He observed dead bodies all strung across the ground. When he went to investigate, he found that the U.S. troops were the ones who had committed this atrocity. He was approached by the perpetrator, the U.S. troops, and was told to “…mind his business…” Now he is faced with a dilemma of a much broader proportion. He is a member of the perpetrator faction and apparently has a strong moral compass which led him to his next move. He notices Vietnamese civilians running for their lives. He decides to place his Helicopter in the path of the soldiers and with the threat of deadly force manages to save the Vietnamese people who were on the run. He later informs his superiors of the event and saves the lives of ten people. He stated he was not raised to kill and could not stand by and do nothing.
Thompson was placed in a situation where he could have easily been killed by his own troops and yet stands for what he believes. How is one raised to do this? In most situations the general tone between soldiers and civilian has to be relatively common. When you have a group of people, killing another, for self-preservation sake, most will turn a blind eye to killing. Thompson is the anomaly. He stated that he was not raised to kill, So he must have been raised to stand against the masses as well. He did a truly heroic thing and save the lives of 10 Vietnamese people and a