COL Leo Thorsness: A Medal of Honor Recipient and POW

Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

Robert Kirk

History

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Colonel Leo Thorsness served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam. He was a Wild Weasel, whose missions required them to draw surface-to-air (SAM) missiles away from bombers, and then destroy the SAM sites. This meant that Weasels spent sometimes more than 20 minutes over the target, as opposed to the one or two minutes bomber pilots spent. On one mission, COL Thorsness’ wingman was shot down, forcing him to eject. As he parachuted to the ground, rescue helicopters were called in to rescue him, but they were threatened by encroaching enemy fighters. Despite being incredibly low on fuel, Thorsness fought off the enemy, saving his wingman and the rescue helicopters. Eleven days later, Thorsness was shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese Army. He was captured, and became a prisoner of war. During his first three years in captivity, torture was common. After six years, he was released and sent home. Shortly after returning to the United States, COL Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving his wingman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:58.7	T's and C's apply.
1:00.3	If you like listening to Warriors in their own words,
1:02.9	check out our other show, the Medal of Honor podcast.
1:06.0	The link is in the show description.
1:23.4	I'm Ken Harbaugh, host of Warriors in their own words.
1:30.6	In partnership with the Honor Project, we've brought this podcast back at a time when our nation needs these stories more than ever.
1:39.0	Warriors, in their own words, is our attempt to present an unvarnished, unsanitized truth of what we have asked of those who defend this nation.
1:43.1	Thank you for listening, and by doing so honoring those who have served.
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