I'm in Detroit this week to be with my 93 year old Dad, who is doing extremely well at his assisted living facility.
At dinner, he shares a table with 2 other guys. One of them, Victor is a Vietnam War veteran. I always enjoy conversations with Victor.
Last night, we were talking about Dwight Johnson(as we have previously), who, like Victor, was a Vietnam veteran from Detroit, over there during a similar time frame.
Victor says that he doesn't like to talk about his experiences over there........ but he really does if you talk about it a certain way and if he's talking to somebody that really wants to hear about it.
He told us in detail about his training in HI and other stuff(that he told me before but is still fascinating).
I remembered the thing that he really likes to talk about the most. Dwight Johnson's medal of honor.........then he came home and got shot while robbing a liquor store. As Victor said, after you get the medal of honor, people will do anything for you the rest of your life to take care of you. This is what made his death such a sad thing. I read the story below out loud for everybody about how he earned the medal of honor. Please read it. If you've ever watched a "Rambo" movie, which is of course fake, as the main character single handedly crushes dozens of bad people, the description of his actions sound like it came right out of the script for a Rambo movie..........seriously, you have to read his medal of honor citation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_H._Johnson
 | Dwight H. Johnson - Wikipedia Dwight Hal Johnson (May 7, 1947 – April 30, 1971) a native of Detroit, Michigan, was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in January 1968 during the Vietnam War en.wikipedia.org |
Johnson receives the Medal of Honor from President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 19, 1968
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Specialist 5 Johnson, a tank driver with Company B, was a member of a reaction force moving to aid other elements of his platoon, which was in heavy contact with a battalion size North Vietnamese force. Specialist Johnson's tank, upon reaching the point of contact, threw a track and became immobilized. Realizing that he could do no more as a driver, he climbed out of the vehicle, armed only with a .45 caliber pistol. Despite intense hostile fire, Specialist Johnson killed several enemy soldiers before he had expended his ammunition. Returning to his tank through a heavy volume of antitank rocket, small arms and automatic weapons fire, he obtained a sub-machine gun with which to continue his fight against the advancing enemy. Armed with this weapon, Specialist Johnson again braved deadly enemy fire to return to the center of the ambush site where he courageously eliminated more of the determined foe. Engaged in extremely close combat when the last of his ammunition was expended, he killed an enemy soldier with the stock end of his submachine gun. Now weaponless, Specialist Johnson ignored the enemy fire around him, climbed into his platoon sergeant's tank, extricated a wounded crewmember and carried him to an armored personnel carrier. He then returned to the same tank and assisted in firing the main gun until it jammed. In a magnificent display of courage, Specialist Johnson exited the tank and again armed only with a .45 caliber pistol, he engaged several North Vietnamese troops in close proximity to the vehicle. Fighting his way through devastating fire and remounting his own immobilized tank, he remained fully exposed to the enemy as he bravely and skillfully engaged them with the tank's externally-mounted .50 caliber machine gun; where he remained until the situation was brought under control. Specialist Johnson's profound concern for his fellow soldiers, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.[1]
Mike said in regard to Dwight Johnson, "then he came home and got shot while robbing a liquor store."
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This sounds like you're saying Dwight was the robber, but he was just an innocent bystander who got shot by the store owner:
From wiki: "Just after 11:30 p.m. on April 29, 1971, Johnson was shot upon entry of an armed robbery attempt within an Open Pantry Market convenience store about a mile from his home, in Detroit. Although wounded in the left biceps during the altercation, the store owner erroneously opened fire with a .38 caliber handgun assuming Johnson to be one of the perpetrators."
Larry,
Yeah, I'm glad you pointed that out. They obviously reworded the description of the incident in order to try to keep it from damaging his reputation..............for those only reading the article. When you are a hero like this, they didn't want it to tarnish the amazing things that he did.
However, he was attempting to rob the store he had a gun and was threatening the clerk. Dwight was seriously addicted to drugs and had other things going on. Here's more:
"He was Detroit's only Vietnam war Medal of Honor winner and Michigan's first black to receive the nation's highest military honor.
After Johnson received the award, the Army talked him into re-enlisting to recruit other Michigan men. He was required to make public appearances that forced him to relive the very moments of his life he most wanted to forget, according to James Pellegrini, of the Detroit Office of the Disabled American Veterans, who led a two-year battle on behalf of Johnson's widow to get full veteran's benefits."
"He was exposed to a white middleclass society and used by it - exploited," Pellegrini said.
"Referring to Johnson's experience as a recruiter, the board said, "He felt ill-prepared for and uneasy about public speeches and appearances. He constantly had to relive the battle and consequent death of his buddies."
According to the VA board's findings, Johnson, at the time of the apparent robbery attempt of Detroit Liquor store, was "completely confused, bitter, distrustful and depressed, and his fellings of inadequacy and helplessness were so overwhelming that he could no longer make a rational decision."
A Detroit psychiatrist, Dr. Bruce Danto, in written testimony before the board, speculated that Johnson's apparent criminal behavior "was an effort to get himself killed.
Here is much more. It's an incredible story:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-11-me-50353-story.html
"On patrol in Vietnam's Central Highlands, Johnson's tank unit was ambushed by North Vietnamese regulars. Johnson saw a tank he had been assigned to go up in flames, with his crew of just a day before inside.
Johnson, known to his friends as Skip, ran to the burning tank and pulled one soldier out just before the tank exploded, killing everyone inside.
When the tank blew up, Johnson went into an uncontrollable rage. He hunted down enemy troops, killing between five and 20; no one knew for sure. Morphine was needed to calm him down afterward, and he was taken to a hospital in a straitjacket.
The telling moment in the Vietnam combat, and in Johnson's death, came when he confronted a North Vietnamese soldier whose weapon misfired. Johnson killed him. But that soldier, and the fact that his AK-47 misfired, would haunt Johnson for the few remaining years of his life.
After the Medal of Honor ceremony, Johnson became a celebrity, in demand on television and radio. Every civic group in town wanted to honor him, and Gen. William C. Westmoreland showed up at a huge testimonial honoring him.
But antiwar protests were at their peak, and black radicals began using the cruelest epithets to describe Johnson, who then was an Army recruiter.
"The Army used this guy because of the color of his skin to recruit more black young men for cannon fodder," Shore said.
Johnson openly struggled with what might happen if he went into a rage at home like the one he experienced in Vietnam. The question would not go away."
During the robbery that claimed his life, the grocer told police that Johnson just stood there, gun at his side, saying he was going to kill him while the grocer emptied his gun."