Glenn Andreotta
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SPC4 Glenn Urban Andreotta (October 30, 1947–April 8, 1968) was an American Helicopter Crew Chief in the Vietnam War noted for being one of three who intervened in the My Lai Massacre.
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[edit] Early life and enlistment
Born in St Louis, Andreotta dropped out of high school and joined the United States Army. Beginning his tour on November 12, 1967, he volunteered for the Aerial Scout Unit and assigned to Task Force Barker to fly over Vietnamese forests and try to draw enemy fire, to pinpoint the location of troops. Serving as Crew Chief, his pilot was Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr. and his door-gunner was Spc Lawrence Colburn, both of whom would later also draw claims of heroism for their role at My Lai.
[edit] The massacre
After coming across the dead bodies of Vietnamese civilians outside My Lai on 16 March 1968, Thompson set down their OH-23 and the three men began setting green gas markers by the prone bodies of the Vietnamese civilians who appeared to still be alive. Returning to the helicopter however, they saw Captain Ernest Medina run forward and begin shooting the wounded who had been marked—and the three men moved their ship back over the village where Thompson confronted Lt. Stephen Brooks (soldier) who was preparing to demolish a hut filled with wounded Vietnamese; he left Andreotta and Colburn to cover the company with their heavy machine guns and orders to fire on any American who refused the orders to halt the massacre. (It should be noted that Thompson was outranked, though the officers obeyed his order.)
- Thompson: Let's get these people out of this bunker and get 'em out of here.
- Brooks: We'll get 'em out with hand grenades.
- Thompson: I can do better than that. Keep your people in place. My guns are on you.
Thompson then ordered two other helicopters (one piloted by Dan Millians and the other by Brian Livingstone) flying nearby to serve as a medevac for the 11 wounded Vietnamese. While flying away from the village, Andreotta spotted movement in an irrigation ditch, and the helicopter was again landed and an eight-year old child was extracted from the bodies, and brought with the rest of the Vietnamese to the hospital at Quang Ngai.
[edit] After My Lai
Andreotta was killed shortly after the events at My Lai while serving in the Warlords, B-Company of the 123rd Aviation Battalion in the Americal Division. On April 8 he was serving as the door-gunner aboard the OH-23 helicopter 62-03813, along with Crew Chief Spc. Charles M. Dutton and pilot Lt. Barry Lloyd.
There was Viet Cong activity reported 10 kilometres southwest of Quang Ngai City, and they were ordered as a scout helicopter, to accompany two gunships to the location to flush out and destroy the enemy forces. Andreotta was killed outright by small-arms fire from the ground, a single shot to his head. Then a Vietnamese 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun began firing on the scout vessel destroying both the swashplate and control panel. Dutton was covered in burning Avgas when the craft finally hit the ground, and a Vietnamese soldier ran towards the wreckage and shot him, before retreating—leaving a wounded Lloyd lying in shock where he had been thrown from the impact. He was rescued by Warrant Officer Michael Banek's UH-1 Huey and taken to Chu Lai. The helicopter was officially declared "Destroyed by Fire" by the US Military on April 11th, though both Andreotta's and Dutton's bodies were recovered.
Andreotta was posthumously granted the Soldier's Medal in 1998 for his bravery in stopping the My Lai massacre, along with Lawrence Colburn and Hugh Thompson, Jr.. Since his parents were in ill health at the time, his award was accepted by his cousin Jim Andreotta.
His name appears on the Vietnam Wall on slab 48E, line 50. In 1999, his name was among nearly a million sent aboard the Stardust spacecraft.[1]
[edit] External links
- Virtual Wall: Glenn Urban Andreotta
- Good News Blog: A Hero in the Face of Atrocity
- Los Angeles Times: Hugh Thompson Jr., 62; 'One of the Good Guys' Saved Civilians at My Lai
- Lafayette College Alumni News:David Egan '62 honored for efforts on behalf of My Lai heroes
- My Lai Massacre 30 Years Later: Heroes & Massacres
