Ron Ridenhour

(1946 - 1998)

Future journalist Ron Ridenhour was drafted in the Vietnam War in March 1967 after his college course load dropped below the requirement for educational deferment. In 1969, after hearing horrifying reports of a massacre from fellow soldiers, he flew over My Lai to investigate it on his own and found that the U.S. Army had raped, mutilated, and killed hundreds of unarmed civilians. Fearing for his life, Ridenhour waited to blow the whistle until he returned home from his tour as a helicopter gunner; his letter to President Nixon spurred an investigation into the army’s widespread coverup.