ompson repeatedly saw young boys and girls being shot at point-blank range. He marked the location of the wounded and contacted another chopper to request aid for those wounded. At the same time, his crew chief , Glenn Andreotta (killed three weeks later), spotted the ditch where so many had been killed. Noting that some were still alive, Thompson landed between the ditch and Calley's defensive perimeter at nine-fifteen to nine-thirty. The response to Thompson's request for aid to the wounded was that the "only way to help them is to kill them." Thompson thought the respondent was joking, and took off. Andreotta observed a sergeant shooting into the ditch. When Thompson returned later, he saw all were dead.Thompson then saw a small boy bleeding. Once again, he marked the spot with smoke, and watched as someone shot the child. He them came across yet another bunker filled with children, and observed soldiers approaching the area. He landed again, placing himself between the bunker, and the oncoming soldiers. He told his gunner, Lawrence Colburn, that he was to set his weapon on the soldiers, and that if the troops fired while Thompson tried to get the civilians out of the bunker, Colburn was to fire on the American soldiers. He asked a Lieutenant (reportedly Brooks) to help them get the civilians out, and was told, "The only way to get them out is with a hand grenade". Soon two helicopters landed and helped evacuate the people.The mission was said to have been a complete success with a count by body count standards. One-hundred and twenty-eight Vietnamese were known to have been killed. One detail stood out, though. Only three rifles and ten hand grenades were seized from what should have been a significant enemy encampment.Overall, a total of five-hundred and four My Lai civilians were killed. The only American Casualty during this massacre was a soldier whose weapon discharged while he was cleaning it. Seventeen off...
