Michael E . Thornton Michael Edwin Thornton ( born March 23 , 1949 ) is a retired United States Navy SEAL and a recipient of the U . S . military ' s highest decoration , the Medal of Honor , for his actions in the Vietnam War . He was awarded the medal for saving the life of his senior officer , Lieutenant Thomas R . Norris , who also earned the Medal of Honor in an unrelated incident . Biography . Born on March 23 , 1949 , in Greenville , South Carolina , Thornton graduated from high school in 1967 and enlisted in the United States Navy later that year in Spartanburg . He served aboard destroyer s as a gunner ' s mate apprentice until November 1968 , when he began Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL training . Upon graduation , he was assigned to SEAL Team 1 and began a series of tours in southeast Asia which ran from January 1 , 1970 , to December 1972 . By the last quarter of 1972 , U . S . involvement in the region had waned and Thornton , by then a Petty Officer , was one of only a dozen SEALs remaining in Vietnam . On October 31 of that year , he participated in a mission to capture prisoners and gather intelligence from the Cua Viet River Base near the coast of Quảng Trị Province , just south of the Demilitarized Zone . In addition to Thornton , the mission team consisted of another SEAL , Lieutenant Thomas R . Norris , and three men from the LDNN , the South Vietnamese Special Forces . Approaching by sea , the group was transported by junk until sunset , then paddled a rubber boat to within a mile of shore and swam the remaining distance . Moving inland past numerous North Vietnamese encampments , the group reconnoitered through the night . When morning dawned , the 5 - man group realized that they had landed too far north and were actually in North Vietnam . They made their way toward the coast but were spotted by a group of 50 soldiers , beginning an intense five - hour battle . When the group ' s commander , Lieutenant Norris , was severely wounded , Thornton ran through heavy fire to rescue him . He then carried the unconscious Norris into the water and began swimming out to sea . When one of the LDNNs was wounded , Thornton supported him in the water as well . He swam with the two injured men for more than two hours before being picked up by the same junk which had dropped them off the night before . For these actions , Thornton was awarded the Medal of Honor . The medal was formally presented to him by President Richard Nixon during a ceremony at the White House on October 15 , 1973 . The man Thornton rescued , Thomas Norris , survived his wounds and was awarded the Medal of Honor from President Gerald R . Ford in a White House ceremony on March 6 , 1976 for his April 1972 rescue of Lt Col Iceal Hambleton and 1stLt Mark Clark from behind enemy lines . In 1980 Thornton was chosen by Commander Richard Marcinko to be a founding member of SEAL Team Six , the U . S . Navy ' s first unit dedicated to counterterrorism . Thornton later became a commissioned officer and retired as a Lieutenant . He currently sits on the board of advisors for Veterans Direct . Medal of Honor citation . For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while participating in a daring operation against enemy forces . PO Thornton , as Assistant U . S . Navy Advisor , along with a U . S . Navy lieutenant serving as Senior Advisor , accompanied a 3 - man Vietnamese Navy SEAL patrol on an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation against an enemy - occupied naval river base . Launched from a Vietnamese Navy junk in a rubber boat , the patrol reached land and was continuing on foot toward its objective when it suddenly came under heavy fire from a numerically superior force . The patrol called in naval gunfire support and then engaged the enemy in a fierce firefight , accounting for many enemy casualties before moving back to the waterline to prevent encirclement . Upon learning that the Senior Advisor had been hit by enemy fire and was believed to be dead , PO Thornton returned through a hail of fire to the lieutenant ' s last position ; quickly disposed of 2 enemy soldiers about to overrun the position , and succeeded in removing the seriously wounded and unconscious Senior Naval Advisor to the water ' s edge . He then inflated the lieutenant ' s lifejacket and towed him seaward for approximately 2 hours until picked up by support craft . By his extraordinary courage and perseverance , PO Thornton was directly responsible for saving the life of his superior officer and enabling the safe extraction of all patrol members , thereby upholding the highest traditions of the U . S . Naval Service . Awards and decorations . Thornton received a commission in 1982 as a Limited Duty Officer and retired as a Lieutenant . During his career he was awarded