Welcome to Freedom
Lt. Bruce Johnson welcomes Heinz and Margarite to freedom.
Heinz, an Austrian, worked in East Germany and, unlike the East German citizens, was able to come and go through the Berlin Wall. He fell in love with a young woman named Margarite and wanted to marry her and live in his native Austria, so he came up with a plan.
One day, passing through the checkpoint between East and West, Heinz deliberately stalled the scooter he was riding. While the guard was distracted, Heinz measured the height of the barrier.
Then, he set out to find the perfect getaway car. He settled on a red Sprite Austin Healy, not for its obvious snazziness, but for its low profile which he made lower by removing the windshield and letting air out of the tires. Around midnight in early May 1963, Heinz whisked his future wife, and mother-in-law-to-be, under the barrier and to freedom. You can (and should) read the full story in the links below.
I know this story because the American army officer Checkpoint Charlie later became an MIA during the Vietnam War.
On June 10, 1965, two years and five days after the strapping Lt. Johnson held out the hand of freedom to Heinz and Margarite, he was part of a team attempting to rescue a Special Forces unit which was under attack by the Vietcong. Their helicopter was fired upon, crashed, and burst into flames, killing some of the occupants. Johnson radioed that he was under heavy fire and not to attempt a rescue. When Americans were able to return later, Johnson was gone. Villagers reported an American was captured that day.
Read additional details here: https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/j/j010.htm
Back home in Kansas, Capt. Johnson's family could do nothing but wait, at first. Then, Mrs. Johnson couldn't wait any more. As part of her efforts on Capt. Johnson's behalf, she twice travelled to Paris, and literally knocked on the doors of members of the North Vietnamese delegation trying to get information about her childhood sweetheart, one of the "forgotten of the forgotten." The day after her second trip, she spoke to at a hearing on Capital Hill, outlining her family's, and what little she knew of her husband's, experience. Her testimony begins on p. 32.
(My mother addressed the same group. Her statement begins on p 48.)
When I read the hearing transcript, I was touched by the Johnson family's situation, so different from mine. I found Bruce Johnson Jr. on Facebook and contacted him. I ended up talking with him and his mother on the phone for quite a while. It was a privilege.
Even after no word for eight years, when the POWs were released in 1973, the Johnsons held vigil in front of the tv, still hoping, still praying.
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