Lost medals replaced for Greenbrier veteran

Senator salutes Battle of Bulge GI

Neal Johnson, 89, talks with U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Wednesday at Johnson’s Greenbrier home, where Cotton presented the World War II veteran with eight reissued medals that Johnson had lost over time, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
Neal Johnson, 89, talks with U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Wednesday at Johnson’s Greenbrier home, where Cotton presented the World War II veteran with eight reissued medals that Johnson had lost over time, including a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Correction: Army veteran Neal Johnson of Greenbrier was on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II for 103 days. This article incorrectly quoted Johnson on the number of days and gave the wrong military branch.

GREENBRIER -- Generations and wars apart, two veterans came together Wednesday in a small house in Greenbrier.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

World War II veteran Neal Johnson’s son, Arthur Johnson, with Neal’s wife, Ruth, watch Wednesday as U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton — a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — talks to the elder Johnson at his Greenbrier home.

Just days shy of Independence Day, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton pinned the Bronze Star on the right jacket lapel of 89-year-old Neal Johnson, a World War II veteran and the recipient of seven additional medals, including the Purple Heart.

Cotton, also a recipient of the Bronze Star, and Johnson then saluted each other.

Johnson had received the medals long ago for his service on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge and in other combat in the European theater. But over the decades, he and his wife of 69 years, Ruth, moved four times and lost the emblems. Johnson last saw them 30 or 35 years ago, he said.

A neighbor, Mark Maxim, contacted Cotton's office, and the Arkansas Republican got all eight medals -- even those specific to World War II -- reissued for Johnson, a retired businessman.

After arriving at the Johnsons' home Wednesday, Cotton walked up to Johnson, standing among friends and relatives.

"Thank you for your service," the 38-year-old Cotton told Johnson, who in turn thanked the senator.

Cotton, a veteran of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, admired the medals on display in two black-and-gold cases with the words "United States of America."

Johnson, who was in the Army Reserve and assigned to the 76th Infantry, recalled that he was 19 when the Battle of the Bulge was fought in the war's final, bitterly cold winter.

"My whole division was on the front lines for three days," he said.

In another battle fought somewhere near the Rhine River, Johnson was wounded when a piece of shrapnel struck him as he was clearing the way for others to carry the bodies of dead soldiers off the battlefield.

"They just patched me up and sent me back," he said.

"When you thought you were ready to quit, you were" just starting, he said.

Cotton thanked Johnson and said "the World War II generation" had helped make America the greatest country and helped ensure freedom for millions of people.

Johnson and his future wife were "just sweethearts" when he went to war, she recalled.

Seventeen days after he returned home to Quitman, they were married.

Jancey Sheats, a spokesman for the senator, said she thought the problem of lost medals happens "quite often."

"But people don't know how to go about getting them" again, she said. By contacting the senator's office, Johnson's neighbor was able to help this time, though.

Johnson's other medals include the Good Conduct Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze service stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge 1st Award, the Honorable Service Lapel Button World War II and the Marksman Badge with Carbine Bar with Rifle Bar.

State Desk on 07/02/2015

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