CAPTAIN JESSE L. JOHNSON, received his Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in Vietnam on the 23rd and 24th of July 1968 while commanding an infantry company during a reconnaissance-in-force operation in Long An Province. His company was lifted by helicopter to join in a fierce fire fight with an estimated Viet Cong battalion. Captain Johnson asked to be inserted at the point of heaviest contact, and ran a hundred meters through intense machine gun fire to reach his lead element. Rallying his men, he led them in an assault against an enemy bunker complex which destroyed three bunkers, killed eight communists, and forced the remaining Viet Cong in the area to flee. By continuing to press the enemy, he freed other elements which had been pinned down by hostile fire. As darkness fell Captain Johnson’s company was inserted into a new area. After directing the landing of a sister company under constant fire and moving three hundred meters across fire-swept rice paddies to assist in the deployment of its men, he organized a rescue party to aid a downed helicopter crew. Leading his small group through intense infested territory, he successfully evacuated the dead and wounded from the craft. Later that night, Captain Johnson directed movement on the edge of his company’s perimeter. Advancing alone, he encountered three armed Viet Cong whom he slew in a brief fire fight. Seeing an enemy platoon forming for an assault on his position, he called in artillery which forced the aggressors back, but also wounded him. Refusing evacuation, he remained with his company through the night to direct its defense and insure the safety of his men. At daybreak he led his troops against the entrapped enemy force, crushing its resistance. He was then ordered by his battalion commander to leave his unit and receive medical attention.

CPT Johnson joined the Legion of Valor in 1970.