The Resistance: Sometimes It Takes Real Courage

Real Courage to just do the right thing.

Charlie Pierce:

Back in December, we remembered two heroes on the occasion of their deaths. One was John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. The other was Larry Colburn, an American soldier. On March 16, 1968, an 18-year-old door gunner in a helicopter in Vietnam, Colburn joined with Hugh Thompson in drawing down on the U.S. soldiers engaged in slaughtering the inhabitants of the village of My Lai.

As The New York Times recounted:

"Mr. Thompson was just beside himself," Mr. Colburn recalled in an interview in 2010 for the PBS program "The American Experience." "He got on the radio and just said, 'This isn't right, these are civilians, there's people killing civilians down here.' And that's when he decided to intervene. He said, 'We've got to do something about this, are you with me?' And we said, 'Yes.' " Mr. Thompson confronted the officer in command of the rampaging platoon, Lt. William L. Calley, but was rebuffed. He then positioned the helicopter between the troops and the surviving villagers and faced off against another lieutenant. Mr. Thompson ordered Mr. Colburn to fire his M-60 machine gun at any soldiers who tried to inflict further harm. "Y'all cover me!" Mr. Thompson was quoted as saying. "If these bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them. Promise me!"

"You got it boss," Mr. Colburn replied. "Consider it done." Mr. Thompson, Mr. Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, the copter's crew chief, found about 10 villagers cowering in a makeshift bomb shelter and coaxed them out, then had them flown to safety by two Huey gunships. They found an 8-year-old boy clinging to his mother's corpse in an irrigation ditch and plucked him by the back of his shirt and delivered him to a nun in a nearby hospital.

On Tuesday, I received an e-mail from Michael Manley, who was Larry Colburn's cousin. With his permission, I share it with y'all now.

A quick note to thank you for the piece you wrote about the passing of both John Glenn and my close cousin, Larry Colburn. The timing of your article and the context of leadership in today's world, let's just say your article stood out from the pack. I was not sure if you knew Larry or had met him, he was a humble and thoughtful man - with a well founded cynical view of government and power - as a result of his experiences in Vietnam and how the government behaved afterwards. Larry had 3 sisters, no brother and I was the only one from the extended family in the northwest that would travel down to GA regularly. Since the mid 90's - I would stay with Larry, and his family a few times a year - to the point where Larry would always say "Your room is waiting for you." We became close as brothers immediately. Talked about the details of My Lai, many times. Larry often told me "Mike, anyone would have reacted the same way Hugh, Glenn and I did that day, we were simply being sane in an insane situation. It wasn't a choice. It was a moral human reaction."

Larry's father passed away when Larry was 13 years old, and my father, Joseph Manley, filled in as sort of a surrogate mentor in Larry's life at times, and as Larry told me "set me straight" when I needed it. He was fond of my dad who passed away in '98 and had great stories for me about his "Uncle Joe." I spent the last week with Larry, Lisa, Connor (his son) and 2 of his sisters, down in Atlanta in early December. He was humble and completely himself to the very end. He never lost his wit or humility. I'll never forget his last words to me, "I'll be looking after you from the other side of the stars." I had shared your article with family and friends, and it was very thoughtful of you - gave my family, Larry's and our extended family - a great deal of pride. I'm sure Larry would be blown away to see such an article and be spoken of in the same context as John Glenn. Larry was a peace maker to the end. War sickened him, especially how we have marginalized human loss these days and look at war as "TV war" that doesn't affect us so who cares.

It was beyond my honor to write the post. I thought I'd share it because Colburn's description of what happened in Vietnam that day—"Anyone would have reacted the same way Hugh, Glenn and I did that day. We were simply being sane in an insane situation. It wasn't a choice. It was a moral human reaction."—gives us as Americans a helluva lot more credit for courage than we deserve, especially in these days when, confronted with the choice of being sane in an insane situation, safe here at home, with nobody shooting at them, too many of our alleged leaders can't even summon up the courage to vote "no."

Thanks again, Mike. And eternal rest be unto your cousin, and let perpetual light shine upon him.