My Lai Hero Hugh Thompson Jr. Dies at 62

[NNN0LHI]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_THOMPSON?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- 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.

[stevedeshazer]

1. Sad to hear. Now, that's a true hero.

Cancer and just 62. Who said life was fair? :(

[blm]

2. Salute to Thompson - Scorn for Calley

MICHAEL O'DONOGHUE

The Vietnamese Baby Book


Willy Calley, pudding and pie,
Shot the boys and made them die.
When the girls came to surrender,
Willy just ignored their gender.


Baa, baa, black market,
Have you any scag?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Would you like a bag?
Some for the master-sergeant,
Some for the pain,
Some for the hooker
Who goes down in the lane.


Monday's child is born dead.
Tuesday's child is underfed.
Wednesday's child is full of junk.
Thursday's child's a burning monk.
Friday's child is lame and blinded.
Saturday's child is feeble-minded.
But the children born on Sunday
Will be tossed in mass graves one day.

[newyawker99]

3. Rest in peace Mr Thompson.

:-(

[oasis]

4. Now that's my kind of American hero.

:patriot:

[omega minimo]

5. THIS is the American Spirit

He put a HELICOPTER down to halt the massacre.

link to LBN and BBC story:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2025972

:patriot: