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Leo Thorsness spent six years in captivity in North Vietnam after he was shot down in 1967. President Richard M. Nixon gave him the Medal of Honor for his actions on a mission 11 days before he was taken prisoner.
Associated Press; thumbnail, via Leo Thorsness, undated
Col. Leo K. Thorsness
Died on May 2, 2017 at age 85
Colonel Thorsness was one of the most highly decorated American airmen of the Vietnam War and a belated recipient of the Medal of Honor for his heroism on a mission that took place 11 days before he was shot down and taken prisoner. He was brutalized during his six years of captivity at the notorious North Vietnamese prison known as the Hanoi Hilton, where he was a cellmate of John McCain’s.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.