Joining the US Military
After his release from prison, Torni got a job on a Swedish cargo ship, and when it sailed near Mobile, Alabama, he jumped overboard and swam to shore. He claimed asylum as a political refugee, and with the help of former OSS chief William Donovan, he got a residency permit. He settled in with the Finnish migrant community in Brooklyn, and got a job as a carpenter and cleaner, before enlisting n the US Army in 1954. He anglicized his name from Lauri Torni to Larry Thorne, and with his experience and track record in irregular warfare, he soon ended up in the Special Forces.
It seemed as if Father Time was unable to catch up with Larry Thorne. Once he made his way into the Green Berets, he earned a reputation in the Special Forces community as one of its fittest and toughest officers. Indeed, his physical fitness was such that he frequently outperformed other men half his age. One commanding officer effused about him in an evaluation, and wrote: “I have not known any officer in his grade to whom he can be compared. He is over forty years old, but has the physical ability of a person of twenty-five.”
He trained NATO forces in West Germany, ran a reconnaissance and sabotage school, and in the late 1950s, earned accolades for his role in a search and rescue mission in Iran’s Zagros Mountains. He deployed to Vietnam in 1963, as an adviser to South Vietnamese forces in the Mekong Delta, and earned a Bronze Star for valor plus two Purple Hearts. He returned to Vietnam for a second tour in 1965, and ended up with the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) – an unconventional special warfare unit. On October 18th, 1965, Captain Larry Thorne was overseeing an operation to identify Viet Cong positions on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, when his helicopter vanished in a mountainous area 25 miles from Da Nang. Rescue and recovery teams were unable to locate the chopper. Soon after his disappearance, he was posthumously promoted to major, and awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross and Legion of Merit.
Thorne was 46 when his helicopter disappeared, and many who knew him had trouble believing that such a seemingly indestructible warrior had actually died. During the ensuing decades, there was considerable speculation about what had actually happened. Some figured that he had survived and walked away, while others suspected that he had been captured and finally turned over to the Soviets, who locked him up somewhere. NVA defectors were shown photos of Thorne, to find out if any recognized him. On the anniversary of his disappearance every year thereafter, Thorne’s comrades would down a toast in his honor, “wherever he may be“.
In 1999, Thorne’s downed helicopter was finally located. His remains were intermingled with those of three South Vietnamese servicemen who had been with him in the chopper. Following a ceremony in Hanoi, attended by Secretary of State Madeline Albright, the remains were repatriated to the US. In 2003, the remains were formally identified as those of Thorne. He was memorialized on the Vietnam Wall, and on June 26th, 2003, Major Larry Allan Thorne, along with the South Vietnamese servicemen who had died with him, were buried in Arlington National Cemetery under a single headstone. He is the only former Waffen-SS member to end up in America’s most hallowed burial grounds.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
Badass of the Week – Larry Thorne
Cleverly, Michael J. – Born a Soldier: The Times and Life of Larry A Thorne(2008)
War History Online – The US Special Forces Major Who Fought in the SS