Heroism north of the Cua Viet River

W. Thomas Smith:

Thirty-six years ago this month I was a 13-year-old junior high school student: playing a little soccer, chasing a few girls, listening to Black Sabbath albums, and pestering my parents to buy me a motorcycle (which Mom refused). Meanwhile, on the other side of the earth, 23-year-old U.S. Navy SEAL Michael Thornton was running a series of high-speed missions against the enemy in the final days of America’s involvement in Vietnam.

On one such mission – Oct. 31 (Halloween), 1972 – Mike; his commanding officer, SEAL Lt. Thomas R. Norris; and three South Vietnamese Naval commandos were conducting what the official report reads as “an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation” against the enemy-held Cua Viet River Base.

The five men launched from a Vietnamese junk under cover of darkness, paddled toward the coast in a rubber boat, and, about a mile offshore, eased out of the boat and swam the rest of the way in.

Once on the beach, things quickly degraded from difficult to bad to utterly desperate: First, it was determined that the initial objective point had been missed and that the U.S.-South Vietnamese team had been inserted into far-more-dangerous North Vietnam. Second and worse, the team was discovered and quickly came under fire from a huge enemy force that outnumbered them at least 10 to one. Third, a fierce five-hour firefight ensued between the two forces, the enemy closing to within a few yards of the team, and Mike was struck in the back.

Naval gunfire was called in, and Norris ordered the team to begin a fighting withdrawal back to the waterline hoping to escape by sea and prevent the overwhelming enemy force from encircling them.

Near the water’s edge, Mike – wounded but still fighting – was informed by one of the South Vietnamese commandos that Norris had been killed.

Dead or alive, Mike was not going to leave his commander behind.

Through a hailstorm of enemy fire, Mike raced back toward Norris’s last known position There he found Norris’s lifeless form, shot in the head, and two enemy soldiers standing over him.

Mike quickly killed the two soldiers, lifted Norris onto his shoulders, and began the several-hundred-yard dodge-and-sprint back toward the beach under heavy fire.

An incoming round from USS Newport News exploded nearby, the blast-concussion blowing both men into the air. Mike scrambled to his feet, again hoisted Norris onto his shoulders and made for the surf.

When he hit the water, Mike – wounded, exhausted, adrenaline surging – literally tied Norris to his body and started swimming. When he saw one of the South Vietnamese commandos shot in the hip and unable to swim, Mike grabbed him too; swimming both men out to sea for more than two hours before the three wounded men were picked-up by the same junk that had dropped them off.

Nearly one year later, Oct. 15, 1973, Pres. Richard Nixon presented Mike the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony with Norris in attendance. Mike had “basically kidnapped” Norris from nearby Bethesda Naval Hospital (Norris would in 1975 receive the Medal himself for a separate action.).

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Smith goes on to discuss his friendship with Thorton.

I have seen the Cua Viet which is the river that separates North Vietnam from South Vietnam. One of the first missions I had with Mike Company 3/3 was a walk up one of the prettiest beaches I have ever seen from the mouth of the Dong Ha river to the mouth of the Cua Viet. We had no contact with the enemy on that patrol, but I was able to amaze the troops by showing them how they could get fresh water by digging a hole about two or three feet down into the sand off the beach.

Thorton's operation behind enemy lines was not that different from many of the operations of special forces troops assigned to SOG units along the border with Laos. I am not discounting his heroism which was extroidinary. But those special forces troops in the SOG units accounted for many of the Congressional Medal of Honor in the vietnam war. I just finished John Plaster's Secret Commando, Behind Enemy Lines With the Elite Warriors of SOG. It is a very good book that can give you a feel for what some of the special force troops were doing that went largely unreported during the war because it was all top secret.

Before I joined Mike Company 3/3 I was assistant commander of the 3rd Marine Division Communication Center. As such I was sent on a top secret mission to Khe Sanh. As the C-130 I was on was just about to touch down the base came under artillery fire and we took off. I was dropped off in a Marine position somewhere in the area. I still have no idea where we were, but I found a radio operater and told him of my top secret orders to get to Khe Sanh. He was able to call in a chopper that eventually got me to the combat base.

Once I was there, and completed my mission, I asked where I caught a plane out. The officer I talked with laughed an sent me to an area where Marines had been waiting for days to get a ride out.

I decided that since I still had my top secret orders I would see if they had the same effect at Khe Sanh they had at the last base. I found the radio operator and told him about my orders and told him he needed to get me a ride. About an hour later he yelled where is that guy with the top secret orders.

As I was running to the chopper I felt someone running by me and he was yelling I'm a Green Beret under top secret orders too. As we got on the chopper and lifted off he showed me the terrain around Khe Sanh including the sapper trenches the NVA sug right up to the perimeter of the base.

BTW, Khe Sanh was one of the bases used by SOG for insertions into Laos to harrass the NVA along the Ho Chi Minh Trial.