Lawrence Colburn
| Lawrence Colburn | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Lawrence Manley Colburn |
| Born |
July 6, 1949 Coulee Dam, Washington |
| Died | December 13, 2016 (aged 67) Canton, Georgia |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
Lawrence Manley Colburn (July 6, 1949 – December 13, 2016) was a United States Army veteran who, while serving as a helicopter gunner in the Vietnam War, intervened in the March 16, 1968 My Lai Massacre.
Born in Coulee Dam, Washington, Colburn grew up in Mount Vernon, with his father (a veteran contractor from World War II), mother, and three sisters, where he would serve as an altar boy for four years while attending Immaculate Conception Catholic School.
After dropping out of high school, he joined the army in 1966 and was assigned to train at Fort Lewis followed by a stint at Fort Polk. He was then sent to Fort Shafter in Hawaii, where he earned his GED before being sent to Vietnam in December 1967. In South Vietnam he was assigned to the 161st Assault Helicopter Company (later reorganized as the 123rd Aviation Battalion) with the rank of Specialist Four. Serving as a door-gunner on an UH-1 Iroquois transport helicopter, his crew chief was Specialist Four Glenn Andreotta and his pilot was Warrant Officer One Hugh Thompson, Jr..
Thirty years after the fact all three men were decorated with the Soldier's Medal for their heroic actions at My Lai.
In the early morning hours of March 16, 1968, during Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, Americal Division's assault on a hamlet known on U.S. military maps as My Lai 4, Colburn's OH-23 surprisingly encountered no enemy fire while hovering over this suspected headquarters of the Viet Cong 48th battalion. Spotting two possible Viet Cong suspects, Thompson forced the Vietnamese men to surrender and flew them off to the rear for tactical interrogation. He also marked the location of several wounded Vietnamese with a green smoke marker, a signal that they needed help.
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