High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Hugh C. Thompson, Jr.
(April 15, 1943 January 6, 2006) was a United States Army
helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. He is chiefly known for
his role in curtailing the My Lai Massacre, in which several
hundred unarmed civilians were killed by soldiers of the U.S. Army.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Thompson grew up in rural Stone Mountain,
Georgia to strict parents. After dropping out of Troy State
University, he volunteered for the US Navy in 1961 and served with
a Seabee construction unit from 1961 to 1964. After his enlistment
was up he returned home to Georgia and ran a funeral home. Having
always wanted to fly, he joined the US Army in 1966 and trained to
become a helicopter pilot at Fort Wolters and Rucker. He arrived in
Vietnam in late December 1967, and joined the 161st Assault
Helicopter Company, which was reorganized into the 123rd Aviation
Battalion of the 23rd Americal Division in January 1968.
