There are Heroes, and Then There are Heroes
Hugh Thompson, Jr.
Memorial Day has its roots in the US Civil War, and has expanded to include remembrance of all those who have served their country and have died. In various places, the remembrance may focus on a particular conflict, like the Civil War and Carbondale, IL. It might also center on a location, like Arlington Cemetery or the Pearl Harbor Memorial. It might focus on recipients of the Medal of Honor. In a lot of places, Memorial Day is a big deal.
But on this Memorial Day, with the protests on college campuses in the US and around the world related to the unfolding events in Gaza and the West Bank, my thoughts go to Hugh Thompson, Jr., Glenn Andreotta, and Lawrence Colburn. They were three members of the US Army, who received the Soldiers Medal on March 6, 1998 for their actions 30 years earlier as they flew a mission on March 16, 1968.
Thompson commanded a observation helicopter at the time, tasked with locating enemy firing positions and then directing US forces in response. As their helicopter came over the village of My Lai, they observed no enemy fire, but were shocked to see US military forces killing obvious Vietnamese civilians. At one point, Thompson maneuvered his helicopter between civilians and US forces on the ground, so as to protect the Vietnamese civilians, and he ordered Colburn, his door gunner, to open fire on the US forces if they tried to prevent him from protecting the civilians. Colburn, without hesitation, concurred. Andreotta, the crew chief, was shocked to see the atrocities committed by US forces, and helped locate other civilians who had been shot and needed medical care. As Thompson described it,
Glenn Andreotta—if there was a hero, I don’t like that word, but if there was a hero at My Lai—it was Glenn Andreotta, because he saw movement in that ditch, and he fixed in on this one little kid and went down into that ditch. I would not want to go in that ditch. It’s not pretty. It was very bad. I can imagine what was going through his mind down there, because there was more than one still alive—people grabbing hold of his pants, wanting help. “I can’t help you. You’re too bad [off].” He found this one kid and brought the kid back up and handed it to Larry, and we laid it across Larry and my lap and took him out of there. I remember thinking Glenn Andreotta put himself where nobody in their right mind would want to be, and he was driven by something. I haven’t got the aircraft on the ground real stable. He bolted out of that aircraft into this ditch. Now he was a hero. Glenn Andreotta gave his life for his country about three weeks later. That’s the kind of guy he was, and he was a hero that day.
For their actions in 1968, Thompson. Andreotta, and Colburn received the Soldier’s Medal, given to “any person of the Armed Forces of the United States or of a friendly foreign nation who, while serving in any capacity with the Army of the United States, including Reserve Component soldiers not serving in a duty status at the time of the heroic act, distinguished himself or herself by heroism not involving conflict with an enemy.”
That last phrase — not involving conflict with an enemy — is central to why these three received the Soldier’s Medal and not the Medal of Honor.
Thompson’s medal was awarded with this description:
Soldier’s Medal, Hugh C. Thompson, Jr., then Warrant Officer One, United States Army:
For heroism above and beyond the call of duty on 16 March 1968, while saving the lives of at least 10 Vietnamese civilians during the unlawful massacre of noncombatants by American forces at My Lai, Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam. Warrant Officer Thompson landed his helicopter in the line of fire between fleeing Vietnamese civilians and pursuing American ground troops to prevent their murder. He then personally confronted the leader of the American ground troops and was prepared to open fire on those American troops should they fire upon the civilians. Warrant Officer Thompson, at the risk of his own personal safety, went forward of the American lines and coaxed the Vietnamese civilians out of the bunker to enable their evacuation. Leaving the area after requesting and overseeing the civilians’ air evacuation, his crew spotted movement in a ditch filled with bodies south of My Lai Four. Warrant Officer Thompson again landed his helicopter and covered his crew as they retrieved a wounded child from the pile of bodies. He then flew the child to the safety of a hospital at Quang Ngai. Warrant Officer Thompson’s relayed radio reports of the massacre and subsequent report to his section leader and commander resulted in an order for the cease fire at My Lai and an end to the killing of innocent civilians. Warrant Officer Thompson’s Heroism exemplifies the highest standards of personal courage and ethical conduct, reflecting distinct credit on him, and the United States Army.
Thompson and his crew did not act against a foreign enemy, but against members their own US military. The Soldier’s Medal, therefore, was as high an honor as they could receive — but the fact that it took 30 years for the DOD to admit that they deserved it is a stain on the US military. (Stars and Stripes has a great writeup of My Lai and the aftermath, written at the death of Larry Colbrun – the last of the three heroes, and it includes the push it took to get the DOD to award these medals.)
All this came back to mind as I read a Guardian piece yesterday about a prison camp run by the Israel Defense Force:
Prisoners held at an Israeli detention camp in the Negev desert are being subjected to widespread physical and mental abuses, with at least one reported case of a man having his limb amputated as a result of injuries sustained from constant handcuffing, according to two whistleblowers who worked at the site.
The sources described harrowing treatment of detainees at the Israeli Sde Teiman camp, which holds Palestinians from Gaza and suspected Hamas militants, including inmates regularly being kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded and forced to wear nappies.
According to the two sources, the facility, located approximately 18 miles from the Gaza border, consists of two distinct sections: an enclosure where up to 200 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are confined under severe physical restrictions inside cages, and a field hospital where dozens of patients with war injuries are handcuffed to their beds and often deprived of pain relief.
One whistleblower, who has worked in the facility as a prison guard, said detainees were forced to stand up for hours, or to sit on their knees. The source, who spoke out at risk of reprisals, said several detainees were beaten with truncheons and not able to move their heads or to speak at the facility.
“The prisoners are detained in a sort of cages, all blindfolded and handcuffed,” the source said. “If someone speaks or moves, they are immediately silenced or they are forced to stand with their hands raised above their head and handcuffed for up to one hour.
“If they are unable to keep their hands raised, the soldiers attach the handcuffs to the bars of the cage. Many of the detainees had infected wounds that were not being properly treated.”
[snip]
The prison guard’s statements are corroborated by a second whistleblower who spoke to the Guardian and who was part of the medical staff operating in the field hospital in Sde Teiman.
“There were about 15 patients in total, they were all handcuffed and blindfolded,” he said. “They were naked, wearing diapers and were covered by blankets. Most of them appeared to have obvious war injuries, some had undergone amputations and others underwent major abdominal or chest surgery. They were practically naked except for a diaper.”
The member of the medical staff added: “I understand that it is difficult to treat a patient accused of heinous crimes, but it is the job we have chosen and as physicians we should recognise that every human being has a right to appropriate healthcare regardless of their backgrounds.”
There’s a lot packed into that article, and the link under “the facility” in the excerpt above is a big deal. It goes to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which says this about the conditions in this camp (emphasis in the original):
The testimonies of innocent people held in the Sde Teiman Military Base and released after being interrogated painted a horrifying picture of inhumane prison conditions, humiliation and torture. The detainees are held in a kind of cage, crowded, sitting on their knees in a painful position for many hours every day. They are handcuffed at all hours of the day and blindfolded. This is how they eat, relieve themselves and receive medical care.
Detainees at the facility were physically punished by tying them to a fence for hours with their hands raised. Those whose hands were tired and took them down were beaten. In addition, soldiers at the facility beat detainees, extinguished cigarettes on them, urinated on detainees, and deprived them of food, toilets, and sleep. Additional evidence of the inhumane conditions in the detention facility arises from requests from doctors, who serve in the hospital established at the base, for the purpose of treating detainees. They testify that detainees’ arms and legs are routinely amputated due to handcuffed wounds, lack of medication, inadequate medical care, violence suffered by detainees, and lack of food.
I have no complaints about those who have received the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions in the face of enemy fire. But folks like the heroes of My Lai and the anonymous guard and medic at Sde Teiman publicly confirming what released prisoners have said about the actions of the Israeli Defense Force are even more heroic. It’s one thing to stand up to “the enemy,” but standing up to your brothers and sisters in arms when they violate basic humanitarian norms — putting your own bodies in the path of their weapons — is truly amazing.
Enjoy your BBQ this weekend — a tradition that has been part of Memorial Day since the beginning (at least in Carbondale) — and a raise a glass to Thompson, Andreotta, Colburn, and all those who defend civilians, even in the midst of war.
Because that’s when civilians are most in need of protection.
Thank you for this thoughtful, timely, and moving piece.
Thank you for writing this and reminding us what it should be that we fight for in our wars. If we become savage like our enemies, then we do not deserve to win the battles.
Tying this to what is happening in Israel-Gaza is another reminder of why young people and older ones, as well, are outraged at the de-humanization of Palestinians, the starvation, and the mistreatment they are suffering. This country, by continuing to supply arms to Israel for their war, is complicit in the savagery. I fear that Trump’s sociopathic influence has permanently scarred our ability to express and uphold compassion for others, including our enemies. Who will be the heroes in this government who will make changes in our international policies to counter the spread of this kind of evil, perpetrated by Netanyahu’s corruption?
Two words: Pat Tillman.
For those looking for a few more words on this . . .
https://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/23/pat-tillman-was-a-man-not-just-a-symbol-2/
Thanks Peter, at this point, I don’t think I could have even found that post from all those years ago.
Yes. Thank you for mentioning his name.
It always bothered me that so many local American law enforcement agencies train with or are trained by IDF personnel or Former IDF. Now, understanding that this cruel streak within the IDF is alive and well only leads me to greater angst about these people training our local cops.
It’s unhelpful that Israel is so automatically vilified, and that folks don’t bother to do research, but just accept what they think they know. It’s particularly troubling on this site, where folks are so smart, and generally respect research. But: “New study finds food supply to Gaza more than sufficient for population’s needs.”
Food delivered through crossings “provided for a mean of 3,163 calories per person per day’ for Gazans, 40% higher than the accepted humanitarian standard for daily calorie intake” I’m not sure if I can post the link? It’s from today’s Times of Israel. It’s worth reading. More:
“A group of highly respected academics and public health officials who authored a working paper on the amount of food entering the Gaza Strip during the war have concluded that the supply from January through April is sufficient for the population’s daily energy and protein needs.”
They calculate that over 3,000 cal/day/person should be available. ” If this is true, then why the hunger in Gaza?”[The study] pointed to numerous reports of Hamas combatants seizing aid consignments and aid convoys being looted by Palestinians as reasons why aid may not have reached those in need.” I do think people should take a look at this article. I’ll post the link as a reply to this comment, if that’s ok. (Not sure of the protocols here.)
Here’s the link — I’ll put in a space. https://www.timesofisrael.c om/new-study-finds-food-supply-to-gaza-more-than-sufficient-for-populations-needs/
What does this kind of “whataboutism” add to the discussion? Surely you’re not suggesting that the looting of aid convoys justifies or excuses human rights abuses?
Being a whistleblower in this kind of situation is never easy. I’m reminded of the case of the senior British officer in Afghanistan who investigated and publicised the extrajudicial killings of civilians by the SAS. In spite of all his work, he (presumed he) is still only known as “N1466”, for his own safety. https://aoav.org.uk/2024/n1466-how-a-senior-british-army-officer-blew-the-whistle-alleging-war-crimes-by-sas-in-afghanistan/
The pre-peer reviewed Working Paper TOI refers to relies upon data supplied by COGAT of the Israeli Defense Ministry and is in direct contradiction to both the U.N. and Pentagon (among others) reports regarding aid and starvation as a weapon.
There are numerous reports in the public domain, with evidence, of Israeli “Settlers” blocking and attacking aid convoys.
This has been widely condemned by both the U.S. and the International community.
Also see:
“ How Experts Believe Starvation Is Being Utilized in Gaza”
MALLORY MOENCH
Time
January 6, 2024
What a load. If you think the situation in Gaza is “sufficient”, you are a fool, and a pernicious one at that. And, yes, I feel educated enough to say so. Thanks.
FWIW, there’s a paragraph in the Wikipedia entry for “The Times of Israel” that states the following:
However, Haaretz reported that a Times of Israel co-founder gave $1.5 million in 2012 to a right-wing group that routinely goes after news outlets over their coverage of Israel. Haaretz stated that Times of Israel owner Seth Klarman “supports other conservative, media-related organizations and groups that seek to counter anti-Israel bias or have a right-wing agenda”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_of_Israel
“Automatically villified?” LOL and a good indicator your argument is state propaganda.
Israel has the most vehemently protected reputation on the planet. Politicians in the US and UK, for example, routinely lose their seats, their party membership, or their Cabinet position owing to millions spent opposing them for daring to criticize Israel, for not being sufficiently supportive of it, or for daring to give those it opposes equal time in the public marketplace. AIPAC in the US is only one organization that spends multiple tens of millions doing that, mostly against Democratic congresscritters, and has never spent more than it has this cycle.
As for your argument about the purported sufficiency of food deliveries, your source is ultimately the IDF. Truth being the first casualty of war, the odds that it would fairly report conditions its own warfare creates seem low.
Apart from your suspect source, your statistics are cherry-picked and your factual assumptions are implausible. Aid deliveries are inadequate. Ask WCK, the UN, reporters, and other public and private aid agencies. Conditions are not those of an orderly clean cafeteria: they are chaotic and inconsistent. Individuals and families do not receive a predictable, timely share of food and water.
When deliveries fail or are inadequate, friends and parents routinely share the little food they have with those who have less, especially children and the old and sick, which deprives them of your purportedly sufficient daily intake.
Lastly, your notion of what constitutes sufficient minimum calories is flawed. It varies considerably, and correlates with age, health, stress, workload, and heat stress. The Gazan population, for example, has poor health indicators, lives in a high-heat environment, and has been under enormous stress for months. It’s daily caloric intake needs are not average. In order to manage its own troops, the IDF will have generated a plethora of studies of exactly such things.
For comparison, Allied soldiers operating in WWII SE Asia needed over 4000 calories a day. Bureaucrats in DC and London chose to believe that was excessive, given the food shortages their home populations faced. They arbitrarily reduced the caloric content of rations to just over the level domestic civilians should have been getting, but were not: about 2000 cal./day. The results were disastrous. In Gaza, we’re talking about an entire population.
About the efforts of a single Israeli-affilated political lobbying arm’s efforts in the US – just in 2024:
https://www.salon.com/2024/05/24/very-abnormal-expert-worries-pro-israel-megadonors-trying-to-make-dems-a-pro-netanyahu-party/
Well, maybe vehemently protected in 2 countries. In the rest of the planet, not so much.
An exaggerated undercount for a reporter.
It appears that, to some observers, the automatic vilification operates in two directions:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/opinion/publishing-literary-antisemitism.html
The original commentator pointedly used the term “vilification,” a form of defamation, lying. It accused Israeli critics of “automatically” lying about Israeli intentions and deeds. That’s an outcome state propaganda, like Donald Trump. prefers, so that it can taint or neuter fact-based criticism and proceed without accountability. Suggesting that both sides are doing it promotes that effort.
Video and pictures of emaciated children, and the expressions on the faces of children waiting in line for food contradict Mehitabel’s statements. A picture is always worth more than a thousand words.
Note to self,
Mehitabel is a proven unreliable EW community gaslighter, shit poster who posts IDF approved propaganda.
Please prove me wrong.
If you suspect a commenter is concern trolling, don’t encourage them with replies like this.
Seriously, I have enough on my plate moderating the MAGA horde today, don’t need to police itchy regulars.
Thank you Peterr, for this post. I did not know the story of Hugh Thompson, Jr., Glenn Andreotta, and Lawrence Colburn, and it is a fitting one for Memorial Day.
I cannot fail to see the parallels between our treatment of captives at black sites, at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and the IDF camp. Currently, I’m reading “Everyone Who is Gone is Here” by Jonathan Blitzer, which chronicles our policies in Latin American for the past 60 years or so. The impact on civilians of our wars in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras continues to play out now. It’s both enraging and indispensable.
If you have a Paramount+ subscription you can watch the 60 MInutes documentary “Back to My Lai”. In 1998 Colburn and Thompson returned to Vietnam to talk with people they had saved. It’s a moving program. I was struck by how much guilt these men felt about what happened. I bet Lt. Calley didn’t feel that much guilt, if any.
I was 8 when the Mai Lai massacre happened.
Twenty plus years later, I opened a box in my parents attic and found a newspaper wrapping it’s contents
The headline recounted the events at Mai Lai – in the Boone (Iowa) News Republican.
I am stunned by this Vietnam story I am very curious how these heroes were treated when they returned home, e.g., by the families of the American soldiers who were killing civilians. I can’t imagine having to live with such memories,
I am truly amazed that anyone can come home from the horrors of war and not be a complete mess. My uncle was a WWII B-17 tailgunner who flew about 20 missions. You would never know it from his cheerful disposition. Some seem able to put it behind them; I don’t know how.
That Stars and Stripes piece linked to in the post talks about this in a couple of places.
Peterr,
1. Excerpt from your post:
“Thompson…ordered Colburn, his door gunner, to open fire on the US forces if they tried to prevent him from protecting the civilians. Colburn, without hesitation, concurred.”
I took that to mean Colburn opened fire on the American soldiers. But from what I read on Wikipedia’s entry on Thompson, Colburn did not open fire, he just aimed at them.
2. From Wikipedia entry on My Lai massacre:
One of the participants SP4 Lawrence C. La Croix – Squad Leader; testified favorably for Captain Medina during his trial. In 1993 sent a letter to Los Angeles Times, saying, “Now, 25 years later, I have only recently stopped having flashbacks of that morning. I still cannot touch a weapon without vomiting. I am unable to interact with any of the large Vietnamese population in Los Angeles for fear that they might find out who I am; and, because I cannot stand the pain of remembering or wondering if maybe they had relatives or loved ones who were victims at Mỹ Lai… some of us will walk in the jungles and hear the cries of anguish for all eternity.”
The word “if” is kind of important in that sentence: “. . . if they tried to prevent him from protecting the civilians.”
Since the American forces didn’t try to prevent Thompson from protecting the civilians, Colburn didn’t fire.
The My Lai massacre took a piece of the lives of every Viet Nam veteran. We all learned to not volunteer the fact we were Viet Nam veterans because we were all considered guilty of atrocities. Everyone else was innocent.
War experiences vary. My dad was one of the lucky ones. There was a lot of down time for B-17 guys, based in England. They played a lot of cards, and craps (dice), etc.
Dad flew on twenty-seven B-17 missions, most over Germany. I have his flight records, now copied onto my pc. Pulled them up today. At bottom of last page, this is what he wrote:
Thanks for posting, Fiesty. My dad was a navigator on a B-17, from Jul 1943 – Jun1944, (42 missions) then switched to reconnaissance using the Norden bombsight. He flew the 1943 Schweinfurt and Regensburg raids in which 8AF lost 50% of the planes. He NEVER EVER would talk about it or his friends.
Yeah. I have a friend whose dad never wanted to talk about it. Experience must not have been good. B-17 guy, too. As I said, experiences varied. My dad talked about it all the time, with lots of funny stories. Only a few stories on the not so good side.
When they shot the documentary, “Memphis Belle,” in 1943, there was a lot of unused footage. A few years ago, the footage was found, restored, and assembled as a documentary, along with interviews (mostly as voice-over) from surviving nonagenarian crew members. It’s called “The Cold Blue,” in testament to the freezing conditions they had flew in. Worth a look.
My father was in the US the whole time, and didn’t talk about it either. (Naval Aircraft Modification Unit. I have his flight jacket, with a pencil stub in one of the pockets.) HE didn’t talk about his work after, either.
Hosing out the remains of a tail gunner, who used to be a friend, can make one reluctant to talk. In that sense, the original film, Twelve O’Clock High, was realistic for its era.
B-17s are the most well-known heavy bomber from WWII, but there were lots of others – B-24s, Lancasters, and medium bombers, such as the B-25. A good friend spent six months flying one of those over Italy in 1944, based in Corsica, until he was shot down over northern Italy. All but one of his crew made it back. Before he did, he spent another four months with partisans. He never talked about what he did, but in addition to medals for flying, he was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for it.
From my time as a kid: 12 O’Clock High. Iconic. Also, for those not familiar, the Norden Bombsight was something special.
Uncle was AF (retired as a major). For D-Day, he was a glider tow pilot.
“Raymond McFalone” youtube channel has WWII B-17 vets describing their experiences 50+ years later. Unfiltered and riveting.
To bmaz, yes, the Norden bombsight was special, a combination of mechanical and analog computer, advanced optics, and an autopilot, which allowed the bombardier to fly the plane the “last mile” to the target. A practical application of the physics and math related to calculating a parabolic curve on the fly.
It was a vast improvement over its predecessors, but it still put only half a bomb load within a 1200 foot radius of the target. That’s almost a quarter mile, yielding a circle nearly half a mile in diameter. The other half landed farther away. Not what civilians would call “daylight precision bombing.” “Pattern bombing” tried to turn that into an asset.
You can find a nice summary of it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norden_bombsight
My dad might have helped your dad. He flew 74 sorties in P-47s out of Duxford, England. Many were bomber escort missions over France and Germany. He was 22 years old at the time. My mom was a WAC, and was in Paris the week after it was liberated. They married in London in December, 1944. I remain very proud of their service for our nation.
P-47 Thunderbolt, helluva flying tank.
That is extremely cool.
The point I didn’t make is that my siblings and I saw our parents as heroes. They didn’t see themselves that way. The casualty rate in Dad’s fighter group was around 50%. When his tour was finished, they offered a big promotion and some kind of bonus to sign up for another tour. He told them to stuff it (probably more colorfully than that) and shipped home. Neither Mom nor Dad talked much about the fighting, if at all, they spoke of little things. They are still heroes to me.
‘War experiences vary.’ Do they ever.
My father was gunnery officer on USS Case. When asked (as every man of his generation was in the ’50s) about his greatest war experience, he would say, ‘The time I drew 9 clubs and 4 hearts.’
After a good deal of effort and a lucky break, I found out some of the reasons he would not say more: At Iwo Jima, Case ran down and sank a Japanese destroyer. About 300 survivors were in the water, and Case moved in to succor them. They refused to be saved. All drowned.
I read a lot about the Pacific war. Many years after my father died, a colleague (who was still working though about to die, which he did two weeks after the incident I am about to relate), mentioned he had seen the suicides at Marpi Point from the deck of a transport where he was waiting to be landed on Saipan. And he had kept a diary, which was against regulations.
I asked if I could read it. He brought it in, and it fully confirmed the horror the Americans felt at Marpi. When I handed the diary back, he cried. For 35 years he had wanted someone to care about his experience but no one in his family would listen and I was the only person who ever read his diary.
Each survivor processes a war differently.
My dad was a grunt in Patton’s First Army, the Big Red One. He got to go on a sight-seeing tour of Europe via Omaha Beach. He had a handful of non-combat stories but would never, ever talk about the actual fighting, even when I would ask him directly. I guess the human mind protects itself by consciously forgetting certain things.
War isn’t the only human experience that applies to. Ask any mother about the joys of childbirth.
Thanks Peter
When I think of Viet Nam, my mind drifts to Tim O’Brien’s outstanding book.
“The primary theme in The Things They Carried is the burdens that everyone carries, specifically, in this case, the men fighting on the ground in the Vietnam war. The things that they carried were both physical, like their equipment, and metaphorical, like the weight of their emotional battles.” From the book’s summary
Thank you for mentioning The Things They Carried.
It was required reading for my son’s American Literature course.
Outstanding collection of short stories, indeed.
I was nearby when the atrocities took place at My Lai, but I didn’t know about it until years later. I note that it was Colin Powell’s first chance to lie publicly when he stated that the Army has an excellent working relationship with the people of My Lai. He had some public facing post at Chu Lai, where I was. I cannot recall his rank at the time.
What I wanted to mention here is that I have a photo I took of Glenn Andreotta’s name on the Wall when I was there on an honor’s flight. When Hugh Thompson and Larrry Colburn received their Soldier’s Medals thirty years later they turned around and gave Glenn his at that same place on the Wall.
The Stars and Stripes article at the link in the post has a photo gallery that includes a couple from that ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Thompson insisted that it take place there, rather than in some Pentagon briefing room or other more sterile place. There’s also a photo of the two of them when they returned to My Lai on a visit in 1998.
And Powell was a major at the time.
I was a member of one of the two Assault Helicopter Companies that inserted Calley’s troops into My Lai. I must have been flying into another corner of Hell that day and didn’t hear about it until November, 1969 and, like everyone else, I was horrified.
I had three good friends blown away near My Lai/Pinkville a few weeks before the massacre. I honestly don’t know how I’d have felt if I’d known about it real-time.
There were plenty of corners of Hell to go around in those days.
Thank you for this post, Peter. Makes a difference.
A favorite from Middlemarch:
“the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
~George Eliot~
Thanks, Peterr! The comparisons between our failures in Vietnam and Israel’s failures right now in Gaza bring tears.
I was at an outdoor pop concert this evening in Palmer, Alaska. During a band break, by chance, three Vietnam War Veterans got together for the first time, where we got to know each other, and parts of our pasts relating to that awful, shameful war. This episode at My Lai came up. Serendipity!
Though there was no direct comparison in our wandering discussion to the Negev camp you mention, the growing barbarity in Ukraine and Gaza did come up more generally. We three agreed that Taiwan is next. Sooner, rather than later.
Monday I will be at the Veterans’ Wall of Honor in Wasilla, where I have been honored several times in the past to play Taps at the ceremony close. After this year’s ceremony, I will try to corner Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan to call him a liar for having told me last June that he would save the 11th Airborne Division Band. They are being disbanded, so to say, this week.
Phil!!! I hope you have a great day today!
I knew only the barebones story of My Lai — thank you for writing this enlightening and moving post about these American heroes. You inspired me to read more about them.
It was a major event, Not coincidentally, it was shortly after and probably payback for the losses and embarrassment of the Tet Offensive a month earlier. It took a long time for the public to wade through the investigative journalism, official lies, shouting from either side of the issue, and so on.
My Lai occurred in March 1968. The Vietnam draft and war were raging, it was shortly before the deaths of MLK and Bobby Kennedy, the end of the Johnson era, and, as it turned out, the beginning of the Nixon era. Things were pretty hot.
Many thanks for this, it brought a good tear to my eye.
Perfect title.
Happy Memorial Day to all!
Thanks for this touching post.
My father was the younger of two sons, and his brother enlisted in WWII as soon as he was old enough—toward the end of the war—and did his service mostly in Northern Europe. Despite his terrible eyesight, he was apparently a scout.
He lived through the German surrender in 1945 and was mopping up in Holland when he was shot dead by a sniper, whose identity and affiliation remain unknown. His loss left a huge hole in my father’s family. They couldn’t afford to pay to have the body shipped to the US, so he was buried in the Netherlands. They were bitter about that until their deaths, and that bitterness came to define them.
When my mom was pregnant with me, she & dad decided if I was a boy, I’d be named after my uncle, and so I was. Trips to Grandma & Grandpa’s house were always tinged with a palpable undercurrent of grief and loss. By extension, my childhood experience was inevitably colored by the absence of the uncle I’d never meet. My dad didn’t often speak about his brother, who had once saved his life as a child after Dad fell through the ice at a lake. Occasionally I’d get up in the middle of the night and find Dad watching some war film or other—often black & white— perhaps vicariously saving his brother or avenging his death.
Dad died about 35 years ago, and when Mom passed 3 years ago, I was entrusted with my uncle’s burial flag, neatly folded in its wooden display case. When we moved to the mountains a year and a half ago, I put it up on top of a shelving unit in my man-cave, where it had since gathered quite a bit of dust.
Today, for some reason—maybe this post—I decided to take the flag out and wash it. While it was washing, I lemon/almond oiled its display case. Once the flag was dry, my wife & I folded it, & I nestled it back into the case. It felt very satisfying. This may become a yearly ritual to honor my namesake uncle’s service, as well as that of all the fallen US soldiers.
Just want to thank you, Peterr, and the rest of the company of commenters, for truly bringing home to me the emotional and moral import of today’s remembrances. I remember My Lai, after a fashion (from the perspective of an at the time brash young know-nothing “Hippies GOOD / Soldiers BAD” kid with a lucky medical deferment). I deeply appreciate everyone’s memories posted here.
Tangentially, I find that my local library has zero copies of “Memphis Belle,” and FOUR copies of “Cold Blue,” one of which I’ve requested. Again, my thanks to all.
The Cold Blue is awesome.
I watched Memphis Belle on TCM last night. I’d never seen it. I had a mixed reaction. It does not nearly convey the lethality combined with military futility that characterized the bomber offensive, especially in 1943.
A reporter would put Memphis Belle’s mid-WWII production date into the context of a war not yet won. D-Day was a year away when it was made. Saving Private Ryan’s D-Day horrors would not have made it into a popular film in 1944 either. Film censorship and propaganda were the norm on all sides then.
Did you watch The Cold Blue and a separate making-of documentary, broadcast right after Memphis Belle?
My point, which I failed to convey, was that — given what we know today — the 8th AF triumphalism in Belle, however understandable in the context of the active war, is now seriously misleading.
We do not even have to say ‘today.’ While the war was going on P.M.S. Blackett advised the British government that the bombing campaign was costing more than it was worth. (My father’s brother was a bombardier in the 8th. Like my father, he never spoke about what he had experienced.)
I did not watch The Cold Blue.
My point, which I did convey, was that The Cold Blue and the documentary about it were both more accurate about the physical cost of the bombing campaign in Northern Europe, which might be one reason they were broadcast immediately following Memphis Belle.
A 1943 war propaganda film is seriously misleading only when reported without accurate context.
Blackett was recognized after the war as being correct about the relative ineffectivenes of the bombing campaign, compared to other defensive measures it could have taken, such as installing more radar or greater efforts against U-boats. Few agreed with him at the time.
Want to take a moment to share my appreciation with everyone here at EW who serves or has served in the USAF or our friends and allies abroad.
Although I have not served myself, I’m grateful to have numerous members of both my family and my wife’s family who did and I’m grateful for the perspective that they’ve offered me.
Here’s to a quiet and enjoyable day for you all… and if that’s not possible, then a safe and successful one instead.
Today is the anniversary of my uncle’s birthday. He wasn’t even 30 years old when he died in February 1944, I believe in the attack on Gotha described below. His gravestone says:
2 Lieut 577 AAF Bomb Squad
World War II
Here’s a wiki excerpt:
“The unit was first established in January 1943 as the 577th Bombardment Squadron. After training with Consolidated B-24 Liberators in the
United States, the squadron deployed to the European Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany.
The squadron was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions in an attack on Gotha, Germany in February 1944.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/577th_Strategic_Missile_Squadron
His younger brother wasn’t even 20 when he died in a flight training operation just 8 months after his older brother. My father became a major in the army. He survived the war but he had PTSD and died in his early 50s. Their father (my grandfather) was an inventor and businessman who acted as a liaison for the federal government and independent shop owners, co-ordinating efforts to re-tool machinery to produce materials for the war.
Thank you Peter for this amazing piece. I’m a third generation American war veteran who learned what my father and grandfather acknowledged: that in war we become what we fight against. I am thinking about the young woman long ago who was checking my groceries on Memorial Day. Upon hearing that I am a veteran, she smiled and said “awesome that musta been exciting.” My heart paused until I could get it together enough to respond that it was neither awesome nor exciting. Since then I flinch when someone says “thank you for your service.”
My great grandfather, H.S. Thompson, fired the first shot of the Civil War. He commanded the cadet regiment from the Citadel that fired on Star of the West.
On Saturday, I took my grandson, who is 9, to put flags on veterans’ graves with the Cub Scouts. I tried to explain to him that his ancestors had fought in many wars, not always on the right side. I don’t think he understood my point, but he did tell me that the next war will be really bad, which I wish someone had told me back in the days when my views were shaped mostly by Sgt. Rock comics and the next war was Vietnam.
My great-grandfather (father’s maternal grandfather) was a Civil War veteran; he enlisted in late 1962, and made it all the way through. His older brother had enlisted before that and also survived. Uncle Ques had a son in France in WW1, who caught several machine-gun bullets and survived; my mother’s father had that happen also, and played dead while a German soldier stole his razor (he was lying on top of his pistol). World war 2 – that was both sides; my father had two brothers on ships in the South Pacific, and they came back after getting to Tokyo.
Me, too. I’m ashamed to remember how ignorant I was- just willful ignorance. I want to tell those folks to pay attention to the world, if you really want to thank me for my service. Because ignorance is a sorry excuse.
Professor Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law runs a “Famous Trials” website, which includes a page about the My Lai massacre courts martial trials. The page opens like this:
In addition to general description, there are a bunch of links to supporting documents and other information. My personal favorite is a letter from the prosecutor Aubrey Daniel to President Nixon, after Nixon took Calley’s life sentence at hard labor and converted it to a weekend in the stockade and then ordered him placed under house arrest while Nixon considered adjusting Calley’s sentence. Three years later, in November 1974 (after Nixon had resigned and been pardoned himself), the Army announced that Calley would be released on parole.
The Army’s defense of Calley is a good indicator that it wasn’t just circling the wagons to defend itself against war crime accusations.
It was defending its own payback for having been caught short over the Tet Offensive, which severely embarrassed US forces, and generated a sea change in American public perception that the war was winnable.