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Max Bennett, COL Leo Thorsness, Joe Shiver and Johnie Keeter at Redstone PX for COL Thorsness' book signing. Woody Anderson Ford held a reception for him Jan 23, 2009 at their Madison Square Mall (Huntsville) showroom. WOA officers were there to greet him. Colonel Leo Thorsness is the greatest American I have ever met. A GREAT American hero. U.S. Air Force, Retired, COL Thorsness received the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism in Vietnam and spent six years as a POW. A year of that time was in a 5 x 7 foot cell. This book tells his story. The article below is a review by the Wall Street Journal. Two hundred and forty-six Americans received the Medal of Honor for valorous service in the Vietnam War. One hundred and fifty-four of the medals -- more than 60% -- were awarded posthumously. Of the servicemen who lived to accept their medals, Lt. Col. Leo Thorsness, U.S. Air Force, experienced an unusual delay: He had to wait for more than six years as a "guest" of the North Vietnamese before he finally received his. He describes that interlude in "Surviving Hell: A POW's Journey," an unsparing personal memoir of life in communist captivity. It is a modest recital of his own experiences and a paean to the courage and endurance of his fellow prisoners of war.
A "Minnesota farm kid" born during the Depression, Mr. Thorsness found his calling in the Air Force and had become an experienced fighter pilot by the time the Vietnam War began heating up in the mid-1960s. In 1966, he was sent to Southeast Asia to fly an F-105F "Thud" -- a fighter with a two-man crew -- in support of the American bombing campaign in North Vietnam. Operating from Takhli in Thailand, he and his backseater," Harry Johnson, carried out "Wild Weasel" missions to identify and destroy hostile radar, flak and surface-to-air missile installations, clearing the way for fighter-bombers to attack vital targets in the communist homeland. On one such mission, on April 17, 1967, they took part in the action for which Mr. Thorsness was recommended for the Medal of Honor.
While escorting a flight of attack bombers, they were jumped by several Russian-built MiG-17 fighters. Though his F-105 was not designed for aerial dogfighting, its great speed, the formidable gatling gun that it carried and Lt. Col. Thorsness's superb airmanship proved more than a match for the North Vietnamese. When the scrap was over, he was credited with downing two MiGs against nearly impossible odds.
Just 11 days later, on their second mission of the day -- their 88th over North Vietnam -- Lt. Col. Thorsness and "backseater" Johnson were attacked by an enemy MiG fighter, which scored a direct hit on their plane with a air-to-air missile. They ejected at 10,000 feet at a speed of nearly 690 miles per hour, far faster than the maximum safe velocity. Both men suffered extensive injuries in the ejection but survived to land safely in the jungle about 70 miles west of Hanoi -- where they were taken prisoner.
At that point, as Mr. Thorsness observes in "Surviving Hell," he was about to embark on "an ordeal that would brutalize me . . . and also allow me to become a better and fuller person." A strong religious faith and a love of country and family helped him to survive the next six years of torture, isolation and neglect. It was not until 1969, two years into his captivity in Hoa Lo Prison -- the notorious "Hanoi Hilton" -- that he learned from a newly captured pilot that he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor, and not until October 1973 was it finally awarded by President Richard Nixon.
The Code of Conduct and the Geneva Conventions -- the one requiring Americans to conform to certain standards while in captivity and the other demanding civilized standards of their captors -- were the rocks upon which prisoners of the communists took their stand and upon which many foundered as they were subjected to unremitting torture and deprivation. Mr. Thorsness says of the Vietnamese that "they hadn't improved much on the devices of the Spanish Inquisition" and that after he finally broke under torture and gave more than name, rank, service number and date of birth, "it was the lowest point in all my six years of captivity." Only later, did he find comfort in the assurance of another POW pilot that "everyone who goes through that type of interrogation . . . either they broke or died -- some did both." Ironically, he notes, torture wasn't really intended to get useful military information so much as to elicit propaganda statements from American officers.
During much of his first three years in captivity Lt. Col. Thorsness was in solitary confinement or in a cell with one or two other prisoners. Then, after the failure of America's superbly executed Son Tay raid, which had been intended to rescue POWs from a prison camp deep inside North Vietnam, the enemy began concentrating its prisoners in or near Hanoi. When Lt. Col. Thorsness was eventually put into one cell with a large group of fellow airmen, he and his fellow POWs began holding rudimentary classes, church services and even pre-commissioning training for the three Air Force enlisted men who were in the group. The three had been shot down in a helicopter in 1965 and, as Mr. Thorsness says, had been "tortured just like the officer pilots and kept the faith." Their fellow prisoners decided that they should be commissioned second lieutenants, and they were taught military and leadership subjects to prepare them. When all were released in 1973, the commissions were ratified by President Nixon.
It is stories like the commissioning of the enlisted POWs that make "Surviving Hell" such an enriching appendix to the chronicle of the American experience in Vietnam. Or take the case of Mark Christian, one of the author's cellmates: He made a small American flag out of scraps of cloth, which he laboriously dyed and sewed together, only to have it discovered by the guards, who then beat him mercilessly. As soon as he recovered from the beating, he began to make another flag.
Such was the character of the men who served their country by being true to its principles while in the hands of a cruel enemy. Men who in many cases were held captive longer than any other prisoners of war in our history. And it is their story, even more than his own, that Leo Thorsness tells so engagingly.
Surviving Hell
Lt.. Col. Watson, U.S. Army retired, served two tours of duty in Vietnam.
Louisa Braman and Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Rev Al Greene at the 2006 Big Spring Jam
Chapter Former President Rick Storie with "Alabama" Lead Singer Randy
Owen http://www.thealabamaband.com/
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with "Alabama" Lead Singer
Randy Owen http://www.thealabamaband.com/
Chapter President Max Bennett with "Jewel"
https://www.jeweljk.com//index.cfm?
Chapter President Max Bennett and
Chapter President Max Bennett and http://www.grahamcoltonband.com/site/index.html
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Gary Puckett of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap Big Spring Jam 2004 http://www.garypuckettmusic.com/
Chapter President Max Bennett with Pat Simmons of the "Doobie
Brothers"
Chapter President Max Bennett with Peter Noone of
"Herman's Hermits"
Chapter President Max Bennett with Country Star Phil
Vassar
(left photo) Chapter President Max Bennett and Chapter Volunteer, Mrs.
LaFontaine (right photo) Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Rob Grill of the "Grass Roots"
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Randy Travis Big Spring Jam 2003
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Mark Lindsay (Raiders) and Gary Lewis (Playboys) Big Spring Jam 2003 www.garylewisandtheplayboys.com/
Chapter President Max Bennett with Josh Groban
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals Big Spring Jam 2002
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Johnny Rivers Big Spring Jam 2002
(left photo) Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with "K.C." of K.C. and the Sunshine Band (right photo) Mrs. Judy Storie, with K.C. Big Spring Jam 2002
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with the late, great Dale Earnhardt at Darlington Raceway, September 1997
Joe Shiver with members of Honor Society at BSJ XVII - 26 Sep 2009
Johnie Keeter with the Village People at BSJ XVII - 25 Sep 2009
Chapter Secretary Johnie Keeter with Earl Thomas Conley September 2006 |
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Visit the National Organization (USAWOA) Web Page Last edited 01/24/2012 Mailing Address: Redstone Arsenal Chapter US Army Warrant
Officers Assoc. |
