Lauri Allan Törni, the one soldier who fought in 3 different wars, under 3 different flags.
Born in Finland, he enlisted in the Finnish Army in 1938, fighting the Soviets during the Winter War, earning several medals for valor and was commissioned to 2nd Lt.
In 1941, he fought the Soviets once more with the Waffen SS on the Eastern front until 1944. He was in charge of his own Infantry unit who went deep behind the Soviet lines to wreak havoc. At one point, he inflicted such heavy casualties on Soviet units that the Soviet Army placed a bounty on his head of 3,000,000 Finnish marks.
He was captured by the Allies towards the end of the war, and was released in 1948 after a pardon from the Finnish President.
In 1949, he immigrated to the US, changed his name to Larry Thorne and joined the US Army in 1954. He attended OCS, and various other schools and soon enough, became part of the Special Forces. He fought two tours in Vietnam, one of which with the secretive unit MAC V SOG, running clandestine operations deep behind enemy lines. He earned several medals to include 2 Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with V.
On 18 October 1965, during a secret mission, his helicopter crashed in a mountainous area 25 miles from Da Nang. Rescue teams were unable to locate the crash site. Shortly after his disappearance, Thorne was promoted to the rank of Major.
His remains were finally found and repatriated in 1999 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery. He became a legend not only in his native country but also within the SOF community, as he was inducted in the US SOCOM Hall of Honor in 2011 amongst many more commemorations. #badass #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #warrior