Michael Thornton Interview (page: 5 / 9) Medal of Honor	Print Interview

This situation nearly turns into a tragic one. We know some of the things that went wrong. What went wrong next?

Thomas Norris: The first thing that went wrong is there was a Vietnamese patrol, a two man patrol that came down the beach.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. One of them was up on a sand dune and one of them was more down on a beach level area. And, you know, we saw them. I mean, we were just under cover. We were in pretty good positions. But at about that time the Vietnamese officer -- I mean, and he's thinking intelligence, I think. I mean, he's thinking we can capture these guys. We can find out what's going on. So he hollers out to his guys to capture them. Of course, these two enlisted people jump up and go after him trying to capture them. They do what they're commanded to do.

Not the right choice to make.

Michael Thornton: Not the right choice to make.

Thomas Norris: Not where we were and what we had been through.

Michael Thornton: This one guy came up and looked at the guy on the beach, which is 200 yards away, and he says, "Stop! Put up your hands and come here." So this guy who was coming up around the sand dunes. I took my weapon and I cold cocked him. The other guy opened fire on the Vietnamese officer. He jumped down behind the sand dune and I started chasing him down the beach because I wanted to get him before he got back to that village.

So I'm chasing this guy down there and Tommy is up on the top of this big sand dune overlooking everything. He sees me run up in this jungle and the next thing I hear is a couple of shots and I shot this guy. The next thing Tommy sees is me running back out of this jungle heading back towards him, and there's about 50 people running after me.

So Tommy opened fire. I think you shot a LAW rocket that time.

Thomas Norris: No, I kept my LAW rocket for last. I only had one. But yeah, we opened up on the first force that came upon us.

Our group set up a perimeter. I had gun fire positions already, although they were south of us. I was going to walk our gunfire up from there. Preposition them from there.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. So I got on the radio to try and get a hold of the destroyer that was going to be giving us naval gunfire support and I got a young officer, I'm sure, that was talking to me. He had never been used to giving gunfire support to a group on land. Normally they're called in by forward air controller aircraft, and they're firing on a position that he's directing them to. You know, on enemy positions. They're not used to firing, you know, like I was requesting. And he sounded confused and I was trying to give him coordinates. I had plenty of time. I was giving him coordinates to fire and the type of rounds I wanted him to fire, and I don't know whether it was that time or the next time. One of them -- you know, the guy says, "Well, how long can you last?"

And I can't remember what I said. Mike comes over and he says, "Do you see what's over there?"

Michael Thornton: I had moved myself up on the point. I had been fighting the bad guys up there. I was up on one point and I knew Tommy was up on another. I took that young officer and I put him in the rear security because all he had to do was look about a mile-and-a-half and see nothing but open beach but one little sand dune about 500 yards away from us which was by itself. Dang the radio operator was with Tommy, and I took little Kwan and put him down on my other flank to where they couldn't come around the beach, and I stayed up on the point.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. They got so close that we were throwing grenades back and forth and I had already shot like 17 guys. And you know, what I'd do, I'd take aim, because they would pick up their head and as soon as they'd pick their head up I'd aim right there where the sand was. And when they'd lift their head up I'd crack off a round and then I'd roll to another position, and then I'd come up. So they could never really find out where I was. And another reason you do this -- we moved all the time -- they couldn't count how many people we had on the beach.

They never had a target to shoot at. So I kept picking my targets, I'd knock them off, I'd move to another target.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. They threw a grenade over on my side and I threw the grenade back. Well, in America the grenades are four seconds, "1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000..." the grenade goes off. So they throw the grenade back over, and I'm going, "5,000, 6,000..." I throw the grenade back. I'm going, "8,000, 9,000..." and this grenade comes over again. And I know this grenade -- and the grenade went off. I rolled over and the grenade went off, and I was hit seven times with shrapnel in my back. So I yelled out, and I could hear Tommy yelling for me and I wouldn't say nothing and about that time these other three guys came over the top of the sand dune, and I shot one of them and one fell down on my side, and the other two fell back. Well, when that happened -- for some reason they quit their offensive. They quit coming forward.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

Get the Flash Player to see this video. So I went over to Tommy and said, "Tommy-- " I said, "Yeah, I'm okay." And I went up -- I kind of crawled over where Tommy could see me, and I was looking across this lagoon and they had -- Tommy said, "They asked how long can we hold out?" I said, "Look across there," and I had already counted 75 NVA and they were surrounding from the north and the south side of our position at that time. Thomas Norris: By this time I was talking to another fellow and I didn't realize this until well after the fact, but the first destroyer that I was talking to was hit by shore batteries from North Vietnam so it went off line. The second one came up -- it could never get in position because of the incoming rounds, so it could never get into a firing position for us. I didn't know any of this. I'm thinking, "These guys, how come they're not firing and I'm not getting any gunfire support?" I mean artillery and naval gunfire support.

You don't have time to talk to them for very long. I mean you're in a fire fight. We were just being overrun by various groups as they came up. Eventually it got to where you're hand to hand with some of these folks, so you only have very limited time on the radio. The first time I talked to him I had plenty of time, but after that initial contact my time frame on a radio was very short. I didn't have time to sit and talk to this guy forever and a day.

So as this battle progressed, it got to the point where we were being surrounded. We counted about 150 North Vietnamese moving in action around us. Remember there's five of us. Another thing that happened was there was a forward air control aircraft that came up at this time and I was hoping that he would take over. I couldn't communicate with him, but I knew the ships could and I wanted him to coordinate the naval gunfire. That never happened.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I also had called for my Vietnamese junk boats to come down, the support of the cement craft because Woody was on board and I knew we had a mortar on board, and we could give ourselves some fire support and it gave us a way out of there. Well, the destroyers would not let them come down to where we were because they had to be underneath the gunfire line and of course, if they dropped a short round it might hit one of them, which is fine and dandy in practice, but when you've got folks that are depending on these people you don't do that. I needed those boats. So I'm thinking they're coming and I didn't realize they had been told by the ships not to come. So we're not getting any support. I mean, it's looking pretty bad.

Michael Thornton: I've got bodies laying all around me.

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