[lurkalot]

Hugh Thompson

HAVE you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you're a man reprieved to go
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same,—and War's a bloody game....
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.

"Aftermath", Sassoon

[Kevin]

My eyes bled.

[aberdeenwriter]

Originally Posted by Kevin

My eyes bled.

Mine too! Maybe his Black ink cart ran dry and he didn't have a back-up.

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.

[dcmacdaddy]

More details from washingtonpost.com. Sad he didn't get recognized for his actions
until 30 years later. But he did get recognized eventually, which is a good thing.


My Lai Hero Hugh Thompson Jr. Dies at 62
By JESSICA BUJOL
The Associated Press
Saturday, January 7, 2006; 8:06 AM

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."

© 2006 The Associated Press

[dcmacdaddy]

dp.

[Kevin]

Yes we honor those that do good, and punish those that do bad.

I wish other groups would latch on to that thought process.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yes we honor those that do good, and punish those that do bad.

I wish other groups would latch on to that thought process.

Yes, but we don't always "punish those that do bad". Nixon pardoned Calley.

Try not to always speak in generalities.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy

Yes, but we don't always "punish those that do bad". Nixon pardoned Calley.

Try not to always speak in generalities.

Well it's a good thing I never said always.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Well it's a good thing I never said always.

By not speaking in the specific sense you used an implied "always". If you wanted to say "generally" or "in this case" or usually" you could have. By not using any qualifier your statement reads as "always".

Good to know you didn't mean it in this instance. If you remember to always qualify your statements with the degree of specificity intended you'll never have this problem of confused intent.

[Kevin]

Or maybe you just read too far into it ?

I never seen someone get so pissy over a general statement.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Or maybe you just read too far into it ?

I never seen someone get so pissy over a general statement.

One should never stop striving for clarity of thought and precision of expression.

[Kevin]

My post wasn't hard to understand. You just over-reacted, and started being petty about inane things.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

My post wasn't hard to understand. You just reacted in a defensive attack mode way.

Originally Posted by Kevin

My post wasn't hard to understand. You just over-reacted, and started being petty about inane things.

No defensive or over-reaction, Zimphy. Just correcting you on your mis-statement about how we [always] do good.

PS--Good job on editing your post. See, isn't clarity of thought always a good thing?

[Kevin]

DC, you are projecting the word "always" into a post that doesn't belong. It doesn't say that, nor did I mean that. If you INJECTED that word into my post, it is of no fault but your own.

And I suggest you get over it already.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

DC, you are projecting the word "always" into a post that doesn't belong. It doesn't say that, nor did I mean that. If you INJECTED that word into my post, it is of no fault but your own.

And I suggest you get over it already.

And again, you didn't qualify your statement in any way so it could be read in any number of ways. It could be read as "always" or "most" or "many" or "some" or "few".

You have already said you didn't mean "always" so how did YOU mean the sentence to read? Which particular modifier did you have in mind to qualify this statement if you didn't mean "always"? One of the above modifiers or a different one?

[Kevin]

dcmacdaddy I got something for you.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

dcmacdaddy I got something for you.

Zimphy, read my sig.

What are you trying to say here with this graphic? it is neither clear nor precise.
Would you mind telling me what you mean by posting this graphic? Thanks!

[Kevin]

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Hmm, another unclear and imprecise graphic.
Should I take this to mean you can't clearly and precisely articulate what you wanted to say with the previous graphic?

If you can't clearly and precisely articulate what you want to say you might want to give up on replying to my posts.

[Kevin]

Does "anal retentive" have a hyphen?

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Does "anal retentive" have a hyphen?

Depends on how you spell it.

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy

More details from washingtonpost.com...etc

The WP article (AP) you posted is word for word identical to the one I linked in the first message.

The rest of your messages in this thread are replies to someone who is impervious to reason. Thanks for aiding his efforts to f^ck up every thread at MacNN.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by lurkalot

The rest of your messages in this thread are replies to someone who is impervious to reason. Thanks for aiding his efforts to f^ck up every thread at MacNN.

Wow and your personal attacks do nothing to help.

BTW, I wasn't the one that screwed up the thread.

Petty inane grammar nazing did.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by lurkalot

The WP article (AP) you posted is word for word identical to the one I linked in the first message.

The rest of your messages in this thread are replies to someone who is impervious to reason. Thanks for aiding his efforts to f^ck up every thread at MacNN.

Heh, I didn't follow your link. I just thought the green text was an excerpt. And as it was un-readable I cut-and-pasted the WP article I read on him yesterday. My bad.

Oh, and lay off Zimphy. No personal attacks on other members.

[lurkalot]

Originally Posted by aberdeenwriter

Mine too! Maybe his Black ink cart ran dry and he didn't have a back-up.

I imagined it to be the green of the Spring. The text just a little more vague since it wasn't the main item in the post. A silent reminder from an even more distant past. Yet not so different. If all caps are shouts than this green is a whisper. Barely to be heard over the plain language of the main article and the events of today, but there nevertheless.

Like the rest of the poem although that can't be seen at all in the post. Or the rest of Sassoon's writing... etc...

There is no harm in putting a bit of effort into discerning the point of a message and the reasons behind actions. The green was a visual tool that aided my message in more than one way. Not everything needs to be spelled out, does it? Thanks for playing.

[Jawbone54]

AAAIIIEEEE!!! Too many thumbs-ups!!!

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

AAAIIIEEEE!!! Too many thumbs-ups!!!

to that!

[aberdeenwriter]

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy

Heh, I didn't follow your link. I just thought the green text was an excerpt. And as it was un-readable I cut-and-pasted the WP article I read on him yesterday. My bad.

Oh, and lay off Zimphy. No personal attacks on other members.

KEVIN is ZIMPHIRE???

No wonder I liked him!