Medal of Honor: Michael E. Thornton – Vietnam War – October 31, 1972

Name: Michael Edwin Thornton
Rank: Petty Officer, U.S. Navy
War: Vietnam War
Date of Action: October 31, 1972
Unit: Navy Advisory Group, U.S. Navy SEALs
Born: March 23, 1949 – Greenville, South Carolina
Entered Service At: Spartanburg, South Carolina

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Summary of Action

In the closing months of the Vietnam War, Petty Officer Michael E. Thornton—a member of the elite Navy SEALs—was serving as assistant U.S. advisor on a covert intelligence and prisoner-capture operation deep behind enemy lines. Moving inland with a small four-man Vietnamese SEAL team and his senior American officer, the team was suddenly ambushed by a vastly superior North Vietnamese force.

As the patrol fought back, Thornton called in naval gunfire from offshore support, holding off wave after wave of attackers. When word reached him that his officer—Lieutenant Thomas Norris—had been hit and presumed dead, Thornton refused to withdraw. Sprinting back through open ground under heavy enemy fire, he found Norris alive but critically wounded. Thornton shot two advancing enemies, hoisted the lieutenant over his shoulder, and carried him back to the waterline as rounds tore the sand around them.

With no boats in sight and the enemy closing in, Thornton inflated Norris’s life jacket, pulled him into the surf, and swam both of them out to sea for nearly two hours before a support craft found them. His courage saved Norris’s life—and remarkably, years later, Norris would stand beside Thornton at the White House to witness him receive the Medal of Honor.

Michael Thornton’s fearless devotion to duty, to his comrades, and to the SEAL creed “never leave a man behind” embodies the highest traditions of the United States Navy.

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Medal of Honor Citation

Rank and organization: Petty Officer, U.S. Navy, Navy Advisory Group.
Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 31 October 1972.
Entered service at: Spartanburg, S.C.
Born: 23 March 1949, Greenville, S.C.

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.