Lyle Albert Johnson
Captain, U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve)

Lyle Albert Johnson was born on 16 August 1942 in Townsend, MT, the son of Charles A. and Marie K. Johnson.

Lyle enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1965. He entered the 38th Officer Candidate Course at Quantico, VA, and was assigned to the 3rd Platoon of Charlie Company. He graduated on 17 December 1965 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the USMCR. He was then assigned to the 3rd Platoon of Echo Company in Class 3-66 at The Basic School at Quantico and completed that class on 27 May 1966.

Ordered to the Republic of Vietnam, 1stLt Johnson arrived on 30 June 1967 where he was assigned with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, III Marine Amphibious Force in Quang Nam Province. By October, he was the Commanding Officer (MOS 0302) of Echo Company. His CP was a gateway to that portion of Highway 1 which climbs out of the Danang Plateau and rises to the summit of the Hai Van Pass. Beginning at 06:30 on the morning of 5 October, a squad from his company was providing security for the daily road sweep by combat engineers from 7th Engineering Battalion over Echo Company’s portion of Route 1. At 08:00, the sweep team located a mine and detonated it. At 08:15 a civilian truck, the 4th of the day to begin the climb to the Hai Van Pass, hit a mine that wounded three civilians.

With all this action occurring in his tactical area of responsibility, Lyle decided to go up Route 1 with a security detail to check out the recent Viet Cong land mine activity. As they moved north on Highway 1 at 11:20, Lyle and his Marines were ambushed approximately midway between their CP and the summit of Hai Van Pass. A command-detonated 250 pound bomb was used to initiate the ambush. The Viet Cong then took the Marines under fire with B-40 rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), AK-47s and light machine gun fire. As the ambush erupted, the sweep team returning to their base and other Echo Company personnel assigned to the Nam O Bridge security detail rushed to the site.

1stLt Johnson was killed outright by the explosion of the 250 pound bomb. He suffered fragmentation wounds to the neck, both arms, both legs and back. As the reinforcements poured in, the Marines gained fire superiority and the Viet Cong broke contact. A medevac was called in to extract 5 Marine KIAs and 7 WIAs from the combined Echo Company and 7th Engineer force. Once the casualties were evacuated, an airstrike was called on the high ground the Viet Cong had occupied. 1stLt Lyle Johnson died in Quang Nam Province, approximately 17 kilometers north northwest of the Danang Airfield (AT 936897) on 5 October 1967.

Lyle was posthumously promoted to Captain. The balance of Basic School Class 3-66 was promoted to Captain on 1 November 1967; 25 days after Lyle’s death and twenty two and one-half months after originally being commissioned.

At the time of his death, Lyle was 25 years old and married to Deane Cowan Johnson.

Medals and Awards

Purple Heart
Combat Action Ribbon
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal

Honors

The name Lyle Albert Johnson is located on Panel 27E Line 54 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

Burial

[Thanks to Captain Dave Mellon, USMCR, a classmate of Lyle Johnson in the 38th Officer Candidate Course and in Basic Class 3-66, for the valuable information he provided for this bio. Capt Mellon also served as a platoon commander in Vietnam and was wounded.]