I find it so hard to remain disciplined enough not to let this thread go to politics. It would seem in these times that the future of our country teeters on the edge of the front in Washington D.C. just as much if not more than it has ever teetered on the front of any battlefield. What I see happening upsets me to my core- not only is the future of our nation-the future of our children- at stake, but also the legacy and validation of every drop of blood and every life lost in the cause of the freedoms and liberties and rights we enjoy...indeed, it is crucial that we stop the runaway train that we call our government before the train wreck...but this is not the place for that. It is also crucial that we preserve and pass along the ideology that our nation will only be as good and just as the men bold and brave enough to stand up and make her good and just. And so, no matter how bad things get in Washington, or how dire our political situation gets, I'll make no mention of it here. Instead, I will keep this a place to honor those who absolutely deserve it, and who also hold far too much honor to have their names mentioned in the same place as the crooks on capitol hill.
That said, I'd like to spotlight an American hero, Mike Thornton. I can do no justice for this man that Wikipedia hasn't already done, so here is what they have to say about this great American;
Michael Edwin Thornton (born March 23, 1949) is a retired United States Navy SEAL and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War. He was awarded the medal for saving the life of his senior officer, Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris, who also earned the Medal of Honor in an unrelated incident.
Born on March 23, 1949, in Greenville, South Carolina, Thornton graduated from high school in 1967 and enlisted in the United States Navy later that year in Spartanburg. He served aboard destroyers as a gunner's mate apprentice until November 1968, when he began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. Upon graduation, he was assigned to SEAL Team 1 and began a series of tours in southeast Asia which ran from January 1, 1970, to December 1972.
By the last quarter of 1972, U.S. involvement in the region had waned and Thornton, by then a Petty Officer, was one of only a dozen SEALs remaining in Vietnam. On October 31 of that year, he participated in a mission to capture prisoners and gather intelligence from the Cua Viet River Base near the coast of Quảng Trị Province, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. In addition to Thornton, the mission team consisted of another SEAL, Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris, and three men from the LDNN, the South Vietnamese Special Forces. Approaching by sea, the group was transported by junk until sunset, then paddled a rubber boat to within a mile of shore and swam the remaining distance. Moving inland past numerous North Vietnamese encampments, the group reconnoitered through the night.
When morning dawned, the 5-man group realized that they had landed too far north and were actually in North Vietnam. They made their way toward the coast but were spotted by a group of 50 soldiers, beginning an intense five-hour battle. When the group's commander, Lieutenant Norris, was severely wounded, Thornton ran through heavy fire to rescue him. He then carried the unconscious Norris into the water and began swimming out to sea. When one of the LDNNs was wounded, Thornton supported him in the water as well. He swam with the two injured men for more than two hours before being picked up by the same junk which had dropped them off the night before.
For these actions, Thornton was awarded the Medal of Honor. The medal was formally presented to him by President Richard Nixon during a ceremony at the White House on October 15, 1973. The man Thornton rescued, Thomas Norris, survived his wounds and was awarded the Medal of Honor from President Gerald R. Ford in a White House ceremony on March 6, 1976 for his April 1972 rescue of Lt Col Iceal Hambleton and 1stLt Mark Clark from behind enemy lines.
In 1980 Thornton was chosen by Commander Richard Marcinko to be a founding member of SEAL Team Six, the U.S. Navy's first unit dedicated to counterterrorism. Thornton later became a commissioned officer and retired as a Lieutenant. He currently sits on the board of advisors for Veterans Direct.
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION;
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while participating in a daring operation against enemy forces. PO Thornton, as Assistant U.S. Navy Advisor, along with a U.S. Navy lieutenant serving as Senior Advisor, accompanied a 3-man Vietnamese Navy SEAL patrol on an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation against an enemy-occupied naval river base. Launched from a Vietnamese Navy junk in a rubber boat, the patrol reached land and was continuing on foot toward its objective when it suddenly came under heavy fire from a numerically superior force. The patrol called in naval gunfire support and then engaged the enemy in a fierce firefight, accounting for many enemy casualties before moving back to the waterline to prevent encirclement. Upon learning that the Senior Advisor had been hit by enemy fire and was believed to be dead, PO Thornton returned through a hail of fire to the lieutenant's last position; quickly disposed of 2 enemy soldiers about to overrun the position, and succeeded in removing the seriously wounded and unconscious Senior Naval Advisor to the water's edge. He then inflated the lieutenant's lifejacket and towed him seaward for approximately 2 hours until picked up by support craft. By his extraordinary courage and perseverance, PO Thornton was directly responsible for saving the life of his superior officer and enabling the safe extraction of all patrol members, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
I did not choose this hero at random. I chose Lieutenant Thornton as the subject of this post because I recently had the honor of sitting right next to him at a table at a veteran's function I attended. I already knew who he was, and it was a good thing, because Mr. Thornton is as humble as they come and I'm sure he wasn't going to talk about it. ( he wasn't wearing his MoH.) Had I not known, I would have never realized that the grey haired man to my right was a real American hero. I am not sure what makes a man like this. I am not sure what values were instilled into him as a child by his parents and the society he was raised in, but I am alarmed at the values and principals that the public school system is trying to instill in our youth today. It is up to us as parents to see to it that our children learn about heros like Mike Thornton...I seriously doubt you'll find even mention of his name in any school textbook-much less what he has done in the name of (gasp!) God and Country.
Tonight, I will sit my kids down at the dinner table for a few minutes, and I will tell them about Mike Thornton. I will try to articulate his story. I will do my damnedest to make them think about just how tough it would be to swim for two hours with two unable bodies in tow, after being exhausted in a raging gun battle, to ensure that alive or dead is men would not be left of enemy soil. Hopefully, I will get through. f not, I'll keep trying. It's just too important to let it go.
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