BROUSSARD, La. — In 1968, Army helicopter pilot Hugh C. Thompson Jr. set down his chopper and put a stop to one of the darkest episodes in U.S. military history: the massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai.
Thompson and his crew rescued villagers from U.S. soldiers who were forcing women, children and old men into a ditch and killing them.
Those actions are now a basic part of every Army soldier's education. Thompson speaks to servicemen in all branches of the military and lectures future Army officers at West Point every year on a key military imperative: Report wrongdoing by fellow soldiers.
"I tell them to stand up for what they feel is right. Do the right thing. Don't get involved in negative peer pressure. Be ready to take responsibility for your actions," Thompson said.
That lesson was apparently forgotten by some soldiers in the Iraqi prison abuse scandal.
"It's just real hard to understand how it could happen, because these people have been taught. They've been taught from basic training on forward," the 61-year-old Thompson said.
At least one soldier did, in fact, report the abuse at the U.S.-run prison near Baghdad.
Spc. Joe Darby, an Army mechanic, discovered photographs documenting prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison and slipped the photographs under the door of military criminal investigators, avoiding the prison's commanders because "he did not quite have faith in the chain of command," said Col. Jill Morgenthaler, an Army public affairs officer in Baghdad.
Darby later came forward to identify himself as the person who had handed over the images, Morgenthaler said.
Seven U.S. soldiers face criminal charges for acts that included putting Iraqi prisoners in sexually humiliating positions and photographing them.
In Vietnam, Thompson reported something far more grisly.
He was a 24-year-old pilot flying over the Vietnamese jungle on March 16, 1968. The crew's objective: draw Viet Cong fire from My Lai, so helicopter gunships could swoop in and take out the enemy gunners.
Thompson spotted gunfire but found no enemy fighters. He saw only American troops, who were forcing Vietnamese civilians into a ditch, then opening fire.
Thompson landed his helicopter to block the Americans, then instructed his gunner to open fire on the soldiers if they tried to harm any more villagers. Thompson and two other chopper pilots airlifted villagers to safety, and he reported the slaughter to superiors.
"We saw something going wrong, so we did the right thing and we reported it right then," Thompson said.
The Vietnamese government estimated that more than 500 were killed.
Army Lt. William Calley Jr. was convicted in a 1971 court-martial and received a life sentence for the My Lai massacre. President Nixon reduced the sentence, and Calley served three years of house arrest.
Thompson received the prestigious Soldier's Medal — 30 years after the fact.
His acts are now considered heroic. But for years Thompson suffered snubs and worse from those in and out of the military who considered his actions unpatriotic.
Fellow servicemen refused to speak with him. He received death threats and walked out his door to find animal carcasses on his porch. He recalled a congressman angrily saying that Thompson himself was the only serviceman who should be punished because of My Lai.
Today, West Point considers Thompson and his story essential to educating its cadets.
"Hugh Thompson is a great example of individual responsibility," said Col. Tom Kolditz, head of the Army academy's behavioral sciences and leadership department. "He took initiative, he took action, to establish institutional values in a situation where they were not operating."
Thompson now works for the state of Louisiana, counseling veterans on their benefits. His advice for soldiers given an illegal order: Report it, but don't expect thanks.
"Don't do the right thing looking for a reward," he said, "because it might not come."