"Last week, a group of Democratic congresspeople, all of them veterans either from the military or from the intelligence agencies, released a video in which they reminded people currently serving that, not only are they able to refuse an illegal order, but that those in the military are required to do so. This, of course, sent the usual escadrille of flying monkeys into low-earth orbit, from the president and the vice president all the way down the opinion food chain to Bill Maher."
"[Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr.] flew an OH-23 Raven at the time of the My Lai Massacre. In the early morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson's OH-23 encountered no enemy fire over My Lai 4. Spotting two possible Viet Cong suspects, he forced the Vietnamese men to surrender and flew them off for a tactical interrogation. Thompson also marked the location of several wounded Vietnamese with green smoke, a signal that they needed help."
"Returning to the My Lai area at around 0900 after refueling, he noticed that the people he had marked were now dead. Out in a paddy field beside a dike 200 metres (660 ft) south of the village, he marked the location of a wounded young Vietnamese woman. Thompson and his crew watched from a low hover as Captain Ernest Medina (commanding officer of C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment) came up to the woman, prodded her with his foot, and then shot and killed her. Thompson then flew over an irrigation ditch filled with dozens of bodies."
"Shocked at the sight, he radioed his accompanying gunships, knowing his transmission would be monitored by many on the radio net: It looks to me like there's an awful lot of unnecessary killing going on down there. Something ain't right about this. There's bodies everywhere. There's a ditch full of bodies that we saw. There's something wrong here."
Veteran Democratic lawmakers released a video reminding active-duty personnel that they can and are required to refuse illegal orders, provoking political backlash. Hugh Clowers Thompson Jr. flew an OH-23 Raven over My Lai on March 16, 1968, encountered no enemy fire, and detained two suspected Viet Cong for interrogation. He marked several wounded villagers with green smoke to request aid. After refueling he returned to find the marked people dead, observed Captain Ernest Medina kill a wounded woman, and flew over an irrigation ditch filled with dozens of bodies, then radioed that unnecessary killing was occurring.
Read at www.esquire.com
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