People from Grant County, Washington - Lawrence Colburn, Frontier Middle School Shooting, Clarence Gilyard, Kirk Triplett, Augie Hiebert (Paperback)

Chapters: Lawrence Colburn, Frontier Middle School Shooting, Clarence Gilyard, Kirk Triplett, Augie Hiebert, Joseph J. Tyson, Jordan Reffett, Bryan Warrick, Martha Thomsen. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 40. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Lawrence Colburn is a United States Army veteran who, while serving as a helicopter gunner in the Vietnam War, earned a place in history for being one of three servicemen who intervened in the March 16, 1968 My Lai Massacre. Born in Coulee City, 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 OH-23 Raven observation helicopter, his crew chief was Specialist Four Glenn Andreotta and his pilot was Warrant Officer One Hugh Thompson, Jr.. All three men would be decorated for their actions at My Lai, although Andreotta was killed in battle three weeks after the event. In the early morning hours of March 16, 1968, Colburn's OH-23 encountered no enemy fire over My Lai 4. Spotting two possible Viet Cong suspects, Thompson forced the Vietnamese men to surrender and flew them off for a tactical interrogation. He also marked the location of several wounded Vietnamese with green smoke, a signal that they needed help. Returning to the My...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=1838281