Editing Lauri Törni (section)

====United States Army====
Törni [[Enlisted rank|enlisted]] in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] in 1954 under the provisions of the [[Lodge-Philbin Act]] and adopted the name Larry Thorne. In the U.S. Army, he was befriended by a group of [[Finnish-American]] officers who came to be known as "Marttinen's Men" (fin. ''Marttisen miehet'').<ref group="nb">Named after Colonel [[Alpo K. Marttinen]], this group of Finnish wartime officers had immigrated to the United States and joined the U.S. Army under the Lodge Act. Several were brought into the [[US Special Forces]] at its inception.</ref>

With their support, Thorne joined the U.S. Army [[Special Forces (United States Army)|Special Forces]]. While in the Special Forces, he taught [[skiing]], survival, mountaineering, and [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla tactics]]. In turn he attended [[United States Army Airborne School|airborne school]], and advanced in rank to sergeant. Receiving his US citizenship in 1957, Thorne attended [[Officer Candidate School (United States Army)|Officer Candidate School]], and was commissioned as a [[First Lieutenant#U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force|first lieutenant]] in the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|Signal Corps]].{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=117–119}} He later received a [[Regular Army (United States)|Regular Army commission]] and a promotion to captain in 1960. From 1958 to 1962, he served in the [[10th Special Forces Group]] in [[West Germany]] at [[Bad Tölz]], from where he was second-in-command of a search and recovery mission high in the [[Zagros Mountains]] of [[Iran]], which gained him a notable reputation.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=127–135}} When he was in Germany, he briefly visited his relatives in Finland. In an episode of [[The Big Picture (American TV series)|''The Big Picture'']] released in 1962 and composed of footage filmed in 1959, Thorne is shown as a lieutenant with the 10th Special Forces Group in the United States Army.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv04zcD7hlo Phantom Fighters – The Big Picture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120052718/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv04zcD7hlo |date=2020-11-20 }}, via YouTube.</ref>