Michael E. Thornton
Michael Thornton was awarded the Medal of Honor. The medal was formally presented to him by U.S. 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 1st Lt 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.
A Cherokee from South Carolina, Michael E. Thornton’s Cherokee Indians can trace their history back more than one thousand years. Their society was based on hunting, trading, and agriculture, living in towns until they encountered the first Europeans in 1540, when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto led an exploration through Cherokee Indian territory. By the time European explorers and traders arrived, Cherokee Indian lands covered a large part of what is now the southeastern United States.
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 entered basic training at the Naval Training Center, San Diego, California.
He served aboard destroyers as a gunner’s mate apprentice until November 1968, when he began Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL school. 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 Army (NVA) 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.
The NVA were to the north and the south of the SEALs, but they still had their escape to the sea, which was about a mile of open beach with one sand dune. SEALs’ LT Norris ordered Thornton and two of the South Vietnamese SEALs to fall back to a sand dune to the north and provide covering fire. The team was leap-frogging to the shore, providing cover fire for each other as they moved. LT Norris made radio contact with the heavy cruiser USS Newport News and her massive 8-inch guns, and told them to “fire for effect,” destroying the entire area. At this time, the SEALs counted about 150 NVA in pursuit. LT Norris stopped to launch a LAW rocket at a group of NVA, and he was shot in the head.
A Vietnamese SEAL arrived at Thornton’s position and told him that Norris had been killed. Thornton refused to leave his lieutenant behind, and charged back over five hundred yards of open terrain to Norris. When he got there, he killed two enemy soldiers standing over the lieutenant’s body. He lifted the unconscious Norris, barely alive with a shattered skull, and began to run back toward the beach, enemy fire kicking up all around him.
The blast from an 8-inch round fired from the Newport News blew both men into the air. Thornton picked up Norris again and raced for a sand dune and then retreated to the water. As he plunged into the surf, Thornton put his life vest on Norris. A South Vietnamese SEAL was shot in the hip and couldn’t swim, so Thornton grabbed him and slowly and painfully swam both men out to sea. After being told by a forward observer that no one could survive the fight onshore, the Newport News withdrew from the area, heading south. Despite his wounds, Thornton swam out to sea with his team in tow, dodging bullets from the NVA. Thornton swam for three hours before they were finally rescued by the same junk that had dropped them off sixteen hours earlier. Now Thornton is a really big guy, and he was so tired that he wasn’t able to get on the junk for quite a while until the Vietnamese were able to drag him on board. Thanks to Thornton’s superhuman actions, the entire team lived.
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 1st 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.
From 1974 to 1977 he served as an instructor at the SEAL training command in Coronado, California. In 1977 he transferred to SEAL Team Two in Little Creek, Virginia where he was the senior enlisted (man) in an operational platoon and also served as an instructor for SEAL Basic Indoctrination. In 1978 he deployed to the United Kingdom to serve two years with the Royal Marine British Special Boat Squadron in an exchange billet.
Upon completion of his successful tour with the British, he returned to help establish and operate with SEAL Team Six. Here he was instrumental in developing new and innovative operational techniques and hardware that formed the foundation for future unique special operations missions.
In June 1982, Lieutenant Thornton received his commission as a United States Navy Ensign. He completed Basic Officer Diving and Salvage Training and immediately thereafter was assigned as the Officer-in-Charge of the Second Class Dive School at the Little Creek Amphibious Base in Norfolk, Virginia. In January 1986, he reported to the USS Edenton (ATS-1) as the First Lieutenant and Diving and Salvage Officer for Combat Support Squadron Eight, at Little Creek. In April 1990, Lieutenant Thornton reported as Bravo Company Commander where he coordinated a rapid response deployment in support of DESERT SHIELD/ DESERT STORM.
