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Righteousness

03/21/2018 11:15:21 AM

Mar21

Just about 50 years ago, Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson taught the world a Mishna I'm sure he never read. 
 
Thompson  (left, credit Associated Press) was a United States Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. On March 16, 1968, he was flying a helicopter that was providing support to Task Force Barker, which included a platoon led by Second Lieutenant William Calley.
 
Thompson watched from the sky as Calley and his platoon raped and murdered approximately 500 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, including scores of women and children. In the middle of the massacre, he landed his chopper between the American soldiers and the Vietnamese villagers, and as he dismounted the aircraft, he told the crew that if the Americans began shooting at the villagers or him, they should open fire on the other American soldiers: "Y'all cover me! If these bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them. Promise me!"
 
When news of the massacre publicly broke, Thompson was sharply criticized by Congressmen, particularly Chairman Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), who tried to have him court-martialed. As his actions became publicly known, Thompson started receiving hate mail, death threats and mutilated animals on his doorstep.
 
Years later, in 1998, Thompson and his crew were awarded the Soldier's Medal, the United States Army's highest award for bravery not involving direct contact with the enemy. "It was the ability to do the right thing even at the risk of their personal safety that guided these soldiers to do what they did," then-Major General Michael Ackerman said at the 1998 ceremony. The three "set the standard for all soldiers to follow." Senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) offered tribute to the crew, saying they were "true examples of American patriotism at its finest."
 
The Mishna (Avot 2:5) teaches that "in a place where there are no righteous people you struggle to be a righteous person." This is the mishna that Thompson taught the world. Righteousness - upright service of the Most High - is not easily realized. Our challenge is to struggle to live that righteousness in the fullness of our lives, at every moment, not only the acute moments when wickedness and evil are laid out starkly, on opposite sides of a helicopter. 
Mon, July 14 2025 18 Tammuz 5785