The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story [Hardcover]

Trent Angers (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

TRENT ANGERS, who was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature (2000 and 2001), is a veteran journalist who has authored thousands of published news and feature stories, as well as five books, in a writing and editing career that has spanned four decades.

His books are: The Truth About The Cajuns (1989); Dudley LeBlanc: A Biography (1993); The Forgotten Hero Of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (1999); Grand Coteau: The Holy Land of South Louisiana (2004); and An Airboat on the Streets of New Orleans (2008).

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Louisiana State University in 1970. Since 1975, Angers has been editor and publisher of Acadiana Profile, The Magazine of the Cajun Country, based in Lafayette, La.; it is one of the longest-running regional publications in the United States.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Acadian House Publishing; 1999 edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0925417335
• ISBN-13: 978-0925417336
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #440,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A significant contribution to the fight against indifference, August 30, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (Hardcover)

It is impossible not to be moved by this great story. Any serviceman will know that not obeying orders and even worse - to turn your weapons on your own and make a cristal clear threat - usually means severe trouble; either being shot at the spot or to be court-martialled and cicked out of the military. This is the unique story of a man and his crew who did just that. - To save some total strangers; some civilians they did't know and had no responsibility for. They could easily have turned their heads away, and gotten away from it. But they acted, and took charge. Humanity needs heroes and ideals that we can look up to and to lead us in difficult moments. The two surviving crew members have been my true heroes through more than ten of my military years. Their My Lai story of courage and ideals and high morale has been tought to Norwegian, Swedish and Danish soldiers and officers as military ethics, code of conduct and law of war for many years already. The British TV film on My Lai, shown also in all the Scandinavian countries should be seen by servicemen and particularly in all military academies all over the world. This book is an impressive and important milestone. My compliments and highest recommendation. Terje Lund. Major, Royal Norwegian Air Force, Attorney at law, Special adviser on international humanitarian law, Norwegian Red Cross. "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference." (Elie Wiesel)

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A long awaited story of what really happened at My Lai, August 9, 1999

By 

Bill Cavanaugh[[e-mail]] (Natick,MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (Hardcover)

Since the US Army finally got around to acknowledging the real heros of the My Lai massacre in March 1998 this book has been awaited by thousands of Americans who knew there was a great deal more than had been reported in the media and from official sources. Trent Angers' compelling story fills in all the details.Many of us who had served our country in the Vietnam period and previous conflicts knew that there had to be Americans who would not standby and permit killing of innocent non combatants by our own troops or by enemy forces for that matter. Something was dead wrong on that fateful day in March 1968 with the leadership of the military forces involved in an operation gone awry in the village of My Lai in central Vietnam.Now thanks to the clear reporting of CWO Hugh Thompson's story we know the full story of the undaunted courage and bravery of Thompson and his crew when they discovered the shocking truth that US troops were out of control and had committed unspeakable horror against unarmed women,children and elderly villagers in executing unlawful orders in a fundamently flawed search and destroy operation.

Author Angers brings to light events leading up to and following My Lai in vivid detail and the development of the ethical foundations of Thompson and his crew that did't allow them to look the other way on that fateful day.It is quite clear now that the Thompson crew stopped what could have been an even more egregious stain on the over two hundred year distinguished history of the US military.

As Angers tells us, the Thompson story did not come to light until a patriotic citizen soldier, Prof.David Egan of Clemson University saw a British documentary in 1989 and began a ten year crusade to see that this forgotten hero was justly recognized for restoring honor and integrety to the US Army he himself had served.

Angers telling of the Hugh Thompson story restores the faith faith of countless citizens that most of our soldiers in Vietnam served honorably and some like Hugh Thompson,Larry Colburn and their crewmate Glen Andriotta, honored on the Memorial Wall in Washington DC,were the real heros of that difficult period in our Nations history.This story of ordinary men taking an extraordinary action is destined to become a classic in the literature of the Vietnam period.As the author of the US Army's lengthy investigative report on the massacre tells us,"...If there was a hero at My

Lai,it was helicopter pilot CWO Thompson"

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Heroic act, yet a so-so book, February 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (Hardcover)

There is absolutely no doubt that Hugh Thompson, Glenn Andreotta, and Larry Colburn did an unbelieveably heroic thing on March 16, 1968. Let there also be no doubt that Trent Angers should be commended for his research and efforts to bring yet another angle to this horror known as the My Lai Massacre. I have just one criticism, and unfortunately it is decisive: It is a poorly written book.

I am not suggesting that one not read the book, because it does perform as a vehicle to bring to light the events surrounding the massacre, its aftermath and Colburn's and Thompson's return to My Lai 28 years later. However, it takes form more as a children's book than it does as an examination of an important historical event, or even as a third-person narrative intended for adult reading.

Don't expect an abundance of three or more syllable words, inspired imagery, or thought-provoking passages. For instance, page 77, "He seemed to take a particular liking to the older woman." Seemed to who? Could you tell the reader how this was apparent? No indication whatsoever is offered in the text. Or, page 102, describing an American casualty as being "blown to bits." Is that what was written on the After Action Report? If so, there's another book in there somewhere. Or, page 103, "The cows were mooing to be milked." For a minute there I thought I had opened "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by accident.

There is never a mention of exactly what kind of helicopter Hugh was flying...a Kiowa? Cayuse? Defender? Souix? Loach? The first indication of this simplistic approach to the subject matter is right on the dust jacket, as it is a simplistic, amateurish illustration of Thompson in an exaggerated heroic pose (arms outstretched, shirt unbuttoned, no flight helmet, no flak jacket, dog tags swinging in the wind, in front of a small huddled mass of Vietnamese). It looks much like the artwork that adorned the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich children's books published in the late '70s.

One more note: if you're going to write a book wherein the principle character is a helicopter pilot, at least have the courtesy to refrain from calling helicopters "choppers," as most pilots despise the term. Unless, of course, you're writing for children, who find it analogous - for obvious reasons.

Anyway, you get the picture. Still, I say God bless Hugh, Larry, Glenn and Trent.

But Trent, at the very least, get a new copy editor.