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MAJ Mark E Cooper
to remember
Johnson, Verlon, MSG.
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Contact Info
Last Address Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Date of Passing Oct 15, 2012
Location of Interment Barrancas National Cemetery (VA) - Pensacola, Florida
Published: Saturday, November 10, 2012 at 14:56 PM.
America lost another decorated military veteran last month.
A trumpeter played “Taps” following a rifle salute at the funeral of Master Sgt. Verlon Johnson before he was interred in his final resting place at Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola Oct. 23.
“I thought it was very lovely,” said his wife, Maureen, a Santa Rosa Beach resident.
Johnson, 76, joined the U.S. Army at the age of 16 in 1952, and served his country in Vietnam and Korea before retiring in 1974. During his nearly 22-year career in the U.S. Special Forces as a Green Beret, he became a highly decorated combat parachutist, with two purple hearts, a bronze star, and eight other medals of valor in his career with the 101st Airborne.
When Ivan struck the Gulf Coast in 2004, the Johnsons’ Santa Rosa Beach home, which sits a block up from the Bay, was totally flooded.
In the deluge, Johnson lost all of his medals, all of his military service pictures, and two books in which he was remembered as a war hero.
All that was left as a reminder of his service in the Green Berets was his circa-1970s uniform jacket.
This past July, however, thanks to the help of family friend Kay Coffeen, 10 reminders of his military service were delivered to the Johnson home, including all but a single purple heart.
“I’m glad he got to see them before he passed away,” said Maureen, whose husband had suffered for years from complications of a stroke. “They came just in time.” Johnson died Oct. 15.
Maureen did not meet her future husband until after his military career had ended, but she knew how important these were to him.
“We met in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “I may as well tell people we met on the moon.”
While Verlon Johnson was joining up, the future Mrs. Johnson, a native of Lincolnshire, England, was going to school to become a radiation therapist. After a two-decade stint working at a British hospital, she followed an advertisement to a faraway land, and landed in 1976 Saudi Arabia to be a radiation therapist.
This was two years after Johnson had retired and moved to the country to train Saudi Arabian National Guardsmen.
“We met at a pool party; he was the lifeguard,” said Maureen, who remembered his six-foot stature and muscled arms. She smiled, saying she “didn’t go out with him straightaway.”
He eventually won her over, and the couple married and purchased a lot in Santa Rosa Beach on which they would later retire in 1987.
It was there V.F.W. Verlon Johnson succumbed to a longtime sickness this past October.
Johnson is survived by Maureen, and six children, as well as a number of grandchildren.
Though his wife only knew Johnson when his military service was a memory, she understood the importance of his burial in a military cemetery.
With Arlington National Cemetery full, Johnson decided the Green Beret would be laid to rest closer to his Northwest Florida home.
The sun was shining at Johnson’s late-October military funeral at Barrancas. Vietnam vet Charles Moore gave the eulogy for his fellow-serviceman.
Two military members stood at attention at either side of the casket to act as pallbearers, and they folded up the flag to present it to the veteran’s widow.
“When they presented the flag, he knelt on the floor while they played Taps,” said Maureen. “I’ve never seen them do that before.”
The song, which has become indicative of military funerals, was trumpeted after a rifle salute to send off the decorated vet.
Later that afternoon, Johnson was laid to rest in hallowed ground among other military heroes at Barrancas National Cemetery.
His wife remarked, “It was a moving service.”
Other Comments:
Vietnam War/Tet 69 Counteroffensive Campaign
From Month/Year
February / 1969
To Month/Year
June / 1969
Description This campaign was from 23 February to 8 June 1969. From Tet 1969 through the month of June, the enemy again tried to sustain an offensive. His inability to do so can be largely attributed to aggressive allied ground operations. Between 23 February and 8 June 1969, a total of 70 significant named ground operations were terminated resulting in heavy enemy loss of life and materiel. The main operations concluded during this period were:
(1). The 3d Marine Division's Operation KENTUCKY aimed at preventing enemy infiltration through the Demilitarized Zone in central Quang Tri Province. Throughout the early part of January 1969, Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army forces continued to avoid major contacts with Free World Forces. Their continual movement to avoid friendly forces or to search for food and supplies contributed to a decrease in the enemy-initiated ground attacks and attacks-by-fire in Quang Tri Province.
(2). Operation NEVADA EAGLE, initiated on 17 May 1968 in Thua Thien Province, continued in 1969 as the U.S. 101st Airborne Division continued to defeat enemy personnel, and capture rice caches, material, and installations within its large area of operations, where it undertook offensive sweeps along Route 547 and around Song Bo.
(3). Two battalions of the 4th Marine Regiment were engaged in Operation SCOTLAND II. Initiated on 15 April 1968, this multi-battalion search and clear operation was centered in and around Khe Sanh.
(4). The IV Corps Tactical Zone Dry Weather Campaign began on 1 December 1968 in support of the overall mission to prevent Viet Cong units from interfering with pacification efforts. This operation, "Speedy Express," interdicted lines of enemy communication and denied him the use of base areas. In 1969 the 1st Brigade, 9th U.S. Infantry Division continued the operation in Dinh Tuong Province, using its highly successful night ambush tactics while the 2d Brigade continued its mission with the Mobile Riverine Force. Although engagements in Operation SPEEDY EXPRESS were typically small, the 9th Infantry Division fought several sizeable engagements with impressive results.
On 23 February U.S. Navy units and installations at Da Nang, Tan An, Ben Luc, Go Dan Ha, and Tra Cu came under numerous and widespread attacks associated with a new enemy offensive, but since many units in these areas were poised to meet these attacks they caused only minimal damage. April saw the heaviest cumulative enemy activity in the barrier interdiction camapign to date.
