Ex-POW Shares Story In Book

Worthington Daily Globe - Worthington, MN, USA

Julie Buntjer Worthington Daily Globe
Published Tuesday, January 27, 2009

WORTHINGTON — When Col. Leo Thorsness returned home in 1973 after six years in captivity in Vietnam, several of his fellow prisoners of war signed on with book publishers to share their story of war and torture at the hands of the enemy.

Thorsness wasn’t one of them.

He went on to marry, have a family and even grandchildren before deciding to write his memoir of war. Intended to be letters to his young granddaughters, the words kept flowing and flowing and now are part of the southwest Minnesota native’s first book, “Surviving Hell,” which was released in December.

“I finally got old enough to write a book,” said Thorsness, 76, who not only survived six years in Vietnam prison camps and lived to tell about it, but earned the prestigious Medal of Honor for a mission he completed 11 days prior to being shot down and taken captive.

In his book, the Storden and Walnut Grove native describes his work as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and his fight to survive as a prisoner of war. Yet, he is quick to say the book is more than a mere history lesson for readers.

“The thrust of the book is how to get through tough times,” said Thorsness from his home in Madison, Ala. “Nearly everybody is stronger than they think they are. When they go through tough times, most people come out the back end whole. The next time, (they’re) better prepared — stronger, sharper, I think.

“My time in Vietnam made me better,” he continued. “The simplest, biggest lesson I learned in Vietnam — I’ve really never had a bad day since I’ve been home.”

Thorsness grew up the son of farmers in rural Storden, and graduated from Walnut Grove High School in 1950. He enrolled at South Dakota State University in Brookings, “majoring in baseball, basketball, football and girls,” he said. Realizing he wasn’t ready to hunker down into college studies, Thorsness enlisted in the Air Force in 1951.

“Everybody in that era pretty much joined the military anyway,” he said. He earned his commission three years later in the Aviation Cadet Program.

Thorsness was trained to be a career fighter pilot during the Korean War, but didn’t experience real-life battles until Vietnam.

“I was pretty experienced by the time Vietnam came along, that was the first war with surface-to-air missiles,” Thorsness said.

As head Weasel in the Air Force’s Wild Weasels, Thorsness flew missions from an airbase in Takhli, Thailand. Their mission: to seek and destroy surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

On April 19, 1967, Thorsness and his backseater, Capt. Harold Johnson of Iowa, “fought a wild, 50-minute duel with SAMs, anti-aircraft guns and MiGs,” according to a biography published about Thorsness on the Air Force military history Web site. It was that battle that earned Thorsness his Medal of Honor.

“It’s a real honor of course to receive it,” he said, adding that President Richard Nixon presented him with the medal upon his release from captivity.

“There’s a little bit of an obligation — maybe a little bit more is expected of you,” Thorsness said of the honor. “You feel an obligation to do something with your life.”

Thorsness completed 92.5 missions in Vietnam before he was shot down. He spent the next six years as a POW, enduring countless episodes of torture at the hands of his captors.

“In Hanoi, we were going through real difficult times,” said Thorsness. “The first three years were the worst — people died.

“My will to survive was strong,” he added. “When all else failed, to believe in some cause, some spirit, gave me strength that I absolutely had to have.”

While Thorsness had intended to leave out the details of his torture, his military comrades encouraged him to include them in the book.

“The current batch of readers, unless they read history … they really don’t know what old-fashioned, brutal torture is,” he said.

Thorsness began writing the book last spring, and has two other books — children’s stories — in the works.

“I’m waiting for my daughter to retire — she’s going to be my illustrator,” he said.

Thorsness remembers fondly his years growing up in southwest Minnesota.

“I was born into the Depression era,” he said. “We were all farmers, we were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor. It was just a wonderful environment to grow up in.”

Thorsness’ book is available at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum Gift Shop in Walnut Grove, online at www.walnutgrove.org, or at major book retailers.