It was 50 years ago this October when Navy SEAL Mike Thornton was told that his buddy and fellow Navy SEAL Tommy Norris had been killed. Then Petty Officer Mike Thornton rushed 500 yards through enemy fire to go get his buddy Tommy anyway. Tommy was barely alive, but wounded himself- Thornton threw his life vest over Tommy and swam the fellow SEAL and another wounded man to safety for over two hours.

A remarkable man. A remarkable story.

So what was he doing in Montana? "I'm here for my friend Ryan Zinke," said Thornton.

Over the weekend I had the honor of hanging out with three Navy SEALs: Medal of Honor recipient Mike Thornton, former Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (R-MT), and Derrick Van Orden who is running for Congress in Wisconsin.

What was Mike Thornton's message to Montana?  He's encouraging Montanans to stand up and take our country back this November:

Medal of Honor recipient Mike Thornton: We got a problem, because our kids aren't going to be safe and free as we are. I'm not worried about myself, personally, or my wife, but I'm very worried about my children, my grandchildren, my great grandkids. So we need to step up. All Americans need to step up and say, What do you want to do with this country? How do you want to have it run?

Thornton then called out the failures of the Biden Administration with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan to domestic economic failures, and urged Montanans to support his friend Ryan Zinke for Congress in the Western District:

Thornton: We look at all this stuff, everybody that voted for President Biden, they've looked at me and said you are right Mike. Inflation, what's going on with the stock market, oil prices, and all these different questions that the regular  American thanks about because it's affecting them their family and their livelihood. So we got to get behind Ryan and everybody else that wants to take back the Senate, the House and get some good leadership back there.

Here's audio of part our chat with Mike Thornton and Ryan Zinke on Friday's "Montana Talks with Aaron Flint" from Whitefish:

 

Credit Aaron Flint
Credit Aaron Flint
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