Bloody tragic.
Bloody tragic.
Interesting that the 1971 article says that he shot the store owner 2x when he tried to grab the gun from Johnson, then the owner pulled his own gun and fired.
There is an online discussion that exactly reflects the wiki article (probably by the same person) that he walked into a robbery in progress, and that the police didn't adequately investigate, but at contact distance during a struggle it sure doesn't read like the store owner was in a situation to make a mistake on who his assailant was.
Truely a tragedy, it reads like his chain of command recognized the mental health issues, but no one was able to constructively assist him with useful treatment.
Pretty bizarre (nowadays) how the services "used" thsee MOH winners. I'm far from a bleeding heart, but it seems making them constantly relive their most horrible experiences on a daily basis was the tragedy...
Russ
Here's something I found in "USA Today" while doing research on Ira Hayes several years ago. I saw the paper on a news stand and the headline caught my eye. Most of what I knew about him before then was from the Johnny Cash record that my older brother played at home years ago. Many thanks to Old Tanker for the video link above! Another one that I looked up because of hearing those old records was a soldier named Rodger Young. - Bob