Mike Thornton

Lieutenant Mike Thornton received the Medal of Honor for combat during the Vietnam War. On Oct. 31,1972, Thornton was part of a five-man Navy SEAL patrol that was gathering intelligence near the Cua Viet River Base. However, they had been dropped in the wrong place –– inside North Vietnam. After scouting the area, a seven-hour firefight erupted during which Thornton was wounded by a hand grenade. When he learned his squad leader, Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris was dead, Thornton returned 500 yards through a hail of gunfire to retrieve the body. Thornton killed two enemy soldiers who were hovering over Norris, who was, in fact, alive. He carried the wounded and unconscious lieutenant back to the ocean, saved another wounded squad mate and towed both for two hours until they were rescued. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Thornton resides in Montgomery, Texas.

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