Lauri Törni
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Lauri Allan Törni (born May 28, 1919 in Vyborg; died October 18, 1965 in Vietnam) was a Finnish Army Captain who led an infantry company in Finnish Winter and Continuation War and moved to the United States after the war. He is known as the soldier who fought under three flags: Finnish and German, when he fought the Russians in World War II, and American (where he was known as Larry Thorne) when he fought in Vietnam.
Törni was born in Viipuri, Finland, to a well-off family. He entered military service in 1938 and continued his service in Reserve Non-commissioned Officers school in Hamina until the beginning of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War (1939-1940).
Törni was originally assigned to supply troops, but during the battles at Lake Ladoga he was transferred to the front line. He took part in the annihilation of the encircled Russian divisions in Lemetti. After the war, in 1941 Törni was one of the men who were sent to Germany to train with Waffen-SS, but he soon returned home.
Most of Törni's reputation is based on his successful feats in the Continuation War (1941-1944) between the Soviet Union and Finland. In 1943 he was assigned to the so called Detachment Törni, an infantry unit that penetrated and fought deep behind the enemy lines. One of Törni's men was the future President of Finland, Mauno Koivisto. The two served together for instance in the crucial Battle of Ilomantsi, the very final Finnish-Soviet fight of the Continuation War in July and August of 1944. Koivisto witnessed this battle as a soldier in a reconnaissance company commanded by Captain Törni.
The Soviet Army had a bounty on Törni's head equivalent to 3 million Finnish Marks (650,000 USD). He was decorated with the Mannerheim Cross on July 9, 1944.
Törni was dissatisfied with the terms of the Finnish peace treaty with the Soviets and went to Germany in 1945 for additional saboteur training in order to be able to organize resistance in the case that Finland would be taken by Russia. He surrendered to British troops in the last stages of the war and eventually returned to Finland after escaping a British POW camp. Upon his return, ValPo (State Police) arrested him and he was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Törni was pardoned by president Paasikivi in December 1948.
In 1949 Törni travelled to Sweden, crossing the border from Tornio to Haparanda, where many Finns were settled after the war. From Haparanda Törni travelled by railroad to Stockholm. Törni travelled on from Sweden aboard a ship, SS Bolivia, whose destination was Caracas, Venezuela. In Caracas' harbour Törni met a Finnish colonel called "Motti"-Matti Aarnio, who was settled in Venezuela after the war. In Caracas Törni, in 1950, was hired to a Norwegian cargo-ship, MS Libre Villa, whose destination was the United States. In the Gulf of Mexico, near the city of Mobile, Alabama, Törni jumped overboard and swam to shore. Törni travelled to New York City where he got a job as a carpenter and a cleaner with help from Finnish settlers. In 1953 Törni was granted permit of residence.
Törni joined the U.S. Army in 1954 and took the name Larry Thorne. He ended up as an instructor in the Special Forces and taught skiing, survival, mountaineering and guerrilla tactics. In turn he learned parachuting. From 1958 to 1962 he served in the 10th Special Forces unit in West Germany. In November 1963 he joined the Special Forces unit A-734 in Vietnam and fought in the Mekong Delta. He was decorated twice.
In 1965 he had been transferred to MACVSOG training unit in Vietnam as a military advisor. On October 18, 1965, he left for a clandestine mission and his helicopter crashed 25 miles (40 km) from Da Nang, in a mountainous area of Laos. When the rescue squad arrived, they did not find his body. It is assumed that he either died in the crash or in battle on October 18.
Shortly after his disappearance in Laos, Thorne was granted the rank of a major in the U.S. Army.
Larry Thorne's remains were found in 1999 and formally identified in 2003. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on June 26, 2003.
