Leo K Thorsness
No Photo Available | Colonel Leo K Thorsness
Leo Thorsness flew 92.5 missions in the two seater F-105F Wild Weasels. The job of these specially equipped models was to pinpoint the North Vietnamese SAM (surface to air) missile sites, by getting the sites to activate their radar and fire their missiles at them, so that F-105s could see, attack and destroy the SAM ground radar sites. On April 19th 1967 for one such mission with the 357th TFS, Leo Thorsness was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. On April 30th his luck ran out- he was shot down just 7 missions short of his combat tour. Taken prisoner, he spent six years as a POW in North Vietnam. |