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.
UNQUOTE
