Controversial Silver Star
9 JUNE 1942
CONTROVERSIAL SILVER STAR
This dawn saw eleven Army Air Corps Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the Army Air Corps 22nd Bomb Group waiting on the runway at Port Moresby, New Guinea. They were one of three squadrons on mission “Tow Nine” to bomb the Japanese airbase at Lae. This was a “milk run” compared to missions over Rabaul and New Britain. Yet the minutes were slipping by, and the VIPs they were waiting to carry were late. Finally, BGEN William F. Marquat’s party arrived and dispersed among the bombers. LCDR Lyndon B. Johnson, Navy liaison to the General’s staff, boarded a B-26 nicknamed “Wabash Cannonball” but immediately excused himself to retrieve a forgotten camera. When he returned, his seat had been taken by LCOL Francis R. Stevens, and Johnson had to scramble for another plane.
The squadron took off at 0851, but 30 minutes into the flight “The Heckling Hare”–in which Johnson had found a seat–lost a generator and had to turn back. Ten bombers flew the remaining 80 miles to the target but arrived late and nearly collided with a flight of outbound Mitchell’s that had finished their runs. As the Marauder’s lined up, they were jumped by two dozen enemy A6M2 Zeros. “Wabash Cannonball” was hit repeatedly and began spinning out of control. She plummeted into the sea in flames, none of the eight aboard were recovered. The surviving Marauder’s made it back to Port Moresby where one crash landed on the field and four more were reported to be well riddled.
LCDR Johnson returned the next day to Townsville, Australia, where, on June 18th, he was awarded the Silver Star (our nation’s 3rd highest combat award) by GEN Douglas MacArthur. His citation lauded him for gathering valuable intelligence and demonstrating “marked coolness” under fire on a “suicide” mission. At the time, LCDR Lyndon Johnson was the US Representative from the 10th Congressional District of Texas, on leave from Congress to fight (as were many young Congressmen in early 1942). But a few weeks later President Roosevelt recalled all Congressmen to their legislative duties, and LCDR Johnson left the South Pacific.
Mr. Johnson continued in public service and in 1963 became President Lyndon Johnson. Over the course of his career, he often wore his Silver Star on his lapel and claimed the moniker “Raider Johnson.” In a 1964 book entitled The Mission, written before the action reports from “Tow Nine” were declassified, the details of this day’s mission are retold by two of “The Heckling Hare’s” enlisted crewmen. They describe a harrowing return under heavy enemy fire, an account not corroborated in the now-declassified action reports or by the other five crewmen. Controversy surrounds Johnson’s medal today, as it did throughout his career.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 15 JUN 24
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Caidin, Martin and Edward Hymoff. The Mission. New York, NY: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1964.
Tillman, Barrett and Henry Sakaida. “Silver Star Airplane Ride.” Naval History, April 2001, pp. 25-29.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: “The Heckling Hare’s” crewmen on this mission did not learn Johnson had received the Silver Star until after the war. Personnel records show that no one else aboard the bomber received an award for this day’s mission. The now declassified after action reports identify no battle damage to “The Heckling Hare” on the mission of 9 June 1942. Historians researching Johnson’s medal point out that the timing and details of “The Heckling Hare’s” flight would have had her turning back well before the squadron was attacked. A crippled B-26, returning on one engine would have been able to manage only about 150 knots, and would have found it difficult to shake what the two “Heckling Hare” enlisted crewmen described in 1964–eight pursuing 320-knot Zeroes. As a result, the story recounted by historians Martin Caidin and Edward Hymoff in The Mission has been called into question.
Some now theorize that savvy GEN MacArthur’s knowledge that the South Pacific theater had taken a backseat in American headlines, and that influential politicians then serving in his theater were about to be recalled, may have influenced his decision to award LCDR Johnson.
Regardless of the controversy it is interesting to speculate how the Vietnam War, civil rights law, and American military policy might have changed had LCDR Johnson not forgotten his camera this day in 1942! Our current Arleigh Burke destroyer DDG-1002 remembers LCDR and Commander-in-Chief Lyndon Johnson.
