Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Schmidt, Smith
----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co, WI) 1/28/2015
Johnson, Dick (Accolades for Military Service - 2015)
Johnson to Receive Accolades for His Military Service
Dick Johnson joined the Navy in 1944 after a short stint with the Merchant Marines. He served much of his naval career in the pacific Theater aboard the USS Lenoir (Contributed photo)
By Todd Schmidt
Veteran Dick Johnson, 88, will be honored Monday, Feb. 2, by Neillsville American Legion Post 73 for his incredible term of service in the Merchant Marines and the U. S. Navy during the height of WWII. The program begins with a potluck meal at 6 p.m. with the award presentation and meeting to follow.
Johnson shared many memoires about his military career Thursday at his home on Pinewood Road south of Neillsville. His wife, Millie was by his side, as she has been during their nearly 65 years of marriage.
Johnson joined the Merchant Marines in April 1943. He was deemed to be too young for engine room duty, so he returned to Chicago and got a job with the Askania Regulator Company. He worked on a submarine dive simulator project for the U. S. Navy, which was a highly classified endeavor.
Johnson ended up joining the Navy in 1944. He went to Boot Camp at Great Lakes, IL, and after considering Basic Engineering School, Johnson decided to serve in an amphibious group. He was sent to Fort Pierce, FL, to receive training in gunnery, boat and amphibious vehicle handling, beach supervision and salvage, reconnaissance and demolition.
Johnson trained with the Army, Marines and some foreign troops. They lived in tents under combat conditions on the North and South Barrier Islands. They had wake-up call at 0500, whether they were on duty half the night, on forced march or at sea.
‘I came down with a high fever and diarrhea,’ he recalled. ‘Sick bay was full of guys that got hurt training in small arms and using a new type of plastic explosive.’
Johnson’s team was put on combat alert. Assignments were shifted and the troops moved out.
He served much of his naval career in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS Lenoir. Some of the stories he told of hand-to-hand combat with Japanese soldiers were too grisly to share with our readers. Tearfully, he said out of 13 men in his small unit, four survived the war.
His amazing story takes many turns, as he was assigned to a number of different units on Missions practically spanning the globe. He was part of the group that entered Hiroshima not long after an atomic bomb leveled the city.
One of the horrors of WWII was dropping an atomic bomb on major Japanese cities, including Hiroshima shown above. Dick Johnson and his naval unit arrived after the Hiroshima was leveled to destroy Japanese military supplies stored in nearby naval bases. (Contributed photo)
‘Our supply was fantastic,’ Johnson observed. ‘That is how we won the war. If they sank one of our boats, we’d make a dozen more. If we sank a Japanese boat, that’s all they had.’
Many U.S. troops were trained for an invasion of Japan. The use of atomic bombs pre-empted those strikes and for good reason, Johnson said.
‘Engineers overlooked the fact that bridges in Japan wouldn’t support heavy equipment,’ Johnson said. ‘They would only support the weight of a pickup truck.’
In March 1945 Johnson’s unit unloaded cargo at Pearl Harbor. They were combat loaded and sent to Eniwetok, Marshall Islands. From there, they sailed to the Unitika Caroline Islands.
As they entered the swept channel, a severe typhoon blasted the area. The commander decided to ride out the typhoon rather than anchor at Unitika.
‘The old salts say we were lucky we were hit by a big swell on the side when we took a roll,’ Johnson said. ‘It righted us. Some of the other ships lost some boats and some crew members.’
Dick Johnson served much of his career in the Navy as a crew member aboard the USS Lenoir. The landing craft mechanized (LCM) boats were lifted with cranes from the ship’s deck to the water below. Johnson said many times crew members had to jump for it at the right moment to get aboard the small craft as it was being hoisted from the ship. (Contributed photo)
In April 1945 the unit prepared for an amphibious assault of the Hagushi beaches of Okinawa. Johnson’s landing craft mechanized (LCM) and several other boats were sent down the beach as a diversionary action, along with two light tanks to draw enemy fire.
‘We landed with no opposition until at night when they counter-attacked,’ Johnson said. ‘After half the night of fighting, we still held the beach. We took our wounded and others from the beach to the hospital ships.’
He said at times in enemy waters they would go to general quarters an hour before sunset and an hour before sunrise. ‘That’s when you became a good silhouette for the enemy, especially when you’re carrying explosives,’ he said. On an LCM, there is no comfortable place to sit or sleep, Johnson explained. There are also no bathroom facilities.
His unit also became familiar with Japanese torpedoes. ‘Their torpedoes were twice as fast and could run twice as deep as ours,’ Johnson said.
The next action was with a unit at Saipan. Then it was on to Guadalcanal, Talaga, and back to Eniwetok. During that time, Johnson received a radio message that his brother was killed while service in the Army.
In July 1945, the USS Lenoir was sent back to San Francisco for major boiler repair. The ship was then loaded with ammunition for shipment to the Pacific Theater.
At Wakayama, Johnson was left behind on a scouting trip. He hiked through some villages whose people had never seen an American before. He eventually reached the beachhead and returned to his unit.
At one point, his ship entered a minefield. They could hear one bounce loudly against the hull of the ship, but it did not go off.
In October 1945, after the war had ended, the U.S. Navy entered Kure, a Japanese Naval Base.
‘In going through their supply depots I saw brand new Browning water-cooled machine guns still in the crates,’ he said. ‘We destroyed a lot of their supplies. We had the opportunity to board a Japanese ship. Then we helped take some Army supplies by truck to Hiroshima, about 25 miles away.’
The USS Lenoir made its way back to Newport News in May 1946, where it was set for decommission.
At one point Johnson obtained a gyro from a Japanese torpedo guidance system, which he proudly displays at his home, along with other items, including five Japanese rifles, bayonets, a sight from a tank gun and other memorabilia.
Dick Johnson displays some of the items he obtained as a member of the Navy during WWII, including a Japanese rifle and a gyro confiscated from an enemy torpedo. Johnson was awarded numerous medals for his meritorious service. (Todd Schmidt/Clark County Press)
After the war was over, Johnson returned to factory work in the Chicago area. He and Millie tied the knot Oct. 21, 1950.
Johnson worked at Acme Steel for 33 years. He had a heart attack at age 55, forcing his retirement from the steel mills.
From 1955 to 1963, he raced midget cars all over the country, plus in Canada and Australia. At one point he was a member of the pit crew at the Indianapolis 500. Many of his trophies are on display at Carl’s Barber Shop in Neillsville.
‘I was a heat treater in the steel mill,’ Johnson said. ‘I could do race parts at work. We never had a mechanical failure.’
He and Millie moved to the Neillsville area in 1986. The 100-acre property originally belonged to his parents, who were able to hang on to it during the Depression years. Their house was originally built as a summer cottage. Items in the Johnson’s house and garage are a testimonial to his mechanical skills. He has approximately 220 antiques engines, many of which are displayed each year at the Edgar Steam Engine Show. A number of train whistles and other gadgets adorn shelves and cabinets.
The Johnsons have two children, Laura and Bill, who live in Neillsville. They have two grandchildren, Dustin, 23, and Natalie, 20.
He is extremely proud of his collection of Service Medals, which include Landings in Foreign Countries, American Theater War, Pacific Theater War, China Theater War, Victory Medal, Occupied Medal, Philippine Service, President’s Citation, Combat Infantry Badge, Marines Citation and Bob School.
Johnson joined the Neillsville American Legion. He quit his membership for a while to to some minor squabbles. He is back in the Legion fold now, serving proudly on the Firing Squad and Color Guard. ‘My quitting the legion was sheer stupidity on my part,’ Johnson said. ‘Now, I look forward to the monthly meetings and doing what I can to help out. Many of these guys and gals worked their fannies off to serve their country.’
Johnson’s sister Florence served in the Navy and his bother William served in the Army. His mother was very patriotic, doing volunteer work at VA hospitals.
Johnson said he still gets phone calls from two of his buddies. They haven’t had reunions the last few years, mainly because there are very few left. ‘I miss my buddies. We were all so proud of our service to our country. Every day during out tour of duty something happened. I just can’t get over many of those memories,’ Johnson said wistfully.
