2:19 p.m., April 16, 2007--A forum titled “Soldiers to Veterans: Burdens of Conscience and a Careless Public from Vietnam to Iraq” will be held at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 18, in the auditorium of Clayton Hall on the University of Delaware campus in Newark.

The event will honor the memory of the late Hugh Thompson, the U.S. Army helicopter pilot who rescued Vietnamese civilians during the infamous 1968 My Lai Massacre in which American troops killed 504 unarmed villagers.

The event will feature special guest Larry Colburn, who as a door gunner aboard Thompson's chopper also helped to stop the My Lai Massacre. The evening also features Kelly Dougherty, Garett Reppenhagen and Jimmy Massey, all members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

These guest speakers will face a student panel prepared to ask critical questions, according to Guy Alchon, associate professor of history and organizer of the forum.

“Hugh Thompson and Larry Colburn made the tough but courageous choice to act against the murderers at My Lai,” Alchon said. “Their actions remind us that ethical choice in wartime is a constant dilemma, particularly when Americans become an unwelcome occupying army.

“Today, a new army of veterans is returning to us,” Alchon added. “They are everywhere, and everywhere invisible to most Americans. Such carelessness is symptomatic of the widening divide between 'military America' and the rest of us. And working on behalf of America's new veterans--working to make them and their difficulties more visible--is one of the chief purposes of the IVAW.”

The initial portion of the forum will feature introductory remarks and the "Ceremony of the Empty Chair," during which the names of Delaware's dead from Iraq, together with those of selected Vietnam veterans, will be read aloud by a series of students.

There will then be a short video presentation to introduce the guests, after which the guests and student panel will take the stage.

Alchon said the guests will speak for 10-15 minutes, after which one of the student panelists, James Ferguson, will offer comments and questions critical of the IVAW. Next, the guests will be questioned briefly by the student panel. That will be followed by questions and comments from the audience.

The forum will continue on Thursday, April 19, with the 4 p.m. screening of the prize-winning film “The Ground Truth,” a documentary about the conditions faced by veterans returning from the Iraq War. The film will be shown in 007 Willard Hall Education Building and will be followed by audience discussion with the forum's guest speakers.

Dougherty, an eight-year veteran of the Colorado National Guard who served as a medic and military police in both Bosnia and Iraq, is a co-founder, and now executive drector, of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Massey was a staff sergeant in the Marines, after having been an infantry instructor at Parris Island and a recruiter, and witnessed the killing of unarmed civilians in Iraq. Unable to reconcile traditional values with the orders he was given, he became one of the leaders of the anti-war movement.

Reppenhagen was an Army scout sniper who served with the 1st Infantry Division in Baquaba, Iraq, from February 2004 until February 2005. Today he is chairman of IVAW.

The forum is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception.