Lauri Törni

He fell in love in Sweden with a Swedish Finn lady, Marja Kops, whom he got engaged to and had plans for marriage.

Several books were written on this war hero whose name finds place on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Line 126 of Panel 02E.

The Detachment Törni survivors, families and friends created Lauri Törni Tradition Guild in Finland. The annual Larry Thorne Award given to the best Operational Detachment-Alpha in the command is presented in his honour.

He was born on May 28, 1919, in Viipuri, Finland in the family of Jalmari (Ilmari) Törni, a ship captain, and his wife Rosa (née Kosonen). He had two younger sisters Salme Kyllikki and Kaija Iris.

Törni studied at a business school and served the voluntary militia White Guard before getting enlisted in military service in 1938. He joined the 4th Independent Jaeger Infantry Battalion that was stationed at a rural locality in Priozersky District, Leningrad Oblast called Kiviniemi.

His enlistment was extended with the onset of the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland that commenced on November 30, 1939, following invasion of the Soviets in Finland. His unit was assigned to fight the invading Soviet troops at the rural locality of Rautu in Priozersky District.

Törni was involved in destructing the encircled Soviet divisions in Lemetti during the Lake Ladoga battles. By the end of the war he was designated to officer training and commissioned the military rank of Vänrikki (2nd lieutenant) in the reserves.

In June 1941 following the end of Winter War Törni underwent a seven weeks training with armed wing of the Nazi Party's SS organization the Waffen-SS in Vienna, Austria before returning to Finland in July that year. Törni, an officer of the Finnish Army received paramilitary rank of Untersturmführer of the German Schutzstaffel (SS).

His successful efforts during the Continuation War, a conflict fought against the Soviet Union by co-belligerents Finland and Nazi Germany from June 25, 1941 to September 19, 1944 earned him much repute.

He led an infantry unit in 1943, named informally as Detachment Törni that succeeded in permeating way beyond enemy lines earning kudos for its efforts.

On July 9, 1944, he was bestowed with the most prestigious Finnish military decoration, the Mannerheim Cross.

Törni landed in the US as a political refugee sometime in the 1950s and started working as a cleaner and carpenter. He was granted a residence permit in 1953 via an Act of Congress.

In 1954 he joined the US Army under the provisions of the US federal law called the Lodge-Philbin Act.

Eventually he became part of the United States Army Special Forces where he learnt guerrilla tactics, skiing, mountaineering and survival skills. He attended the United States Army Airborne School that gives basic paratrooper training to the US armed forces as also the United States Army's Officer Candidate School (OCS). In 1957 he garnered the rank of 1st lieutenant in the United States Army Signal Corps (USASC).

He served the 10th Special Forces Group from 1958 to 1962 in the town of Bad Tölz in West Germany and earned repute becoming part of a search and recovery mission in capacity of second in command.

In November 1963, he was deployed in South Vietnam to back the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in the ongoing Vietnam War.