""These five soldiers, in their separate moments of supreme testing, summoned a degree of courage that stirs wonder and respect and an overpowering pride in all of us," he continued. "Through their spectacular courage, they set themselves apart in a very select company. They represent the contribution of more than half a million young Americans to a world of order and of peace.""
""Five heroic sons of America come to us today from the tortured fields of Vietnam," the president said. "They come to remind us that so long as that conflict continues, our purpose and our hopes rest on the steadfast bravery of young men in battle.""
"His muscles, he later said, "jumped like frogs.""
Dwight Hal Johnson, known as Skip and from Detroit, was 21 when he received the Medal of Honor on November 19, 1968, in the East Room of the White House. The ceremony included General William Westmoreland, Secretary of the Army Stanley R. Resor, members of Congress, and Johnson’s mother, younger brother, and fiancée. President Lyndon B. Johnson praised five soldiers for their courage and contribution. When Johnson approached the president to receive his medal, his hands trembled and he quietly said "Thank you." Three years later, at age 23, Johnson was killed during an attempted robbery.
Read at Smithsonian Magazine
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