Ross Johnson receiving the Silver Star while in Vietnam.
A former Devils Lake resident, Ross Johnson, will be honored at the start of the UND-Denver hockey game to be played on Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.
Johnson is a graduate of Devils Lake High School, 1963. According to Devils Lake resident, Mike Connor, Johnson’s mother, Bertha, was a teacher at Central for many years teaching English and Typing. His father, Art, was a District Rep. for Swift & Co.. His older brother, Bruce, graduated from DLHS in the class of 1961.
Ross, Bruce, Dan Kelly, Connor and a few others were in Cub Scouts together with Art as their Den Father. They met in the basement of the Johnson home across the street from Mercy Hospital. The Den was part of Pack 31 sponsored by St. Olaf Lutheran Church.
Bertha’s brother, Arthur C. Neuenschwander, Ross’s uncle, was in the U.S. Navy and served aboard the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941 and died during the Pearl Harbor attack. His remains were finally identified and returned for burial in the family plot at Fessenden, ND in 2017. It may have been this, in part, that led Johnson to serve in the military years later during the Vietnam War.
Ross Johnson earns the Silver Star
On June 11, 1969 Johnson engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a North Vietnamese combatant and is credited with saving the lives of between 12 and 20 of his comrades and a Huey chopper that came under fire that morning. The enemy attempted to overrun the artillery base known as LZ East. His heroic actions on that day earned him a Silver Star.
Of his experience then and since Johnson says, “People, especially the young generation, need to know that this nation was saved and created by people who fought and died for their freedom. Millions of military and non-military service people have faced battle fighting to save this country. It wasn’t their English professor who didn’t know which end of a gun to put to his shoulder, it was those who fought to preserve the freedoms we now enjoy. As Ronald Regan once quoted, “We are only one generation away from losing the freedoms we now enjoy.” I can tell my story as if it happened yesterday, however, I can’t express the intensity that one experiences especially in hand-to-hand combat. The score is always the same in hand-to-hand combat. It is always 1 to 0. Just like OT in hockey which used to be called “Sudden Death” the score in overtime in hockey is the same as hand-to-hand combat. 1 to 0. I heard this quote about 15 years ago. “A young man goes to war to fight for his country. While in war, a young man fights to stay alive!”
