WWII Veteran Recounts How He Saved The Life Of a Fellow Soldier in Combat

Bryce Thornton, veteran of the 104th Infantry Division, emotionally recounts how he saved a fellow soldier's life during WWII, 78 years ago.

During our 2018 interview, Thornton told me he had received a Bronze Star, but refused to answer my question as to why. At the end of our long and comprehensive discussion, I again asked him to recount the heroic act. He sat there in silence as I began to pack up my equipment. Then, out of nowhere, he slowly began to tell this heartbreaking story.

There wasn't a dry eye in the room as Thornton, who was 94 at the time, relived his worst wartime experience in front of the camera. Afterward, he told me this was the first time since the war that he had fully recounted what had happened. But the memories of that day had never left him.

I was only 16 years old when I met and interviewed Bryce Thornton, and his interview remains one of the most memorable that I've conducted over the past seven years.

– Benjamin Mack-Jackson, founder WWII Veterans History Project