He landed his helicopter between American soldiers and the villagers they were about to kill. Then he told his own crew: if they open fire, shoot them. March 16, 1968. My Lai, South Vietnam. Hugh Thompson Jr., a 24-year-old Army warrant officer from Georgia, was flying a small scout helicopter over the village with two young crewmen, Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn. They were supposed to spot enemy fire. There was none. What they saw instead were unarmed civilians, women, children and old men, being killed by American troops. Thompson saw soldiers moving toward a bunker where villagers were hiding. He set the helicopter down in the line of fire, climbed out and confronted the officer in charge. Andreotta and Colburn stood by the helicopter with their guns ready, aimed at their own side. Thompson coaxed about ten villagers out of the bunker and called in gunships to fly them to safety. Then his crew spotted movement in a ditch. Andreotta climbed in and pulled out a small boy, alive. They flew him to a hospital. Back at base, Thompson reported everything. An order went out to stop the killing. He was not treated as a hero. For years he was shunned and threatened, and some in Washington said he was the one who should be punished. Andreotta was killed in combat three weeks later. Thirty years after that day, in 1998, the Army finally awarded all three men the Soldier's Medal at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The general who led the Army's investigation wrote, "If there was a hero of My Lai, he, Thompson, was it." Courage isn't only facing the enemy. Sometimes it's standing up to your own side. Disclaimer: Based on Army records, the 1998 Soldier's Medal citation and news reports. The citation credits the crew with saving at least ten civilians. Andreotta's medal was awarded after his death. Photos: U.S. Army (OH-23 helicopter; Hugh Thompson Jr. portrait), public domain; Adam Jones (Co Luy village, CC BY-SA 3.0); James Emery (OH-23 Raven and UH-1 Iroquois, CC BY 2.0); Almonroth (Vietnam Veterans Memorial, CC BY-SA 3.0); via Wikimedia Commons