Lauri Törni

Lauri Allan Torni (28 May 1919 - 18 October 1965), later known as Larry Thorne, was a Finnish Army captain. He led an infantry company in the Finnish Winter and Continuation Wars. After the wars, he moved to the United States. He then joined the American Army. He is known as the soldier who fought under three flags: Finnish, German (when he fought the Soviets in World War II), and American (where he was known as Larry Thorne) when he served in U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) in the Vietnam War.
Early life and military service
Lauri Allan Torni was born in Viipuri, Viipuri Province, Karelia, Finland. His father was a ship captain named Jalmari (Ilmari) Torni. His mother was Rosa (nee Kosonen) Torni. He had two sisters: Salme Lesley (b. 1920) and Kaija Iris (b. 1922). When he was a boy, he was athletic. An early friend was future Olympic Boxing Gold Medalist Sten Suvio. He attended business school and served with the Finland Civil Guard. Then he entered military service and joined the 4th Independent Jaeger Infantry Battalion stationed at Kiviniemi.
Career
World War II
During the Winter War, he fought battles at Lake Ladoga. His courage was noticed by his commanders. At the end of the war, he received officer training. Then he was commissioned a Vanrikki (2nd lieutenant) in the reserves. After the Winter War, in June 1941, Torni went to Vienna, Austria. In Vienna, he received 7 weeks of training with the Waffen SS. Then he returned to Finland in July. Because he was a Finnish officer, he was recognized as a German Untersturmfuhrer.
Torni is famous because of his courage in the Continuation War (1941-44) between the Soviet Union and Finland. In 1943 he was the leader of Detachment Torni. His infantry unit went behind enemy lines to attack the Russians. One of Torni's men was future President of Finland, Mauno Koivisto. The two served together during the Battle of Ilomantsi. This was the last Finnish-Soviet battle of the Continuation War.
Torni's unit caused many casualties on the Russian units. The Soviet Army placed a reward of 3 million Finnish Marks, equivalent to 650,000 USD, to anyone who captured Torni. Because of his courage, Torni was decorated with the Mannerheim Cross on 9 July 1944.
Torni was not happy when Finland made peace with the Soviets. The peace agreement required Finland to take up arms against Germany in the Lapland War. He left the Finnish Army. In 1945, he was recruited by a pro-German resistance movement in Finland. He traveled to Germany for saboteur training. He wanted to organize resistance in case Finland was occupied by the Soviet Union. He surrendered to British troops in Germany at the end of World War II. Then he returned to Finland in June 1945.
After he returned to Finland, he was arrested by ValPo, the Finnish national security agency. There was a trial for treason in 1946 because he had joined the German army. After the trial he received a 6 year sentence in January 1947. He went to prison in Turku, but he escaped in June. He was recaptured and went to a different prison. In December 1948, Finnish President Juho Paasikivi gave him a pardon.
United States
In 1949 Torni, traveled with his wartime executive officer Holger Pitkanen to Sweden. They entered Sweden from Tornio to Haparanda (Haaparanta). From Haparanda they traveled by railroad to Stockholm. Torni stayed with the Baroness von Essen, who helped many Finnish officers following the war. Pitkanen was arrested and returned to Finland. Torni met and fell in love with a Swedish Finn, Marja Kops. They were engaged to be married. Looking for a new job before the marriage, Torni traveled to Caracas, Venezuela. Torni met one of his Winter War commanders, Finnish colonel Matti Aarnio, who lived in Venezuela. From Caracas, Torni hired on to a Swedish cargo ship, the MS Skagen. The Skagen sailed to the United States in 1950. While in the Gulf of Mexico, near Mobile, Alabama, Torni jumped overboard and swam to shore. Now he was a political refugee. He traveled to New York City where he was helped by the Finnish-American community in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn "Finntown." There he worked as a carpenter and cleaner. In 1953, Torni received residence permit through an Act of Congress. The law firm of William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan (the former head of the OSS, America's wartime covert military organization) helped pass the law.
Torni joined the U.S. Army in 1954. The Lodge-Philbin Act was a special law that allowed non-citizens to join the army. He adopted the name Larry Thorne. While in the US Army, his friends were Finnish-American officers known as "Marttinen's Men." They helped Private Thorne join the Special Forces. While in the Special Forces, Thorne taught skiing, survival, mountaineering, and guerrilla tactics. In turn he attended airborne school. He advanced in rank and received a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in 1957. He was promoted to captain in 1960. From 1958 to 1962 he served in the 10th Special Forces Group in West Germany at Bad Tolz. While there he was second in command of a search and rescue mission in the Zagros mountains of Iran. The mission was very difficult and Thorne was praised because of its success.
In 1962 Thorne is shown as a lieutenant with the 10th Special Forces Group in a United States Army The Big Picture episode.
In November 1963 Thorne joined Special Forces unit A-734 in Vietnam. He fought in the Mekong Delta and received medals for bravery.
In 1965, Thorne transferred to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). This was a classified U.S. special operations unit. The unit focused on unconventional warfare in Vietnam. On 18 October 1965, Thorne was supervising a secret mission on a helicopter. The helicopter crashed in a mountainous area of Vietnam, 25 miles (40 km) from Da Nang. A rescue team went to the crash site. They could not find it because of the mountains and trees.
Shortly after his disappearance, Thorne was promoted to the rank of major.
Thorne's body was found in 1999. Also, the bodies of the helicopter crew were found. The bodies were formally identified in 2003. On 26 June 2003, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, section 60, tombstone 8136. The remains of the Vietnam casualties were buried with him.
Details of service
The Finnish Army
3 September 1938, military (reserve)
1 March 1939, Reserve Corporal
9 May 1940, reserve second lieutenant
5 March 1942, reserve lieutenant
27 August 1944, reserve captain
6 October 1950, removed from officers list
Finnish decorations:
2 class medal of freedom 26 July 1940
1 class medal of freedom 24 August 1940
3rd class Cross of Liberty 9 October 1941
4th class Cross of Liberty 23 May 1942
Mannerheim Cross 9 July 1944
1st Div. memorial cross
Defence Forces bronze medal
German army, the Waffen-SS
18 May 1941, Untersturmfuhrer ( Nordost )
15 April 1945, Hauptsturmfuhrer ( Sonderkommando Nord )
German decorations:
2 class Iron Cross 11 December 1943
United States Army
28 January 1954, enlisted
20 December 1954, Private First Class
28 April 1955, Corporal
17 November 1955, Sergeant
9 January 1957, Lieutenant (res.)
30 November 1960, Captain (res.)
16 December 1965, Major (res., posthumously)
United States Army decorations:
Bronze Star
Army Commendation Medal
Purple Heart (twice)
The Legion of Merit
Good Conduct Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Air Medal
Combat Infantry Badge
Parachute Badge (Master)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Legacy
In the 1990s, Torni's name became more and more well-known as a martial war hero. Several books were written about him. He was named 52nd in the Suuret Suomalaiset listing of famous Finns. In the 2006 Suomen Sotilas (Finnish Soldier) magazine listing, he was named most courageous of the Mannerheim Cross recipients.
In Finland, the survivors, friends, and families of Detachment Torni formed the Lauri Torni Tradition Guild. The Infantry Museum (Jalkavakimuseo) in Mikkeli, Finland, has an exhibit dedicated to Torni, as does the Military Museum of Finland in Helsinki. Torni is considered as the primary hero by both Finnish Parachute Rangers and Coastal Rangers, the two elite Finnish army formations.
At Fort Carson, Colorado, headquarters building for Special Forces is named the Larry Thorne Headquarters Building. The Special Forces 10th Group presents the Larry Thorne Award to the best Operational Detachment-Alpha in the command each year. The Special Forces Association Chapter 33 in Cleveland, Tennessee is named after him. In 2010 he was named as the first Honorary Member of the United States Army Special Forces Regiment.
In the book The Green Berets by Robin Moore, the "Sven Kornie" (or Captain Steve Kornie) main character in the first chapter was based on Thorne.
In a 2013 book Tuntematon Lauri Torni [Unknown Lauri Torni], Juha Pohjonen and Oula Silvennoinen say that Torni's conviction for treason was correct. They say the SS training that Torni received at the end of World War II was to support a National Socialist coup in Finland. Torni Heritage Guild members Markku Moberg and Pasi Niittymaki disagree. They say Torni faced pressure from war and alcohol, but did not support Germany. Finnish historian Jussi Niinisto says Torni's training was motivated by patriotism.