Rank: Private First Class
Unit: C Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 11D – Armor Reconnaissance Specialist
Awards: Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Badges: Combat Infantryman Badge
Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Selected Service
Date of birth: 24-May-1950
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Marital status: Married to Diane L. Thorson
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Entered service: 25-Sep-1969
Start of tour: 1-Mar-1970
Incident date: 26-Apr-1970
Date of casualty: 26-Apr-1970
Age at death: 19
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Artillery/Mortar/Rocket. Artillery, rocket, or mortar.
Ernest Leroy Thorson was killed while at a night defensive position when the area came under mortar attack by a hostile force. / At night defensive position. Received hostile mortar attack. / Hit by shrapnel from an exploding enemy mortar.
Two Blackhorse troopers died in this incident:
PFC Bruce Harold Bardon
PFC Ernest Leroy Thorson
Location of fatality: Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, XT 437 767
Place of interment: Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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