Lyndon Johnson and his ridiculous Stolen Valor Silver Star – he was a mere observer on a plane and it never even came under enemy attack!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jul/06/internationaleducationnews.humanities

 

For most of his political life, Lyndon B Johnson wore a second world war military decoration for valour under fire despite never having seen combat, an investigation broadcast on CNN yesterday revealed.

LBJ was awarded the Silver Star, the third-highest US combat medal, for a 1942 fact-finding mission over the Pacific while he was a Texas congressman and an acting lieutenant commander in the navy.

The citation, issued in the name of General Douglas MacArthur, said the plane, a B-26 bomber, was “intercepted by eight hostile fighters” and that Johnson “evidenced coolness”.

In fact, according to surviving members of the crew, the plane developed mechanical problems before reaching its target and never came under fire. No other crew member received a medal for the mission.

The biographer of LBJ, Robert Dallek, said the medal was the outcome of a deal with Gen MacArthur, under which Johnson was honoured in return for a pledge “that he would lobby the president, FDR, to provide greater resources for the southwest Pacific theatre”.

CNN article on Lyndon Johnson’s completely fraudulent Silver Star – what is called today in 2022 as “Stolen Valor”

 

Google “Stolen Valor Act of 2005”

 

Completely Phony Silver Star given for a June 9, 1942 bombing run on a plane that had to turn back with engine trouble long before the other bomber planes came under attack by Japanese Zeroes as the approached their targets. LBJ’s plane did not engage the enemy and on top of that he was merely an observer. And on top of that NO ONE ELSE ON HIS PLANE received any military commendation for that flight.

“The Story behind LBJ’s Silver Star: Merits of late president’s wartime record still debated,”

http://medicinthegreentime.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/LBJ-SSM-CNN.pdf

By Jamie McIntyre CNN Military Affairs Correspondent And Jim Barnett CNN Producer

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Lyndon Baines Johnson, the first member of Congress to enter active duty in World WarII, was awarded the Silver Starin 1942 for gallantry in action on a flight over enemy territory. But historians have called Johnson’s decoration one of the most undeserved Silver Stars in history, and CNN’s review of the historical record raises new questions about the circumstances of its award by Gen. Douglas McArthur nearly 60 years ago. For most of his life as a politician, Johnson proudly wore a Silver Star pin identifying him as a war hero. The small lapel pin can be seen in the famous photograph of Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963. For three decades, on occasions mundane and momentous, the small red, white and blue badge of courage was often visible on Johnson’s suit coat. “He wore the Silver Star in his lapelall his life, up to and through the presidency,”said Robert Caro,a historian and Johnson biographer. “When he was campaigning in Texas and he wanted to draw people’s attention to it, he would actually do this (with his lapel) when he was giving a speech,”said Caro, demonstrating how Johnson would grab his lapel with the Silver Star and flap it. Whether Johnson truly rated the Army’s third-highest combat award seen on his official portrait is a question his biographers have long debated. “The most you can say about Lyndon Johnson and his Silver Star is that it is surely one of the most undeserved Silver Stars in history,” Caro said. “Because if you accept everything that he said, he was still in action for no more than 13 minutes and only as an observer. Men who flew many missions, brave men, never got a Silver Star.” In an effort to clarify the historical record, CNN re-examined previously published documents about the wartime service of Johnson, who died in 1973,and conducted interviews with the few witnesses stillalive. While not conclusive, the available evidence raises questions not only about whether the Silver Star, now on display at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas, was undeserved, but also whether it was awarded based on a battle report that may have been inaccurate and incomplete. ‘Ambitious politician’ enlists After Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Johnson, then a lanky lawmaker from Texas, became the first member of Congress to enter active duty. “The minute WWII began, he was a very ambitious politician,and he understood if he was going to run for some higher office down the road, he needed to have some kind of military service,”said Robert Dallek,another Johnson biographer. “So he volunteered and became a naval officer. He’s in Washington as a reserve naval officer,and he goes to see (President Franklin D.) Roosevelt and convinces him to send him on an inspection tour of the southwest Pacific.” Rare home movies, from a camera Johnson carried on that tour, show Roosevelt’s young protege in Australia, where he met MacArthur, who allowed him to go on a single bombing mission as an observer. Johnson was awarded his Silver Star for that one combat mission on June 9, 1942, on a bombing run in which 11 American B-26s attacked a Japanese base in Lae, New Guinea. It was his only combat experience in an eight-month military career.

Johnson is greeted in Port Moresby, New Guinea before his single mission as an observer on aB-26 bomber in 1942 The source for most accounts of what happened is a book titled “The Mission,” published in 1964 after Johnson became president. Based on the crew’s firsthand account,authors Martin Caidin and Edward Hymoff painted a vivid picture of how the B-26 bomber — hobbled by a failed generator — limped back to base, fending off attacking Japanese fighters, using its crippled guns and evasive maneuvers. In the book, Johnson is described as “coolas ice”and “laughing”in the face of a withering attack by Japanese Zeros. “Bullets were singing through the plane allabout us,” waist gunner Lillis Walker told the authors, who are now dead. “We were being hit by those cannon shells,and he was — well — just calm and watching everything.” The passage was a gripping account of courage under fire — except,according to the sole surviving crew member — it was pure fiction. “No way,”said retired Army Staff Sgt. Bob Marshall. “No, that story was made up, put in there in my mind by the author of the book. ‘Cause we never seen Zero, was never attacked. Nothing.” “The Mission”authors portrayed Marshall,a 19-year-old gunner on Johnson’s plane,as overcoming the loss of electrical power by using brute strength to aim his guns against the Japanese. But Marshall insists it never happened. “That was something I would never forget if I had to do that,” Marshall said. “We never got attacked. I had no reason to swing my guns, my turret. Them was built-up stories.” Marshall said he remembers meeting the young Navy officer who flew along on his plane that day but didn’t know who he was then and didn’t learn until years later that Johnson received the Silver Star for the flight. For years, he said he quietly disputed the published account in private conversations and occasionally in public, but almost no one paid attention. “If that so-called observer, LBJ that day, got it, the whole crew should have gotten it,” Marshallsaid. “That’s the third-highest award you can get.” Did plane come under fire? Historian and aviation writer Barrett Tillman has long contended that Johnson’s plane turned back well before it could have engaged the enemy. “Johnson, I think, to his credit, was willing to put himself in harm’s way for whatever reason,” Tillman said, “but about 80 miles southwest of the target, his aircraft developed generator trouble and was forced to turn back.” Tillman and researcher Henry Sakaida first published this version of events in 1993 and updated their argument in an article in a recent issue of Naval History magazine. “The citation,as written for the Silver Star, was completely erroneous,” Tillman said. The criteria for the Silver Star,established by law in 1932, state it is “for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force”and specify that the “required gallantry … must … have been performed with marked distinction.” Johnson’s Silver Star citation says, “As our planes neared the target area, they were intercepted by eight hostile fighters.” While implying that Johnson’s plane was among them, the citation doesn’t actually say his B-26 came under fire. The citation goes on to read, “The plane in which Lieutenant Commander Johnson was an observer developed mechanical trouble and was forced to turn back alone, presenting a favorable target to the enemy fighter; he evidenced marked coolness in spite of the hazard involved. His gallant action enabled him to obtain and return with valuable information.” Tillman said, “He may have well brought back valuable information to Washington, D.C., but it was not, definitely not, in context of direct combat.”

Johnson had his Silver Star pin on when he took the oath of office as president following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 Johnson was given the Silver Star by MacArthur, who also awarded a Distinguished Service Cross — an even higher award — posthumously to another member of Johnson’s inspection team. Lt. Col. Francis Stevens died in the one B-26 that was shot down that day. In a twist of fate, Johnson originally had boarded that B-26. After a bathroom break, Johnson got on a different plane nicknamed the “Heckling Hare.” According to flight records, on June 9, 1942, the bombers took off at 8:51 a.m. for the two-hour, 20- minute round trip to Lae, New Guinea. The attack was set for about 10 a.m. Tillman said that the timeline makes it impossible for Johnson’s plane to have come under attack. “The time distance equation leaves absolutely no doubt as to what happened,even without the testimony of the people who flew the mission,”said Tillman, pointing at a chart of eastern New Guinea. “Based on the known cruising speed of a B-26 and the time that’s involved, the mathematics shake out to a point just about 80 statute miles south of the target area. At which point, the Heckling Hare turned around, jettisoned its bombs in order to lighten load and returned to Port Moresby.” An ambiguous diary entry During his public life, Johnson rarely kept a diary, but he did on his Pacific tour. His handwritten account of what happened that day is on display at the LBJ Library. The June 9 diary entry could be interpreted as indicating Johnson’s plane was attacked, just after it turned back. The scrawled pencil notes say, Generator went out: Crew begged … to go on. For next 30 minutes we flew on one generator. Due to drop bombs at 10:10. At 9:55 we turned. At 9:58 Zeroes intercepted — Andy leader got 3 and probably another. B-25 got two more and fighters got four. Total 9 zeroes. Longtime Johnson aide and friend Harry Middleton puts a lot of stock in Johnson’s contemporaneous diary account. Middleton is the director of the LBJ Library and Museum, where CNN was referred after members of Johnson’s family declined several requests for interviews. “Obviously it is close to the best source of information you can get,” Middleton said. “A lot depends upon what was in the persons mind as he was writing about his activities, but sure it’s primary material.” But the diary — like the citation — is ambiguous. What appears to be an account of what happened to Johnson’s plane again might simply refer to what happened to the 10 planes that completed the bombing run. That interpretation is what historian Tillman argues — that the timing doesnt add up. There is no earthly way Johnson could have seen the Zeros attacking, he said. There is at least one other eyewitness stillalive, Albert Tyree,a radio operator and gunner on another B-26 that day. Now 80 and retired in California, Tyree insists Johnson’s plane turned around long before the rest of the planes encountered enemy fire. “So you saw it turn around and go back?” CNN asked him. “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah,” Tyree said. “Were you under fire at that point?” “No, no. None of us was,”insisted Tyree. “We weren’t under fire until we got up close to Lae Air Base, the Japanese air base.” “How certain are you that the plane Johnson was on didn’t come under fire?” CNN asked. “I’m sure. He couldn’t of ’cause we didn’t get hit either ’tillabout right before we dropped our bombs.” “And you’re absolutely sure of that?” “I’m absolutely sure.” While Tyree would have no way of knowing what happened to Johnson’s plane after it turned back, there is other evidence. The Army’s after-action report records the damage to all the planes that returned to Port Moresby after the June 9 bombing. Damage to the planes is listed down to the last bullet hole, but the list doesn’t include Plane 1488 — the B-26 on which Johnson flew. (Reada page fromthe flight record) But records can be incomplete or contain mistakes. For instance,a manifest prepared after the attack lists Johnson’s rank as commander, instead of lieutenant commander,and it shows,above his, the name of a Sgt. Newhouse,a man that Bob Marshall replaced on the crew. At least that’s how Johnson’s wartime diary entry concerning the mission is ambiguous Johnson spoke of his combat experience in a 1963 phone conversationwith House Speaker John McCormick ( 126K/12 sec. AIFFor WAV sound) Marshall remembers it. In fact, Johnson’s plane is recorded as landing at 10:08 a.m., with engine trouble two minutes before the other B-26s were scheduled to drop their bombs on Lae,according to Johnson’s diary. (Readthe crew manifest) “I’m telling the truth,” he said. “I don’t build up stories. I’m not selling a book or a story. I’m 100 percent right in my mind. And in a lot of other guys’ minds.” Johnson never disputed account of bravery The LBJ Library in Austin contains more than 45 million pages of documents, filling five floors. But as complete as these documents are, they don’t definitively answer the question of whether Johnson’s combat service was a myth. That question is something that will remain a matter of debate among historians. One of those records in the library is a letter on Johnson’s congressional letterhead, dated July 15, 1942,addressed to the adjutant general of the War Department, suggesting Johnson didn’t deserve the Silver Star. It reads in part: “I should not and could not accept a citation of recognition for the little part I played … for a short time in learning and facing with them the problems they encounter all the time. The coolness for which the Generalcommends me was only the reflection of my utter confidence in the men with whom I was flying.” “Watching the fighting crew of my ship save their crippled plane despite interception by hostile fighters outnumbering us, burned into my mind knowledge of concrete conditions which you can make sure I shall use to the best of my ability in the service of my country.” He concludes, “I cannot in good conscience accept the decoration.” But the letter is unsigned,and there is no evidence it was ever sent. (Read the unsent letter 1 | 2) The LBJ Library’s Middleton said not much is known about the circumstances surrounding the letter. “We know nothing about it other than it is there,” Middleton said. “There’s no explanation that I know of. It simply is there,amassed along with all the other papers.” Johnson biographer Caro said, “I’ve always felt the Silver Star should have been turned back, that he should have sent the letter, rejecting it because he didn’t deserve it.” If Johnson had doubts about accepting the medal, he put them aside,and the legend of his wartime exploits began to grow. While Johnson never endorsed the 1964 book “The Mission,” he wrote the authors a brief thank-you note. As soon as I have a few moments, Johnson wrote, I intend to begin reading it. (Readthe thank you letter) But Johnson never disputed the account of his bravery,and he would on occasion make reference to his combat experience,as he did in a December 20, 1963, phone conversation with House Speaker John McCormick. The White House routinely recorded the president’s phone conversations. “I know foreign aid is unpopular,”Johnson told McCormick.”But I didn’t want to go to the Pacific in ’41 after Pearl Harbor, but I did. And I didn’t want to let those Japs shoot at me in a Zero, but I did.” Longtime Washington journalist Hugh Sidey, who covered the Johnson White House, recalls the president telling stories about his wartime exploits. “He talked about the Jap ace and about how he had gone out as an observer and they attacked the plane and how the bullets came zinging inside the fuselage and the crew got wounded and there was blood all over,” Sidey said. Was Johnson living a lie? It depends on who renders the judgment. “I don’t think its totally out of the question that he might have embellished on the story and used it for political purposes while he was campaigning,” Middleton said. “But I never heard him talk about it at all.”

For Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Caro, the eyewitness accounts, published in “The Mission,” outweigh the circumstantialevidence that suggests Johnsons plane may not have come under fire. “I think that the weight of the evidence at this moment is that the plane was attacked by Zeroes and that he was cool under fire,” Caro said. Caro argues that if the quotes in “The Mission” were untrue, someone would have spoken up before now. “All the members of that crew except for the two who were killed in the war were alive then,” Caro said. “None of them ever disputed any of the quotations in the book,and if you read the quotations in the book, they were a very convincing picture of men scared under fire.” Politics over bravery? Researchers Tillman and Sakaida have a different theory: The two surviving crew members lied, possibly to curry favor with the new president. “The members of the 22nd Bomb Group to whom Henry and I talked over a period of five or six years,” Tillman said, “were almost unanimous in their assessment of the two individuals that Caidin and Hymoff most frequently quoted in their book called “The Mission.” One of them was described as a fellow flier as a great one for putting himself in the limelight. The other one apparently became a Democrat Party activist in the Chicago area and was willing to go along with Lyndon Johnson’s version of events.” Historian Dallek, who also has written several books on Johnson, said the evidence, while conflicting, buttresses his argument that the Silver Star was more about politics than bravery. “What I concluded,” Dallek said,” was that there was an agreement,a dealmade between LBJ and Gen. MacArthur. And the deal was Johnson would get this medal, which somebody later said was the least deserved and most talked about medal in American military history. And MacArthur, in return, had a pledge from Johnson that he would lobby FDR to provide greater resources for the southwest Pacific theater.” History — it has been said — is argument without end. It is impossible to reconstruct with absolute certainty what happened nearly 60 years ago. Memories can be wrong,and records don’t tell the whole story. Still,even Caro said if Johnson did tell the truth, he didn’t tell the whole truth. “I would say that it’s a issue of exaggerations,” Caro said.” He said that he flew on many missions, not one mission. He said that the crew members, the other members of the Air Force group, were so admiring of him that they called him Raider Johnson. Neither of these things are true.” ‘A very complicated man’ Tillman argues the version of Johnson’s Silver Star airplane ride in today’s history books needs to be updated if future generations are to understand the late president. “I think the best explanation I can give for trying to learn the truth is that so often what we accept as conventional wisdom is simply the first draft of history,” Tillman said. Dallek agrees that,even though the events happened long ago, it’s still important to try to figure out the truth. “It matters that the record is accurate because it speaks volumes about the man,about his character,about his place in history,about judgments that historians make on him,” Dallek said. “Is he to be trusted?” “The more egregious offense is perpetuating the myth,” Tillman said. “Johnson, or anyone else caught in that situation, simply could have put the medalaway in a drawer, not bothered to wear the lapel pin the rest of his life, but we know that Johnson did.” Family friend Middleton said Johnson was a complex man. “He had many, many faults,” Middleton said, “but they were counterbalanced by a great vision of what he should do and could do for this country, which is what united us all who worked for him. I’ve been around when I’ve heard him say things that I thought, Can that really be the case? But then I’ve heard him then say things that make me awfully proud to be associated with him. He’s a difficult,a very complicated man.” For former radio operator and gunner Marshall, it’s a point of honor to tell the truth, the best he knows it. “My wife always tells me, she says, ‘Bob, why don’t you forget the past? That’s gone.’ I say, ‘Betty, when you’re in a position like we was in those days, it’s going to be there forever,and I would like to have all this story made up straight.'”

“We’re all going to leave this world some day,and it gets closer and closer. And I’d like the truth to actually be put out about it,” Marshall

said. “I don’t want to be put on something I didn’t do.”

NYT of Sept. 21, 1964 reporting on LBJ’s completely fraudulent Silver Star

 

Johnson Was Awarded the Silver Star for Flight With Bomber Group in Pacific

Johnson Was Awarded the Silver Star for Flight With Bomber Group in Pacific – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 

In the lapel of his coat, most days, President Johnson wears the red-, white- and blue‐striped ribbon of the Silver Star, the third highest decoration for valor of the United States armed services.

It was awarded him by the late General of the Army Douglas MacArthur for a mission he flew with members of the 22d Bomb Group over New Guinea on June 9, 1942, while he was on an inspection trip for President Roosevelt in the Southwest Pacific.

Mr. Johnson, then a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve, flew the bombing mission” without orders and only so that he could see what such missions were like. It was the high point of a little oyer seven months he spent in uniform in World “War II. j

He was a Representative from Texas when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 71941. He had been in the Naval Reserve since Jan. 21, 1940, at which time he had been commissioned a lieutenant commander. I

That was the rank customarily given then to those of! the age, education and qualifications of Mr. Johnson but without training for combat duty or command.

The tall young Representative —Mr. Johnson was 33 years old —waited only long enough to vote for declarations of war against Japan on Dec. 8 and: against Germany on Dec. 11, then obtained the consent of the House for a leave of absence and reported for active duty.

He was kept in Washington for several weeks in the office of the assistant Navy secretary dealing with manpower problems. Then he was sent to the headquarters of the 12th Naval District at San Francisco.

Unhappy at being kept chained to a desk while a war was being fought, Lieutenant Commander Johnson got permission to return to Washington and applied directly to President Roosevelt for assignment to a war theater.

General MacArthur had established his headquarters in Melbourne but the over‐all command structure was not yet functioning and no one was quite sure who was In command. There were reports of malingering and even of sabotage by Australian dock workers. The Pres-. ident appointed Mr. Johnson to go down and find out what was going on and report back directly to him.

With his Presidential orders, Lieutenant Commander Johnson landed in Melbourne on May 25 and reported to General MacArthur. With him were Lieut. Col. Samuel E. Anderson, a career soldier and pilot, and Lieut. Col. Francis R. Stevens.

The three spent several days inspecting installations in and around Melbourne and further north at Sydney, Brisbane and Townsville.

On June 9, they were at Seven Mile Drome, near Port Moresby on the south shore of New Guinea. On the north shore of the big island, the second largest of the world, 12,000 feet up and 180 miles across the: Owen Stanley Range, were the, newly established Japanese bases of Salamaua and Lae.

The two sides were taking turns raiding each other’sbases. This morning was the Americans’ turn.

The three visitors had received permission to ride with’ the B-26’s.

Mr. Johnson made the mission in a plane piloted by Lieut. Walte Greer of Russelville, Ark., who later was killed in a bomber crash in the States in 1944. Its crew had named the B-26 the “Heckling Hare.”

Accounts of the mission vary somewhat. A dispatch of June 10 to The New York Times from Byron Darnton, its correspondent who later in 1942 was killed in action off New Guinea, indicated- that Mr. Johnson’s plane was not involved in a battle with a group of Japanese Zero fighter planes over Salamaua and Lae. :

The long dispatch, printed on June 12, reported on the fight engaged in by the other planes on the flight. Mr. Darnton wrote:

“The plane [in which Mr. Johnson was riding] developed mechanical trouble and was forced to return without reaching its target. But the Representative got a good first‐hand idea of the troubles and problems confronting our airmen and declared himself impressed by the skill and courage of the bomber crews and fighter pilots

Mr. Darnton’s dispatch passed though censorship, and some passages may have been cut or altered. \

The citation for the award to Mr. Johnson of the Silver Star reported the action in these words:

“As our planes neared the target area they were intercepted by eight hostile fighters. When, at this time, the plane in which Lieutenant Commander Johnson was an observer developed mechanical trouble and was forced to turn back alone presenting a favorable target to the enemy fighters, he evidenced marked coolness in spite of the hazards involved. His gallant action enabled him toobtain and return with valuable information.”

Last June a book entitled “The Mission.” by Martin Caidini and Edward Hymoff. was published by J. B. Lipnin-‘ott Company of Philadelphia and New York.

It is based on the recollections of several members of the: bomber group, including some members of the crew of the plane on which Mr. Johnson flew.

When a generator failed and their plane began to lose speed and dropped out of tight for mation, these men recalled, the Heckling Hare was attacked by eight Zero fighters, which had already been engaged with other planes of the flight and had crippled the one in which Colonel Stevens was riding. That plane crashed and all aboard were killed.

Men quoted in “The Mission” said Mr. Johnson had shown no signs of panic and had even climbed up to look out of the navigator’s “bubble” of the B-26 during the attack.

They said the plane had’.been hit repeatedly by cannon and machine‐gun fire from the Japanese fighters but had returned safely to Seven Mile Drome with no one hurt.

Shortly thereafter, Colonel Anderson and Lieutenant Commander Johnson started home. But Mr. Johnson had to be bedded in Suva, the Fiji Islands, with pneu/nonia, and did not reach Washington until midJuly.

President Roosevelt, on July 1, had issued a directive calling on all members of Congress then in the armed forces to return, to Capitol Hill.

President Johnson remained in the Naval Reserve until last Jan. 17, when he resigned his commission. He had been promoted to commander.

History Channel – which gets so much stuff wrong – in 2019 promotes fantasy that LBJ’s plane the Heckling Hare actually came under attack – WHICH IT DID NOT!

https://www.history.com/news/lbj-world-war-ii-bathroom-break

[“How a Luckily Timed Bathroom Break Saved LBJ’s Life During WWII,” Patrick J. Kiger, History Channel, Feb. 15, 2019]

QUOTE

That perverse twist of fate wasn’t Johnson’s only brush with death on that fateful day in June 1942. He ended up joining the crew of another bomber, the Heckling Hare, that was crippled in the middle of the mission by a failed electrical generator, and then had to struggle back to base under withering enemy fire.

UNQUOTE

Here is how the LBJ Library presents Lyndon Johnson’s ridiculous Silver Star, the most fraudent military medal ever awarded in American history

https://web.archive.org/web/20170619204727/https://www.lbjlibrary.org/lyndon-baines-johnson/lbj-biography/lbj-military-service

http://www.lbjlibrary.net/collections/quick-facts/lyndon-baines-johnson-military-service.html

QUOTE

LBJ Military Service

On June 21, 1940, Lyndon Johnson was appointed Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve (USNR). Reporting for active duty on Dec. 10, 1941, three days after Pearl Harbor, he was ordered to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., for instruction. He began working on production and manpower problems that were slowing the production of ships and planes, and he traveled in Texas, California, and Washington, assessing labor needs in war production plants. In May 1942, he proceeded to headquarters, Twelfth Naval District, San Francisco, California, for inspection duty in the pacific. Stationed in New Zealand and Australia, he participated as an observer on a number of bomber missions in the South Pacific. He was awarded the Army Silver Star Medal by General Douglas MacArthur and it was cited as follows:

For gallantry in action in the vicinity of Port Moresby and Salamaua, New Guinea, on June 9, 1942. While on a mission of obtaining information in the Southwest Pacific area, Lieutenant Commander Johnson, in order to obtain personal knowledge of combat conditions, volunteered as an observer on a hazardous aerial combat mission over hostile positions in New Guinea. As our planes neared the target area they were intercepted by eight hostile fighters. When, at this time, the plane in which Lieutenant Commander Johnson was an observer, developed mechanical trouble and was forced to turn back alone, presenting a favorable target to the enemy fighters, he evidenced marked coolness in spite of the hazards involved. His gallant actions enabled him to obtain and return with valuable information.

In addition to the Army Silver Star Medal, Commander Johnson has the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.

On July 16, 1942, Johnson was released from active duty under honorable conditions. (President Roosevelt had ruled that national legislators might not serve in the armed forces). On Oct. 19, 1949, he was promoted to Commander, USNR, his date of rank, June 1, 1948. His resignation from the Naval Reserve was accepted by the Secretary of the Navy, effective Jan. 18, 1964.