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Medal of Honor: Leo K. Thorsness

Posted: Monday, October 08, 2007 10:00 AM by Daily Nightly Editor
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Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.

Leo K. Thorsness
Major, U.S. Air Force 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron
Leo Thorsness enlisted in the Air Force in 1952 at the age of nineteen, largely because he had a brother serving in Korea. Though he didn’t make it to Korea himself, he stayed in the military, becoming an officer and a fighter pilot. In 1966, he went to Vietnam as part of a squadron of F-105s. The “Wild Weasel” was a specially modified two-seat F-105 and had the job of finding and destroying surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites. The Weasels were capable of lingering in target areas longer than other fighters, and as a result suffered a high loss ratio; not many Weasel pilots completed their hundred-mission tours.

On April 19, 1967, Thorsness was on a mission deep in North Vietnam. He and his wingman took out an enemy SAM site with missiles, then destroyed a second site with bombs. In the second attack, the wingman radioed that his plane, hit by intense antiaircraft fire, was going down. “Turn toward the mountains and I’ll keep you in sight,” Thorsness told him. As the pilot and his backseater ejected from the damaged aircraft, Thorsness circled above to keep them in sight. Suddenly, he saw an enemy MiG-17 fighter setting up a gunnery pass on the parachutes. Although the Weasel was not designed for dogfights, Thorsness attacked the MiG and destroyed it with bursts from his gatling gun.

Dangerously low on fuel, Thorsness quickly air-refueled from a tanker andreturned to the MiG-infested area to protect the downed crew from North Vietnamese soldiers. When his rear-seat weapons officer spotted four more MiGs in the area, he turned back through a barrage of North Vietnamese SAMs to engage them. He hit another one (although he never got credit for the kill because his gun camera had run out of film) and drove the remaining enemy planes away.

Heading for Udorn Royal Thai Air Base, the closest U.S. airfield, Thorsness climbed to thirty-five thousand feet. Seventy miles from base, with his fuel tanks on empty, he pulled the throttle to idle, knowing he could glide two miles for each thousand feet he fell. Just as he was landing, the F-105’s engine ran out of fuel and shut down.

Two weeks later, he was shot down over North Vietnam on his ninety-third mission. He bailed out and was captured, and wound up a prisoner of war in the “Hanoi Hilton,” where he ran into the two F-105 crew members he had tried to rescue. After two years of unremitting torture, he learned, through a secret “tap code” among the prisoners, that his name had been submitted for the Medal of Honor. (The officer in charge of writing Thorsness’s citation had been shot down himself and brought to the same prison.)

When the war ended in 1973,Thorsness was released and sent home. He had knee injuries, sustained when he had bailed out of his plane at six hundred knots, and back injuries as a result of torture. He received the Medal of Honor on October 15, 1973, from President Richard Nixon. “We’ve been waiting for you for six years,” Nixon told him. “Welcome home.”

After retiring from the Air Force as a colonel, Thorsness was an executive with Litton Industries and later served the people of Washington as a state senator. In 2002, he started speaking on his personal mantra, “Do what’s right—help others.”

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Major Leo K. Thorsness, certainly a great fighter pilot and brave soldier. I am happy he was released from being a prisoner and was able to receive the medal of Honor. Yet, most importantly he survived and even served his country more by being a State Senator for Washington. I do like his personal mantra, "Do what's right-help others." that is really true. Very deserving of the Medal of Honor.  

Lisa McNeil,Alpharetta,Georgia (Sent Monday, October 08, 2007 10:16 AM)

We had Major Thorsness as a guest in our Medal of Honor series at the Pritzker Military Library earlier this year. That's as incredible a story as you'll ever hear, especially told in his own words. The webcast and podcast are available at http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/2007-03-22-leoThorsness.jsp.

Mark Heiden, Chicago, IL (Sent Monday, October 08, 2007 12:44 PM)

a true hero does whats needed when its needed,without thinking about the danger to himself

BRUCE W FULKS (Sent Monday, October 08, 2007 8:21 PM)

Leo is my brother and I am very proud of him and what he has accomplished in his life.  He came home from POW camp with a great attitude about life.  A great Christian man and an encouragement to all of his family.  

Donna Martinson (Sent Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:43 PM)

It was a great honor to teleconference with Leo as part of the CMOH Foundation program at the Wattsburg Area Middle School.  The students were definately enlightened to be able to communicate with such a decorated veteran and hero in sustaining the freedoms in which they are privileged to today.  Thank you.  

Doug McGarvey, Erie, PA (Sent Friday, March 07, 2008 8:52 PM)

It was a great honor to teleconference with Leo as part of the CMOH Foundation program at the Wattsburg Area Middle School.  The students were definately enlightened to be able to communicate with such a decorated veteran and hero in sustaining the freedoms in which they are privileged to today.  Thank you.  

Doug McGarvey, Erie, PA (Sent Friday, March 07, 2008 8:52 PM)

What a humble hero!  I met Leo while on staff in the Washington State Senate in 1991.  Leo made a major impression on my life.  Him and his dear wife Gaylee are perhaps the finest people you'll ever meet.
One afternoon Leo brought me into his Senate office and showed me his bronze stick from an F-105 that was on his desk.  He told me about his story and I walked away forever marked by that remarkable encounter.  What a legacy!

Rev. Ron Laeger, Roseburg, OR (Sent Saturday, May 24, 2008 3:14 AM)



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