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Lawmaker looks back on Vietnam captivity

As he faces the 35th anniversary of his release from a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, says he is humbled by the attention he continues to receive.

The anniversary comes Tuesday, a day Johnson said he will spend collecting Valentines from school children to be delivered to wounded war veterans. There also will be a dedication of a memorial named for Johnson, a 29-year Air Force veteran, in a Dallas suburb.

Shot down over Vietnam in 1966 on his second tour of duty, Johnson spent seven years as a prisoner of war, including 42 months of solitary confinement. He suffered injuries that included a broken back, dislocated left shoulder and a broken right arm.

Talking of the day in 1973 when he was freed, Johnson said in an interview on Friday that he and other POWs — who had carefully memorized the names of hundreds of other prisoners in case anyone got out — were not sure they were ever coming home.

“It was a date we all waited for over there,” Johnson said. “The Vietnamese tried to make us think they weren’t going to let us out, right up to the last minute. It wasn’t until we saw those airplanes land to pick us up that we knew it was for real.

“Most of us had a hard time going from Vietnamese to U.S control,” he said, talking of breaking protocol by hugging another colonel when it was clear they were being released.

Johnson also recalls that there were four or five nurses on each of the airplanes sent to carry them back to the U.S.

“They were the first American girls we had seen, in seven years for me, and they wore short skirts for us,” he recalled with a laugh.

“We really didn’t relax until we got out over the water headed to the Philippines because we knew then we were home free,” he said. He also recalled the “thrill” of landing at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. “I don’t think there was a dry eye,” he said.

Another memory of the release was receiving dental care for the first time in seven years, repairing and replacing a mouth of broken teeth. The work, he said, was great.

“I go to the dentist today and those fillings are still in my teeth,” he said.

Johnson, who joined the Air Force at age 20 and flew 62 combat missions during the Korean War, remained in the service. He said he could have retired but “flying was in my blood. I wanted to fly again.”

After surgery to repair a damaged hand, Johnson ended up re-qualifying to fly F-4 Phantoms, the type of aircraft in which he was shot down on his 25th combat mission over Vietnam. He went on to several command assignments, including serving four years as wing commander of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Homestead Air Force Base, Fla., which recently named its new fitness center for him.

Johnson’s autobiography, “Captive Warriors,” talks about his experience in solitary confinement and about some of the other prisoners held along with him.

Johnson, now 77, was elected to Congress in 1991 to represent a Texas congressional district that includes part of Dallas.

He is running for re-election to a ninth term and said he has no plans to retire.