Leo K. Thorsness

US Air Force officer and Medal of Honor recipient

Leo Keith Thorsness (February 14, 1932 – May 2, 2017) was a colonel in the United States Air Force who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War. He was awarded the medal for an air engagement on April 19, 1967. He was shot down two weeks later and spent almost six years in captivity in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war. After his military service, Thorsness served one term in the Washington State Senate.

On April 30, 1967, on their 93rd mission (seven shy of completing their tours), Thorsness and Johnson were shot down by a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 21 over North Vietnam while flying aircraft F 105F, AF Ser. No. 62 4447. He had flown the morning mission to the Hanoi area as Wild Weasel leader, then assigned himself as a spare aircraft for the afternoon mission because of a shortage of crews. One of Carbine flight aborted with radio problems, and Thorsness filled in as Carbine 03, leading the second element. While still inbound over northwest North Vietnam, communications were disrupted when an ejection seat emergency beeper went off aboard one of the F 105s. Despite being observed by early warning radar locations, two MiG 21s approached Carbine flight from behind and unseen. Just as Thorsness got an instrument indication that the flight was being painted by airborne radar, he saw an F 105 going down in flames that eventually was identified as his own wingman, Carbine 04 (1st Lt Robert Abbott, in F 105D, AF Ser. No. 59 1726), shot down by an Atoll missile. Within a minute, his own aircraft was also hit with a heat seeking missile fired by the MiGs. Thorsness and Johnson ejected. Separated from each other by a ridge, they were the object of a three hour rescue effort involving the entire strike force as a covering force. Two F 105D aircraft were directed by Crown to provide RESCAP (as Tomahawk flight) until the combat search and rescue (CSAR) forces could arrive on station. Both aircraft were hit by Atoll missiles from MiG 21s, with F 105D, AF Ser. No. 61 0130, piloted by Capt Joe Abbott being shot down, and wingman Maj Al Lenski limping back to Thailand. In addition, one of the A 1 "Sandy" aircraft was hit while one of the rescue Jolly Greens developed hydraulic problems and had to abort, thus ending the CSAR mission. Poor communications, heavy MiG engagements and standard operating procedures which did not allow only one CSAR helicopter to remain on station, made the effort futile and all the men were captured. CSAR forces were again launched the next day but none of the downed airmen were located. The mission is described in great detail, including verbatim transcripts of radio transmissions, in both Thud Ridge and Thud, written by Col Jack Broughton, member of Waco flight and another of the RESCAP crews involved in the incident. His uncooperativeness towards his captors earned him a year in solitary confinement and severe back injuries due to torture. The Medal of Honor was awarded to Thorsness during his captivity, but not announced until his release in 1973 to prevent the Vietnamese from using it against Thorsness, as was the Air Force Cross awarded to Capt Johnson for the same mission.

From 1979 to 1985, Thorsness served as Director of Civic Affairs for Litton Industries. He then served as a state senator in Washington. Following his retirement, he served on the board of directors of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. He moved from Catalina, Arizona, to Madison, Alabama, with his wife in early 2008 to be close to family. In 2004, the University of Richmond announced the establishment of an endowed chair in leadership and ethics named in honor of Thorsness. The Colonel Leo K. and Gaylee Thorsness Endowed Chair in Ethical Leadership was funded by a $1,000,000 gift organized by W. Thomas Matthews, President and CEO of the Global Private Client Group at Smith Barney. Thorsness also served as Distinguished Leader in Residence at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. The Thorsness chair is held by Donelson R. Forsyth, a social psychologist with expertise in group dynamics. Thorsness' autobiography, Surviving Hell: A POW's Journey, was published in December 2008. Thorsness died on May 2, 2017, in St. Augustine, Florida, at the age of 85. According to his wife, Gaylee, the cause of death was leukemia. He is buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. In August 2020, Thorsness was named the Class Exemplar for the United States Air Force Academy's Class of 2023.

In the 1974 U. S. Senate election in South Dakota, Thorsness was the Republican nominee against the incumbent Democrat George McGovern. It was believed that McGovern faced possible defeat for allegedly having neglected the state during his long 1972 presidential campaign. By May 1973, McGovern had already begun campaigning for reelection. Thorsness had just been repatriated after six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. He accused McGovern of having given aid and comfort to the enemy and of having prolonged Thorsness' time as a POW. Instead, the campaign was dominated by farm policy differences and economic concerns over the 1973–75 recession. Thorsness charged McGovern with being a "part time senator" more concerned with national office and with spending over $2 million on his re‑election bid, while McGovern labelled Thorsness a carpetbagger because he was originally from Minnesota. In January 1989, Thorsness took the oath of office for a four year term. In the state senate Thorsness sponsored a bill dubbed the "Truth Bill" on March 3, 1990. The legislature unanimously passed the measure, SJM 8020, urging the Federal government to release information about 30,000 U. S. soldiers listed as either prisoners of war or missing in action in conflicts dating back to World War II. It further urged the United States Congress to pass a similar measure, HR3603, that would force the federal government to declassify information pertaining to over 30,000 missing American servicemen. In sponsoring the bill, Thorsness said that the government kept the information classified to protect intelligence sources, but that the sources are no longer useful because the conflict occurred decades ago.