Page 5 - Desert Lightning News So. AZ Edition, March 2 2018

Desert Lightning News March 2018 5 www.aerotechnews.com/davis-monthanafb
Ceremonial guardsmen and the band march toward the gravesite during retired Col. Leo Thorsness’s full honors funeral Feb. 14 at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Thorsness was a Vietnam Prisoner of War and Medal of Honor recipient.
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by Staff Sgt. ALYSSA C. GIBSON Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
WASHINGTON — As a Medal of Honor re- cipient and former Prisoner of War, retired Col. Leo Thorsness’s life mantra after returning home from the Vietnam War was “Faith, Family, Friends and Fun.”
With the support of Air Force senior leaders, his wife, Gaylee, and daughter, Dawn, kept those words close as they said their final goodbye to Thorsness during his interment Feb. 14 at Arlington National Cemetery.
Thorsness was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on April 19, 1967. That day, Thorsness, an F-105 Thunderchief pilot, was on a surface-to-air missile suppression mission over North Vietnam. According to his citation, the pilot and his wingman attacked and silenced a SAM site with air-to-ground missiles, then destroyed a second SAM site with bombs. In the attack on the second missile site, Thorsness’ wingman was shot down and the two crewmembers abandoned their aircraft.
Thorsness kept the crewmembers in sight while simultaneously destroying a MiG-17 aircraft. De- spite being dangerously low on fuel, he went on to deter four more MiGs from the scene while allowing another friendly aircraft to refuel from a nearby tanker, preventing further loss of life and aircraft.
“During combat, when faced with life-defying deci- sions, he thought, ‘If not me, who? And if not now, when?’” Dawn said. “This is what he was thinking
Staff Sgt. Rusty Frank
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Medal of Honor recipient, former POW laid to rest