Lawrence Colburn

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Lawrence Colburn (born July 6, 1949 in Coulee Dam , Washington , † December 13, 2016 in Canton , Georgia ) was a veteran in the United States Army who served as a gunner of a helicopter during the Vietnam War . Together with the rest of the helicopter crew, Hugh Thompson junior and Glenn Andreotta , he was instrumental in bringing an end to the Mỹ Lai massacre . For this he and the other two were awarded the Soldier's Medal in 1998 and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in 1999.

Life

Colburn was born in Coulee Dam , Washington in 1949. After leaving high school without a degree, he joined the US Army in 1966. After the beginning of the Vietnam War , he was transferred to South Vietnam in December 1967 and assigned to the 161st Assault Helicopter Company (later 123rd Aviation Battalion ). Together with Hugh Thompson junior (pilot) and Glenn Andreotta (maintenance technician, gunner) he formed the crew of a Hiller H-23 reconnaissance helicopter .

The Mỹ Lai massacre

On the morning of March 16, 1968, Thompson, Andreotta and Colburn received the order to support the action of Task Force Barker in taking the village of Sơn Mỹ (to which Mỹ Lai also belongs) with their helicopter . When they flew over the village several times, they finally became aware of the massacre that had begun on the ground. Under threat of armed force against the soldiers advancing on the ground, the three eleven Vietnamese civilians were able to save and fly out.

Although the US Army tried to cover up the massacre, the helicopter crew received an award for their rescue operation. Colburn and Andreotta received the Bronze Star (Andreotta posthumously) while Thompson received the Distinguished Flying Cross .

Life after the Vietnam War

After the Vietnam War, Colburn left the US Army and went into the private sector. He later ran a company in Atlanta that sold orthopedic materials.

Thirty years after the massacre, Colburn, Thompson and Andreotta were awarded the Soldier's Medal (posthumously) . The Soldier's Medal is the US armed forces’s highest honor that can be bestowed for acts without direct enemy action. If they were considered to be polluting the nest for years , their reputation within the armed forces had improved massively. During the award ceremony it was said that the three had set a standard that all other soldiers had to follow.

In 2010, Lawrence Colburn established the Hugh Thompson Foundation in honor of Hugh Thompson . The organization takes care of the concerns of soldiers and war veterans who, like Thompson, Andreotta and Colburn, made the right decision and were attacked or punished for it. He died in December 2016 at his home in Georgia, USA, of complications from liver cancer .

Honors

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Larry Colburn, Who Helped Stop My Lai Massacre, Dies at 67. In: The New York Times , December 16, 2016 (accessed December 19, 2016).
  2. ↑ Trent Angers: The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story . 1st edition. Acadian House Pub, Lafayette 1999, ISBN 978-0-925417-33-6 .
  3. ↑ Michael Bilton, Kevin Sim: Four Hours in My Lai: A War Crime and Its Aftermath . 2nd Edition. Penguin Books, London 1993, ISBN 978-0-14-017709-1 .
  4. ↑ Minutes of the Senate of March 10, 1998 (PDF; 217 kB), accessed on January 5, 2016
  5. ^ Background of the Hugh Thompson Foundation , www.hughthompson.org ( Memento from March 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award since 1988 www.peaceabbey.org, accessed January 5, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Colburn, Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American soldier in the Vietnam War
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Coulee Dam , Washington
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 2016
Place of death Canton , Georgia