Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Ben and Diane Thornal met during the Vietnam War and have celebrated over 50 Veterans Days together.
- Ben, an Army helicopter pilot trainer, and Diane, a Donut Dolly, met at a forward base.
- Their unexpected meeting led to a 54-year marriage, highlighting their shared patriotism.
SOUTH JORDAN — A Utah couple said they might never have met if it wasn't for the Vietnam War, but not in the way people might expect.
At a small ceremony in Daybreak on Monday, Ben and Diane Thornal are observing another of well over 50 Veterans Days together.
"I signed up three days before I was going to be drafted," Ben Thornal said.
Ben Thornal said that he necessarily planned on serving. He was in Mexico when he got the word of the war, so he enlisted.
"I love this country. And so I came back. I knew that it was dangerous, but I came back, and I served, and I got in, and I enjoyed it," he said.
Ben Thornal trained U.S. Army helicopter pilots like himself in Vietnam. While at a forward base in the northern part of the county, he met Diane.
"I thought I wanted to go and save the world," Diane Thornal said.
She was not a soldier or a nurse but a "Donut Dolly."
"There were a lot of anti-war movements and stuff like that. But I felt like those troops needed our support," Diane Thornal said.
The Donut Dollies were under the American Red Cross but were commissioned by the Department of Defense to boost morale in some dangerous territory. Ben Thornal said he saw his future wife in the mess hall.
"So I went over, and I had lunch, and I sat across from the cutest one," he said.
After eating together, Ben Thornal gave her what some might think would be an unusual gift.
"I gave her a can of my arid extra dry spray deodorant, and it turned out to be a really good deal," Ben Thornal said.
They started something at an army forward base over a can of something hard to come by.
"Neither one of us was looking. Really. It was just a shock to both of us," Diane Thornal said.
Ben Thornal ended up serving in the Army for 22 years. But they both said they served and risked their lives in the same war.
"I came under fire a couple of times," Diane Thornal said.
She was even airlifted to safety during one of those conflicts.
For a couple that experienced Vietnam together, brought together because of it, each Veterans Day means a lot.
"I love this country," Ben Thornal said.
"I'm a patriot, and I married a GI, and he dragged me all over the world. And I've been happy for 54 years," Diane Thornal added.
