Törni died in a helicopter crash that occurred on October 18, 1965, during a covert mission in Laos amidst the Vietnam War. Serving with the U.S. Army Special Forces, Törni was involved in operations conducted by MACV-SOG when the helicopter he was on crashed under unclear circumstances. The crash site was difficult to locate due to the rugged terrain and adverse weather conditions, delaying recovery efforts. Törni's remains, along with those of other soldiers aboard, were eventually found three decades later.
Early life and education
Christened Lauri Allan Törni, he was born in Viipuri, Viipuri Province, Finland, to ship captain Jalmari (Ilmari) Törni, and his wife, Rosa Maria (née Kosonen).[4] He had two sisters: Salme Kyllikki Rajala (b. 1920) and Kaija Iris Mikkola (b. 1922).[5] An athletic youth, Törni was an early friend of future OlympicBoxing Gold MedalistSten Suvio. After attending business school and serving with the Civil Guard, Törni entered military service in 1938, joining Jaeger Battalion 4 stationed at Kiviniemi; when the Winter War began in November 1939, his enlistment was extended and his unit confronted invading Soviet troops at Rautu.[6]
Career
World War II
Vänrikki Lauri Törni after graduating from cadet school in 1940The Törni–Männistö Weapon cache
During the battles at Lake Ladoga, Törni took part in the destruction of the encircled Soviet divisions in Lemetti.[7]
His performance during these engagements was noticed by his commanders, and toward the end of the conflict, he was assigned to officer training where he was commissioned as a Vänrikki (2nd lieutenant) in the reserves.[8] After the Winter War, in June 1941, Törni went to Vienna, Austria for seven weeks of training with the Waffen-SS, and returned to Finland in July; as a Finnish officer, the Germans recognized him as an Untersturmführer.[9]
Most of Törni's reputation was based on his successful actions in the Continuation War (1941–44) between the Soviet Union and Finland. In 1943, a unit informally named Detachment Törni was created under his command. This was an infantry unit that penetrated deep behind enemy lines and soon enjoyed a reputation on both sides of the front for its combat effectiveness. One of Törni's subordinates was future President of FinlandMauno Koivisto.[10] Koivisto served in a reconnaissance company under Törni's command during the Battle of Ilomantsi, the final Finnish-Soviet engagement of the Continuation War, during July and August 1944. Törni's unit inflicted such heavy casualties on Soviet units that the Soviet Army placed a bounty of 3,000,000 Finnish marks on his head.[11] He was decorated with the Mannerheim Cross 2nd Class on 9 July 1944.[12]
Shoulder patch of Detachment Törni
The September 1944 Moscow Armistice required the Finnish government to remove German troops from its territory, resulting in the Lapland War; during this period, much of the Finnish Army was demobilized, including Törni, leaving him unemployed in November 1944.[13] In January 1945, he was recruited by the Pro-German resistance movement in Finland and left for saboteur training in Germany, with the intention of organizing resistance in case Finland was occupied by the Soviet Union.[14] The training was prematurely ended in March, but as Törni could not secure transportation to Finland, he joined a German unit to fight Soviet troops near Schwerin, Germany.[15] He surrendered to British troops in the last stages of World War II and eventually returned to Finland in June 1945 after escaping a British POW camp in Lübeck, Germany.[16]
Törni in a Waffen-SS uniform during training in 1941
As his family had been evacuated from Karelia, Törni sought to rejoin them in Helsinki but was arrested by Valpo, the Finnish state police.[17] After escaping, he was arrested a second time in April 1946, and tried for treason for continuing to serve in the German military during the Lapland War.[2] A trial in October and November resulted in a six-year sentence in January 1947. Imprisoned at the Turku provincial prison, Törni escaped in June, but was recaptured and sent to the Riihimäki State Prison.[18] President Juho Paasikivi granted him a pardon in December 1948.[19]
A plaque in Hotel Tammer, Tampere, about Lauri Törni's Jägers being banned from meeting there in 1946.
Emigration to the United States
In 1949, Törni, accompanied by his wartime executive officer Holger Pitkänen, traveled to Sweden, crossing the border from Tornio to Haparanda (Haaparanta), where many inhabitants are ethnic Finns. From Haparanda, Törni traveled by railroad to Stockholm where he stayed with Baroness von Essen, who harbored many fugitive Finnish officers following the war. Pitkänen was arrested and repatriated to Finland. In Sweden, Törni fell in love with a Swedish Finn, Marja Kops, and was soon engaged to be married. In order to secure employment, Törni traveled under an alias as a Swedish seaman aboard the SS Bolivia, destined for Caracas, Venezuela, where he met one of his Winter War commanders, the Finnish colonel Matti Aarnio, who was in exile[citation needed] in Venezuela after the war. Törni hid on a Swedish cargo ship, the MS Skagen, which traveled from Caracas for the United States in 1950.[20]
While in the Gulf of Mexico, near Mobile, Alabama, Törni jumped overboard and swam to shore. Now a political refugee,[21] Törni traveled to New York City where he was helped by the Finnish-American community living in Brooklyn's Sunset Park "Finntown". There he worked as a carpenter and cleaner. In 1953, Törni was granted a residence permit through an Act of Congress[22] that was shepherded by the law firm of "Wild Bill" Donovan, former head of the Office of Strategic Services.
United States Army
Törni enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1954 under the provisions of the Lodge-Philbin Act and adopted the name Larry Thorne. In the U.S. Army, he was befriended by a group of Finnish-American officers who came to be known as "Marttinen's Men" (fin. Marttisen miehet).[nb 2]
With their support, Thorne joined the U.S. Army Special Forces. While in the Special Forces, he taught skiing, survival, mountaineering, and guerrilla tactics. In turn he attended airborne school, and advanced in rank to sergeant. Receiving his US citizenship in 1957, Thorne attended Officer Candidate School, and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Signal Corps.[23] He later received a Regular Army commission and a promotion to captain in 1960. From 1958 to 1962, he served in the 10th Special Forces Group in West Germany at Bad Tölz, from where he was second-in-command of a search and recovery mission high in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, which gained him a notable reputation.[24] When he was in Germany, he briefly visited his relatives in Finland. In an episode of The Big Picture released in 1962 and composed of footage filmed in 1959, Thorne is shown as a lieutenant with the 10th Special Forces Group in the United States Army.[25]
The last photo of Lauri Törni on October 15, 1965, three days before his death. A reconnaissance team is about to depart on a mission from Kham Duc. Pictured are Vietnamese helicopter pilots, Patrol Leader Charles Petry, Lieutenant Colonel Ray Call, and Captain Larry Thorne.
Formally identified in 2003, his remains were buried on 26 June 2003 at Arlington National Cemetery, along with the RVNAF casualties of the mission recovered at the crash site.[29][30] He was memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Panel 02E, Line 126.[31] He was survived only by his fiancée, Marja Kops.[32]
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Major (Infantry), (then Captain) Larry Alan Thorne (ASN: 0-2287104), United States Army, for heroism while participating in aerial flight on 18 October 1965 in the Republic of Vietnam. Major Thorne was operations officer responsible for launching a small, combined reconnaissance patrol on an extremely hazardous mission into a suspected Viet Cong stronghold. Due to the extreme hazards attending this mission, including weather and enemy action, Major Thorne volunteered to accompany submission aircraft during the introduction of the patrol in place of the assigned individual. After delivering the patrol to the landing zone, Major Thorne remained with one aircraft in the immediate area to receive an initial report from the patrol on the ground. This report was mandatory since only the vaguest information was available about enemy disposition near the landing zone. If the patrol were immediately confronted by a superior force, Major Thorne would land and extricate the patrol under fire. This was done with total disregard for the inherent dangers and with selfless concern for the ground forces. In so doing, he exposed himself to extreme personal danger which ultimately led to his disappearance and the loss of his aircraft. He had, however, guaranteed the safe introduction of the patrol into the area, the successful accomplishment of this mission and had positioned himself to react to any immediate calls for assistance from the patrol. Due to Major Thorne's efforts, the mission was accomplished successfully and contributed significantly to the overall mission of interdicting Viet Cong activities within the area. Major Thorne's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.
General Orders: Department of the Army, General Orders No. 33 (July 26, 1967)
Action Date: October 18, 1965
Dates of rank
Törni (in the middle) as a Finnish Army lieutenant
In the 1965 book The Green Berets by Robin Moore, the "Sven Kornie" (or Captain Steve Kornie) main character in the first chapter was based on Thorne.[33][nb 4]
In the 1990s, Törni's name became better known, with numerous books being written about him.[34] He was named 52nd in the Suuret Suomalaiset listing of famous Finns; in the 2006 Suomen Sotilas (Soldier of Finland) magazine listing, he was elected most courageous of the Mannerheim Cross recipients.[35]
In Finland, the survivors, friends, and families of Detachment Törni formed the Lauri Törni Tradition Guild.[36] The Infantry Museum (Jalkaväkimuseo) in Mikkeli, Finland, has an exhibit dedicated to Törni,[37] as does the Military Museum of Finland in Helsinki.[38]
In 2010 he was named as the first Honorary Member of the United States Army Special Forces Regiment[42][43] and in 2011 he was inducted into the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Commando Hall of Honor.[44]
In their 2013 book Tuntematon Lauri Törni [Unknown Lauri Törni], authors Juha Pohjonen and Oula Silvennoinen write that Törni's conviction for treason was justified because the Waffen-SS training he received at the end of World War II was provided to help achieve a National Socialist coup in Finland.[45][46][47][48][page needed][need quotation to verify] This view has been challenged by Törni Heritage Guild members Markku Moberg and Pasi Niittymäki, who acknowledge that Törni faced pressure from the war and alcohol consumption, but contend that he did not support Germany.[49] Furthermore, Finnish historian and later Minister of Defence (2015–2019) Jussi Niinistö of the right-wing populist Finns Party argued that Törni's training was actually motivated by patriotism towards his native country, and accused Pohjonen and Silvennoinen of stirring up hatred in order to promote sales of their book while disregarding "the fact that in Finland there was a genuine fear that Russia would occupy Finland."[50]
^Gill (1998) gives several aliases used by Törni: "Lauri Laine" when receiving German training (p. 69); "Aulis Haapalainen" after escaping from a British POW camp (p. 83); and "Eino Mörsky" when traveling to Venezuela and the United States (pp. 93–94).
^Named after Colonel Alpo K. Marttinen, this group of Finnish wartime officers had immigrated to the United States and joined the U.S. Army under the Lodge Act. Several were brought into the US Special Forces at its inception.
^Per McDowell, Finnish members of the team included publisher Kari Kallonen, reporter Petri Sarjanen, photographer Juha Saxberg, Törni's nephew Juha Rajala, and videographer Tapio Anttila.
^Moore's book was published the same year Thorne died. OCLC422663434 "Kornie, originally a Finn, fought the Russians when they invaded his native land. Later he had joined the German Army and miraculously survived two years of fighting the Russians on the eastern front." (p. 30) The book was later made into a movie by the same name, starring John Wayne. The Green Berets at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
^Salomaa, Markku: ”Törni, Lauri (1919–1965)”, Suomen kansallisbiografia, osa 10, s. 125–126. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2007. ISBN978-9517464512. Teoksen verkkoversio.
^Gregory, Jim (30 June 2010). "The Ideal Green Beret". United States European Command Public Affairs Office. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012.
Kallonen, Kari[in Finnish]; Sarjanen, Petri (2004). Leijonamieli: 1919–1949: Mannerheim-ristin ritari kapteeni Lauri Törni alias majuri Larry Thorne [Lionheart 1919–1949: Mannerheim Cross Knight Captain Lauri Törni aka Major Larry Thorne] (in Finnish). Revontuli. ISBN978-9525170009. OCLC47915724.
Lindholm-Ventola, Antti (1988). Lauri Törni ja hänen korpraalinsa, Sotapäiväkirjaa ja muistelmia vuosilta 1942–1944 [Lauri Törni and his Corporal, war diaries and memoirs of the years 1942–1944] (in Finnish). Helsinki: Alea-Kirja Oy. ISBN978-9519429427. OCLC57842473.
Kairinen, Paavo A.[in Finnish] (1987). Marttisen Miehet: Asekätkijäveljet [Marttinen's Men – The Brotherhood of the Armament Concealers] (in Finnish). W. Söderström: Porvoo. ISBN978-9510146644. OCLC18680922.
Karttunen, Mika (Director), Franzén, Peter (Narrator) (2007). Törni – Sotilaan Tarina [The Story of Larry Thorne] (DVD (58 minutes)) (in Finnish). Solar Films/Nordisk Special Marketing (NSM). ASINB0021GXH2E. OCLC731877681.
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