Anniversary of a Homecoming

In 1971 I received the package that I had been waiting for. I had ordered a bracelet and it had finally arrived and I quickly opened it. It wasn't pretty or made of gold. It was a band of nickel-plated metal formed into a bracelet. What was important was the inscription, which read: Lt Col Samuel Johnson 4-16-66. 

The US had begun a second decade of involvement in Vietnam and at thirteen years of age I felt there was little I could do to make a difference, but I could wear the bracelet as a statement that we would not forget. At the time, I didn't know if Lt. Johnson was considered missing or was being held captive, only that it was five years and counting! What horrors had he endured? Was he still alive? I had no answers but vowed to wear the POW/MIA bracelet until I knew for sure.

Much had transpired in the preceding years. Sam Johnson, a Dallas native, had entered the Air Force in 1951.  He flew sixty-two combat missions in the Korean War (he named an F-86 "Shirley's Texas Tornado" after his wife). On April 16, 1966, during his second tour in Vietnam, he was on his 25th combat mission. This was when he was shot down over North Vietnam and captured. One of his numerous injuries was a broken right arm that was treated by guards rather than doctors. One article stated that formerly right-handed, Johnson is now left-handed as his captors repeatedly broke the same arm.

Johnson and his back-seater Larry Chesley, were first taken to separate houses where the residents were kicked out and the men were left with guards. Days later, people beat them with sticks and stones as they walked through town headed for transport trucks. At one point, he was put in front of a firing squad, accused of being a criminal and sentenced to death. Amazingly, when ordered to shoot, the squad's guns only clicked! They then kicked him into a trench & left him there for a time.

After arriving in Hanoi, he was put in a room alone with very little food and water. He was interrogated everyday for a week but Johnson wasn't talking. By this time, the guards had broken his arm for the third time. Unable to get the information they wanted, the guards moved him to a jail cell, a place the prisoners called "New Guy Village".

His nightmare continued for seven years. After being put in a place called Alcatraz, he and eleven others spent two and a half years in leg irons. Each was in his own cell, communicating cell-to-cell or building-to-building by "tap code". At one point he was totally isolated and put in leg stocks for 72 days. No other Americans were even close enough to use the tap code. Johnson recalls that there were only bugs, spiders, flies and mosquitos.

Of the seven years as a prisoner of war, forty-two months were spent in solitary confinement. His diet consisted of pumpkin soup, occasionally rice and often grass from the river that had been boiled. At 6'2" his weight had dropped to only about 120 pounds.

Meanwhile, my simple life went on. I wore the nickel-plated band around my wrist day and night, honoring my vow to wear it until Lt. Johnson came home ... if he ever came home. So imagine my dismay when one day in late 1972 a small child accidentally ripped it from my arm. This wouldn't have been so bad had we not been at the lake. Off my arm it flew and sank to the bottom. I never found it!

Even without the bracelet I thought of Sam everyday and prayed for his safe return. Fast-forward a few months to February 1973... we were watching the evening news, there was a plane on the tarmac, a group of POW's were returning from Vietnam, and then I heard his name! I could hardly control myself (actually, I didn't control myself at all). He had made it ... he was actually home!

Sam Johnson was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star with Valor, the Meritorious Service Medal, four Air Medals, two Purple Hearts and three Outstanding Unit Awards.

This brief page could never begin to describe the seven years Samuel Johnson and so many others spent in captivity in North Vietnam. A detailed account can be found in the book he wrote with Jan Winebrenner, Captive Warriors, a Vietnam POW's Story. Congressman Sam Johnson represents the Third District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He and his wife Shirley are the proud parents of three children and ten grandchildren.

February 12, 2004 marks the 31st anniversary of his release.
I will celebrate this day of homecoming and
continue to mourn the loss of so many.

"The Wall"
The National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Charles M. Hasper
A family friend that lost his life in Vietnam.

Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery

Also taken at Arlington National Cemetery

Korean War Veterans Memorial

All photographs property of R. Burris