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The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Two Navy Medal of Honor Recipients - Dec. 19th, 2004
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tho0pro-1 ^

Posted on 12/19/2004 8:39:56 AM PST by snippy_about_it



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.



...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

Two Heroes



Michael E. Thorton and Thomas R. Norris



Michael E. Thornton
Congressional Medal of Honor




BIOGRAPHY
b. March 23, 1949

Michael Edwin Thornton was born in Greenville, South Carolina and raised on the family farm near Spartanburg. Thornton joined the Navy upon graduating from high school in 1967 and completed the rigorous training to join the SEALs, the Navy's elite sea-air-land special operations force. As overall American conventional forces were gradually withdrawn from Vietnam in the early 1970s, the "unconventional warfare" role of Navy SEALs grew. In the spring of 1972, Petty Officer Thornton was assigned to a mission under the command of Lt. Thomas Norris.

Thornton and Norris accompanied a three-man South Vietnamese Navy team on an intelligence gathering mission in enemy-held territory. Launched from a Vietnamese Navy junk in a rubber boat, the patrol reached land and found themselves far behind enemy lines than they had planned. Continuing on foot toward their objective, they came under heavy fire from a far larger force and were in danger of being surrounded. While inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy, they headed for the shore, in hopes of escaping by sea.



On learning that Lt. Norris had been hit by enemy fire and was believed to be dead, Thornton returned through a hail of fire to the lieutenant's last position and found him severely wounded and unconscious but alive. Quickly disposing of two enemy soldiers who approached at that moment, Thornton slung Norris over his shoulder and dashed for life over 400 yards of open beach, returning enemy fire as he ran. He carried Norris and another wounded comrade out to sea, beyond the range of enemy fire. The company floated for approximately two hours before being retrieved by the South Vietnamese Navy.

Michael Thornton was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on October 15, 1973. He is the first person in more than a century to receive that honor for saving the life of another Medal of Honor recipient. Now retired after a distinguished Navy career that continued through Operation Desert Storm, he resides near Houston, Texas.




FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links




TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: freeperfoxhole; history; navy; samsdayoff; seals; veterans; vietnam
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To: Valin

Thanks Valin for more of Thomas Norris' heroic accomplishments. These men we grow here are something else!


41 posted on 12/19/2004 3:15:46 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: SAMWolf

Hiya Sam


42 posted on 12/19/2004 3:52:23 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: bentfeather

Hi miss Feather


43 posted on 12/19/2004 3:52:39 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: bentfeather; Darksheare

ROFLMAO

Let me guess, the antidote is Darksheare's Coffee?


44 posted on 12/19/2004 3:53:32 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: alfa6

ROFLOL That's hillarous!


45 posted on 12/19/2004 3:54:53 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: msdrby

See yesterday's comment on a Zoomie thread.


46 posted on 12/19/2004 3:56:08 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: Valin
1036 Su Tung-p'o China, poet/essayist/painter/calligrapher

His chicken dish isn't too bad.

47 posted on 12/19/2004 3:58:18 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: Professional Engineer; bentfeather

Snow finally started here.
And they salted SOME roads, but not the ones that usually get icy.
;-/


48 posted on 12/19/2004 4:12:48 PM PST by Darksheare ("His heart went dead underneath her gaze" - The Book of Foreshadowed Sorrows.)
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To: Professional Engineer

AIR FORCE! We kill people the civilized way...from 20,000 ft.


49 posted on 12/19/2004 4:14:36 PM PST by Valin (Out Of My Mind; Back In Five Minutes)
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Comment #50 Removed by Moderator

To: Valin
We kill people the civilized way...

Yer bad!

51 posted on 12/19/2004 5:42:22 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: Professional Engineer

That way you don't get your boots a scuffed up, and you're back in time for happy hour.

After all one does have to have ones priorities straight.


52 posted on 12/19/2004 6:06:25 PM PST by Valin (Out Of My Mind; Back In Five Minutes)
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To: Professional Engineer; msdrby

AAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH

I just printed 40 drawings with the wrong date on them!


53 posted on 12/19/2004 6:21:01 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: Professional Engineer

ARGH indeed! When'r' ya comin home?


54 posted on 12/19/2004 6:32:39 PM PST by msdrby (Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.)
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To: msdrby

I've got 20 more drawings in the plotter que.


55 posted on 12/19/2004 6:54:51 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: Professional Engineer; msdrby

Then stamp and sign 37 of them.


56 posted on 12/19/2004 7:00:50 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Taglinus Classicus. When you have absolutely nothing new to say.)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; shield; The Mayor; bentfeather; E.G.C.; alfa6; stand watie; Iris7; ...

I saw this. The use of golf courses was as ingenious as the use of Navajo code talkers.

U.S. Military Portable Radios

Norris and Thornton and those to whom they defer have exhibited inspiring valor--which leads our Republic forward like the North Star.

As an obscene contrast, submitted for your jeers and hisses, that fraud whose memory of Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia was "seared, seared" in his memory.

And the likes of Hagel who as "no confidence in Rumsfeld"--

This from the senator for whom the matter of supreme import continues to be the horrors of panties-on-the-head Abu Ghraib prison.

The bravest again prove to be the most modest and self-deprecating.

57 posted on 12/19/2004 7:42:47 PM PST by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: bentfeather

Evening Feather.


58 posted on 12/19/2004 11:23:36 PM PST by SAMWolf (I played poker with tarot cards; got a flush and five people died.)
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To: E.G.C.

Evening E.G.C.

We had a drizzly/foggy day today. All that nice weather lasted only a day. :-(


59 posted on 12/19/2004 11:24:30 PM PST by SAMWolf (I played poker with tarot cards; got a flush and five people died.)
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To: alfa6
DID NOT!!!
HaHA here is the first one posted by bentfeather back on 12/11/04. SO THERE

LOL!

60 posted on 12/19/2004 11:26:12 PM PST by SAMWolf (I played poker with tarot cards; got a flush and five people died.)
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