Dwight Johnson is the most tragic of all the stories of valor in this series. He was a courageous fighter, nearly singlehandedly driving off an entire battalion of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) attackers who had ambushed his tank platoon. But he was haunted by survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and a fear of what he was capable of doing.
A “Good Boy”
The tragedy of Dwight Johnson’s death made national headlines. A Medal of Honor recipient had been killed while trying to rob a grocery store. The psychiatrist who tried to treat his PTSD – they didn’t call it that then, and didn’t understand it well – published some of his notes from earlier treatment sessions.
Subject is bright…. 120 I.Q… He grew up in a Detroit ghetto and never knew his natural father. He sort of laughed when he said he was a “good boy” and did what was expected of him. The only time he can remember losing his temper as a youth was when neighborhood bullies picked on his younger brother. He was so incensed grownups had to drag him off the other boys.
The Ambush
Specialist 5 Dwight H. Johnson was a tank driver. On 15 January 1968 his tank platoon of four M48A3 tanks and an armored personnel carrier (APC) was ambushed by an NVA battalion with anti-tank rockets. A typical NVA battalion consisted of 500 to 600 men. Two tanks were instantly burned out by the rockets, and the enemy infantry swarmed the other two.
Dwight Johnson was in one of the surviving tanks. He had been transferred there just the night before. His former tank, and the crew with whom he had spent the last year, were destroyed by the first rockets. Johnson ran from his tank armed only with a .45 caliber M1911 pistol, killing the NVA soldiers between him and his friends.
Johnson saw that the gunner was badly wounded but still alive, and he pulled him out of the burning tank and rushed him to the APC for medical treatment. But the sight of the burnt bodies of the rest of the crew changed him. He always had been quiet, easy going, carefully controlled. He was a good student, an Explorer Scout. But he suddenly became a killing machine.
The Rage
Johnson attacked the NVA like he outnumbered them, using any weapon he had to hand. When one ran out of ammunition, he grabbed another one, using every weapon in the platoon: at least two sidearms, the main tank gun until it jammed, a submachine gun, and finally, the fully exposed .50 caliber machine gun in the turret of the tank. See the Citation below for a full account of the battle, or see the New York Times article in the link above.
Johnson’s fight that day was magnificent, from a purely military point of view. He drove off hundreds of enemy soldiers in close personal combat, and came away without being shot. At one point an NVA soldier pointed his AK-47 at Johnson’s mid-section and pulled the trigger, but his rifle jammed and Johnson killed him.
That moment replayed in Dwight Johnson’s nightmares for the rest of his life, but he had trouble recalling the rest of the battle. It took several men and three shots of morphine to calm him down at the battle’s end. He was discharged and returned home. Tomorrow’s article will relate the story of his return home, his utter surprise at being awarded the Medal of Honor, and his tragic death.
Citation
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Specialist 5 Dwight 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.
