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Lenny Kravitz’s Hero Uncle and Other Lesser Known American Heroes

Khalid Elhassan August 18, 2020 35 min

American Revolutionary War - United States — The British surrender at Yorktown. Library of Congress

10. A Hero for Three Countries

Lauri Torni in Finnish, SS, and American uniform. Pintrest

Lauri Allan Torni, who later anglicized his name to Larry Thorne, was a hero in the armies of three countries, who twice fought for the good guys, and once for the bad guys. He was a Finnish hero during the Winter War (1939-1940) against the USSR. After a short break, then he became a hero for the Germans during WWII, when he fought as a Waffen SS officer. When his remarkable military career finally came to an end, Torni was in a US Army uniform, having reinvented himself as a Green Beret and an American hero.

Torni was awarded Finland’s Mannerheim Cross – that country’s highest award for valor, equivalent to the US Medal of Honor. He earned an Iron Cross in German uniform. Fighting for America, he earned a Bronze Star for valor, two Purple Hearts, and became a special forces legend. Nowadays, the US Army Special Forces bestow the Larry Thorne Award every year upon the toughest Green Beret detachment.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.