A father remembers; a stranger never forgot

Forty years ago, Richard H. Johnson died in the jungles of Vietnam. The former Town of Butler soldier is still remembered by an MIA/POW bracelet worn by a Philadelphia woman with a strange connection.

Trish and Richard L. Johnson, pictured with the MIA/POW bracelet she has worn for the past 16 years.

“It was somewhere in the DMZ. They never recovered his body. The trees are so big now they said the trees probably grew right over him,” recalled Paul Johnson, from his home on Van Vleck Road in the Town of Butler .

It has been 40 years since Paul and Marie Johnson received the notification that their son, Richard H. Johnson had fallen in that far away war in Vietnam . Today, a large picture of Richard is mounted on a wall, an America flag mounted next to it in the Johnson home.

Close to 1600 miles away and 16 years ago, Trish Ferrari had a friend who was a Marine, who offered to get her a Vietnam Veterans' MIA/POW bracelet. She had requested one from the upstate, New York area, since Trish had grown up in Binghamton , New York . “He ordered it and soon after that I started dating a gentleman from Houston (incidentally, we met on Veteran's Day). A month or so passed and I got a call from my friend that a bracelet had arrived. I asked him to read the name...He said it's "Richard H. Johnson". I asked again, and he repeated it. I asked one more time and this time he lost patience... “I told you it's Richard H. Johnson, what is your problem?”

“It took me a minute to explain, as I thought he was joking, because the gentleman I had just started dating was, indeed, Richard Johnson. (although he was a Richard L. Johnson). . . it still gives me chills every time I tell the story,” said Trish. “Anyway, I have worn the bracelet every day since then, even at my wedding (Veteran's Day 1994) when I became Mrs. Richard Johnson,” she added. Trish did some research on the name on the bracelet and discovered Richard H. Johnson disappeared in South Vietnam on July 29th, 1967. “I thought there may be family of his still in Wolcott and if so, I wanted them to know that Richard is not forgotten and is recognized and thought of every day, and I am honored to wear his name,” said Trish in a letter to the Times.

After two weeks of inquiry and numerous phone calls, and the help of Wolcott Supervisor Kim Park, it was learned that Richard was the son of Paul and the late Marie Johnson, who passed away in 2001.

As Paul read the letter Trish had sent, his breathing became deeper, a tear flowed down his cheek. He recalled how the Marine Corps kept in touch with the family every three months, then every six months while his son was still considered missing “They finally said they would never find his body.”

Even though Richard's brother Dan, was just a small child when news of his older brother arrived, he too became a Marine and served his country in a different time, with a tour in Japan .

“I know this country has a lot of problems,” said Paul with difficulty, “but the U.S. is still the best place,” said the now 85 year-old, former dairy and fruit farmer. Paul also served as the Butler Town Justice for 15 years, the Butler Town Clerk for 5 years and on the Butler Town Board for 20 years.

Richard wanted to return home to the farm, according to his Dad. Years later Paul told his youngest son to move on and get away from farming. Dan entered the aeronautics repair field and currently resides near Little Rock , Arkansas .

Richard H. Johnson lives on in the hearts of his family and on the wrist of Trish Ferrari-Johnson, currently residing just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.