh Thompson was ostracized for his heroism. Any DUers who are not familiar

with the harrowing details of the My Lai massacre and its aftermath should read this, please:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.

I learned something I did not know about Hugh Thompson:
..."His paternal grandmother was full Cherokee Native American and his ancestors were victims of the ethnic cleansing policies and actions that resulted from the Indian Removal Act, most notably the Trail of Tears.[2]:39-40.....Hugh Clowers Thompson Sr. educated his children to act with discipline and integrity. The Thompson family denounced racism and ethnic discrimination in the United States and assisted many ethnic minority families in their community.[2]:42