With fire support from nearby Navy destroyers unable to reach them, Thornton and his comrades contacted the heavy cruiser USS Newport News (CA 148) to provide covering fire and they prepared to retreat into the surf of the Gulf of Tonkin. Behind enemy lines, the five men engaged a force of 150 North Vietnamese soldiers for nearly four hours. Norris, and three South Vietnamese Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai (LDNN, Vietnam Navy Special Forces) members. With shrapnel in his back, Thornton scrambled to his feet to join his fellow SEAL, Lieutenant Thomas R. On October 31, 1972, Engineman 2nd Class Mike Thornton, a member of SEAL Team One, was thrown to the ground by the explosion of an enemy grenade. Hill/ US Navy photo K-84315/ National Archives and Records Administration via Naval History and Heritage Command) Although it only fired 5.56 mm rounds, at about 13 pounds, the Stoner in its light machine gun (LMG) configuration weighed roughly half of what a comparable M60 machine gun (firing 7.62 mm rounds) weighed, making it much more portable. Seen from the boat he just jumped from, a Navy SEAL (Sea Air Land Team Member) hoists his Mk 23 (Stoner 63) high as he makes his way ashore through deep mud during a combat operation in South Vietnam in May 1970.
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