Vietnam War hero shares story with Team Mildenhall

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Eric Petosky
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  After spending six years in the brutal prison camps of North Vietnam, his first words to his wife Gaylee were, "I would've called earlier, but I was all tied up." 

Vietnam War pilot and Medal of Honor recipient retired Lt. Col. Leo Thorsness used anecdotes like this while sharing his wartime experiences with RAF Mildenhall Airmen Aug. 8 at the Galaxy Club. 

The Minnesota native was an F-105 pilot during the war. He was part of the "Wild Weasels," a select group of aviators whose mission was to kill North Vietnamese surface-to-air threats. The missions were extremely dangerous, claiming double the loss ratios of typical air operations. 

"Vietnam was the first war in which there were (surface-to-air missiles)," he said. "When they started shooting down airplanes, and we had no defense against them." 

The losses prompted the invention of what he called "little black boxes", sophisticated electronic equipment that would tell a pilot if he was being tracked by radar or whether a missile had been fired. It also told the pilots where the radar signals originated, pinpointing the location of surface-to-air threats. 

"Me and my back-seater were early on in the Weasel business," he said. "The first five Weasel crews who got to Thailand felt very confident. Within 45 days, they were gone. We were the sixth crew. We spent a lot of time studying those first five losses to see what they did and how we could improve." 

Their job was to fly into hostile territory first and suppress SAM sites or kill them while waves of other aircraft dropped bombs on target. Only after the bombs had been dropped would the Weasels leave. 

Using techniques that improved the effectiveness of their evasion maneuvers and weapon capabilities, Colonel Thorsness and his weapons system operator flew 92 missions. The colonel joked that they "flew 92 and a half missions before being shot down." 

It was that final mission which earned Colonel Thorsness the Medal of Honor. During a Weasel mission over North Vietnam April 19, 1967, while critically low on fuel, he circled around his downed wingman to signal their position to search and rescue helicopters. 

Once the helicopters arrived, he went in search of a tanker, only to return when MiGs were sighted around the crash site. He immediately attacked four enemy jets, damaging one and chasing away the other three. 

Afterward, he assisted another fuel-critical aircraft to a forward-operating air base, averting further loss of life. Then he was shot down. 

"I thought to myself, 'If I die when I hit the jungle, will my family ever find out what happened to me?' As I floated toward down in my parachute, this voice in my head kept repeating, 'Leo, you're going to make it'" he said. "I realized the Lord preemptively answered my prayer before I even said it. It was very comforting. 

"The first night I was interrogated in a pigpen, literally, and I got by with name, rank, date of birth, and serial number," he explained. Even though North Vietnam had agreed to the rules regarding prisoners of war in the Geneva Convention, they did not follow them. 

Colonel Thorsness was transported to "Heartbreak Hotel" in Hanoi and tortured continuously for 18 days and nights. 

"My shoulder is out of joint, and the broken back, and all that stuff - you can't understand how one person can do so many bad things to another person," he said. "It was unbelievable. You lose your voice from moans and screams and stuff, and at some point, I broke. It was the most devastating moment of my life. 

"As soon as I got out of torture, I couldn't walk, so I kind of stumbled into this cell with another POW. I started to explain to him right away what a failure I was, and he told me, 'Leo, knock it off. Everyone who went through that type of interrogation - one of two things happened: either they broke, or they died. It's not your fault.' I was so relieved." 

Over the next six years, Colonel Thorsness and his fellow prisoners survived the best they could, using the tap code to communicate, and the code of conduct to govern themselves. He said the bonds of brotherhood grow strong in captivity, and the members of the "4th Allied POW Wing" in Hanoi persevered and took care of each other. 

"If you can communicate, you can organize, and if you can organize you can resist," he said. "It never occurred to me how important teamwork was until Hanoi. 

"Also, the will to survive is very strong, you just don't give up. During tough times you have to take it a day at a time. For us, we had to estimate time. You'd say to yourself, 'I think I can last another minute' or 'I can hang in there for another 30 seconds or so.' Time didn't become your friend, but it wasn't your enemy." 

Humor was another method by which prisoners communicated, said Colonel Thorsness. Since it took so long to tap out punch lines using the tap code, they gave all the jokes numbers. 

The same jokes were repeated, but by tapping the number, not the entire thing, the prisoners ran a much lesser risk of being discovered by the guards and beaten. "Number 21 was by far the funniest, if you tapped it with good timing. If I told it, I'd have to kill you," he joked. 

Colonel Thorsness emphasized the importance of military families, and balancing friends, family, faith and fun with work. He talked about his first meal of pancakes and steaks at Clark Air Force Base, Phillipines, after being released in March 1973. He recalled how surprised he was when he later received a check for almost $12,000 - accounting for his authorized $5.25 in per diem every day he was in captivity. 

Perhaps most memorable were Colonel Thorsness' five words to live by: "Do what's right, help others." 

After the war, he struggled to get equal recognition for all Vietnam veterans, not just POWs. 

"People didn't just become anti-war, they became anti-soldier... It doesn't take a lot of skill to become a POW," he said. 

Many veterans were villified by the American public during and after the unpopular war, but he and his wife still made every effort to recognize the sacrifices of all service members involved by attending speaking engagements and visiting memorials. "It's like touching freedom every time I lay my hand on the Vietnam wall," he said. 

Colonel Thorsness still wears his Medal of Honor with distinction, even though the soft-spoken public speaker describes his actions as "just doing his job." 

"There has been no living recipient of the Medal of Honor since Vietnam," he said. "It's a very humbling award. There are a bunch of people as deserving or more. I wear it for those who can't."