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Samuel Talbot Johnson Jr.

Samuel Talbot Johnson Jr., born December 23, 1922 in Orange, Virginia, son of Ruth Virginia Carpenter Johnson and Samuel Talbot Johnson Sr. He answered the call to serve his country in the Army Air Corps (later re-named the Air Force) during World War II. Sam operated the .50 caliber waist machine gun on a B-17 (nicknamed Flying Fortress) with the 305th Bomb Group (Heavy).For morale purposes the B-17s noses were artistically designed by one of the crew, and the nose art of Sam's B-17 depicted "Reich's Ruin." Some were whimsy, such as "Ain't Misbehaving," "Lounge Lizard," "Bachelor's Delight," "In Like Flynn," or "Sizzlin,". Sam's fellow airmen were serious about their mission (Reich was a name given to the German Nazi regime).Being a B-17 crewmember, each trained in a critical job for the aerial bombing pursuits, which was considered one of the most dangerous combat assignments of World War II since considerably more than half of the B-17 crews either died when their planes were shot down or were captured by the Germans and became prisoners of war.

Sam made bombing raids on a Flying Fortress from November 1943 through May 1944. Upon completion of 25 bombardment missions (sorties) over enemy occupied Europe, the crew members were given the option of returning to the United States to be used as instructors to train the next groups going to either fight Germans in the Europe Theater of Operations or the Japanese in the Pacific Theater of Operations. In Sam's case, he returned to the U.S. to be first a gunnery instructor, later a small arms instructor and last a firefighter as the war was ending in clear victory by the U.S. and allied forces. He earned the rank of Staff Sergeant, and was awarded very significant World War II combat military medals for valor including the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster and Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. The oak leaf cluster means more than one award of the same medal was earned. He didn't talk much about the "Reich's Ruin" throughout his life, and like so many World War II military men involved in heavy fighting, he just wanted to live the rest of his life in peace.

Because Sam rarely shared the details of World War II, few knew of his valor. Upon return to the United States from Europe, he vowed to never fly again. He never wanted to leave Virginia and rarely left Stafford (after he retired he went on one hunting trip with buddies to Pennsylvania and became terribly homesick). He never forgot how lucky he was to have survived World War II, and he felt ever so grateful to have been given the opportunity to grow old with his beloved family.

Barbara Bryant, daughter, 2009