00:00On March 16th, 1968, U.S. Army helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson watched American soldiers massacring unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a
00:09village called Mai Lai.
00:10He didn't radio it in. He didn't wait for orders. He landed his helicopter between the troops and the villagers.
00:16Then he told his crew to aim their weapons at fellow American soldiers and open fire if they moved forward.
00:22He saved around 10 lives that day. Then he filed his reports, and the Army buried them.
00:27For years, the officers who ordered the killings received medals and promotions.
00:33Thompson was quietly blacklisted. His career was destroyed. Other soldiers called him a traitor.
00:39Over 500 civilians died at Mai Lai. The Army covered it up for more than a year.
00:44Thompson spent three decades being punished for doing the right thing.
00:48In 1998, he finally received the soldier's medal, the same honor some of the killers had already received.
00:54He said accepting it was one of the hardest things he ever did.
00:57Some wars don't end when the shooting stops.
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