Lawrence Manley Colburn 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.
13 Facts About Lawrence Colburn
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Lawrence Colburn was then sent to Fort Shafter in Hawaii, where he earned his GED before being sent to Vietnam in December 1967.
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Lawrence Colburn marked the location of several wounded Vietnamese with a green smoke marker, a signal that they needed help.
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All of Thompson's crew received decorations for their actions at My Lai, with Lawrence Colburn receiving the Bronze Star with Combat "V" device on May 14,1968.
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An account of the action was fabricated for Lawrence Colburn's document accompanying the decoration, and Thompson's signature was forged on the eyewitness report.
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On December 20,1969, Lawrence Colburn testified to the investigative Peers Commission on what he had seen on March 16,1968, in My Lai.
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Lawrence Colburn managed a ski repair business in Oregon, and owned and managed an Atlanta business that sells orthopedic rehabilitation equipment.
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Also in 1998, Thompson and Lawrence Colburn returned to the village of My Lai, where they met some of the villagers they rescued, including Thi Nhung and Pham Thi Nhanh, two women who had been part of the group that was about to be killed by Brooks' 2nd Platoon.
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Lawrence Colburn was at Hugh Thompson's bedside when the latter died of cancer on January 6,2006.
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In 2003, at a Moral Lecture Series address to midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy, Lawrence Colburn made the following remarks:.
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On July 4,1999, Lawrence Colburn and Hugh Thompson co-chaired the Stonewalk Project which organized and led the physical pulling of the one ton granite, memorial stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War from Sherborn, Massachusetts to Arlington National Cemetery.
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In March 2012, the Dover-Sherborn Press in Massachusetts published a column by Lawrence Colburn commenting on the comparisons between the recent civilian massacre in Panjwai, Afghanistan and the My Lai massacre.
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Lawrence Colburn died on December 13,2016, from cancer at the age of 67.