Johnson, Leon William

▪ 1998

      general (ret.), U.S. Air Force (b. Sept. 13, 1904, Columbia, Mo.—d. Nov. 10, 1997, Fairfax, Va.), was awarded (1943) the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's highest decoration, for his World War II heroic role in the attack on the oil fields at Ploesti, Rom., an action that effectively destroyed enemy fuel supplies. Following graduation (1926) from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., he served in the infantry before transferring in 1930 to the Army Air Corps. In January 1943 he became commander of the 44th Bomb Group, and later that year his unit was part of a larger crew of B-24 bombers that took off from North Africa on a mission that was to take them some 3,860 km (2,400 mi) to the strategically significant Romanian oil fields and back. En route, however, while flying in difficult conditions, Johnson's group became separated from the others. He later reestablished contact, but when he arrived at Ploesti, he found that the oil fields were damaged and in flames, having already been struck by an earlier wave of bombers. Although their target was readied, they faced decreased visibility, owing to smoke, and the risk of explosions; he led his team of bombers in low, however, and destroyed the target. Johnson's plane was the only one from his squad to survive the mission. He continued to serve in combat until the end of the war and received a number of other commendations during a military career that spanned some four decades.

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