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Lawrence Colburn, an Army helicopter gunner who along with two comrades intervened in the U.S. slaughter of unarmed villagers in My Lai during the Vietnam War, an act of heroism for which he received the Soldier’s Medal three decades after the fact, died Dec. 13 at his home in Canton, Ga. He was 67.
The cause was liver cancer, said his wife, Lisa Colburn.
Mr. Colburn was an 18-year-old Army specialist when he witnessed the massacre of hundreds of civilians in the hamlet of My Lai, in the Quang Ngai Province of South Vietnam, as it was underway on March 16, 1968. Nearly a half-century later, the killings loom in memory as one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. military history, as well as a tragic demonstration of the searing psychological effects of war on those called to fight.
“The massacre was horrific, and the cover-up was horrific, and this kid did something special,” said journalist Seymour M. Hersh, who won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing the massacre. “He’s as much of a hero as anybody I can think of.”
He was a brave man, did the right thing and helped innocent people, not just his own "side". We need more people like him. He and his two comrades did the right, but difficult action.
Wow. I knew about My Lai but did not really knew about the injustices that occurred afterward until I just read about it in the wiki link above. Shocking and also angry that basically no one was penalized for those atrocities except for one guy and he served 3 years of house arrest!
Quote:
The Mỹ Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰɐ̃ːm ʂɐ̌ːt mǐˀ lɐːj], [mǐˀlɐːj] ( listen); /ˌmiːˈlaɪ/, /ˌmiːˈleɪ/, or /ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/)[1] was the Vietnam War mass killing of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. It was committed by U.S. Army soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.[2][3] 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.
He and his comrades, Hugh Thompson Jr and Glenn Andreotta took a stand against their fellow soldiers and did was was right and humane.
The military teaches that one must oppose unlawful orders.
But it is one thing to receive that sort of academic instruction, and yet another to actually stand up in a combat zone and force your own countrymen at gunpoint to cease and desist.
The word 'hero' is overused, but it certainly applies in this case.
Note:
It does not weaken or undermine one's nation to call out its mistakes and offenses. It strengthens it.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man "Born In The U.S.A." BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
he was a brave man, did the right thing and helped innocent people, not just his own "side". We need more people like him. He and his two comrades did the right, but difficult action.
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