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<em>Robert Daniel Johnston</em> was born in North Carolina on 16 August 1906. His parents moved to Tennessee and he attended grammar school and high school in Bristol, He enlisted in the Army and received his appointment to West Point from that source.</div>
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Upon graduation he was commissioned in the Infantry and his first station was Fort Benning, Georgia. It was there that he met Mary Kline who was later to become his wife.</div>
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Shortly after they were married they were transferred to the 19th Infantry at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Upon completion of that tour of duty they were returned to the mainland.</div>
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Later they were transferred to the Philippine Islands and were stationed at Fort McKinley when the Japs bombarded Pearl Harbor. Mary was evacuated hack to the United States. Bob was on the island of Mindanao and was G4 under General Sharp on that island when they were captured. For this duty he received the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star Medal.</div>
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He was in the prison camp there until the tide began to turn against the Japs and they evacuated the prisoners northward to the island of Luzon. Bob rapidly learned to work in the center of the rice paddies rather than near the dikes where the guards walked with bayonets attached. They were very prone to jab a prisoner in the behind if they thought hee was loafing. But they wouldn’t go out in the paddy to do this. They didn’t want to get their feet wet.</div>
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However, Bob did get one jab with a Jap bayonet. This was when he was marching from the prison ship on Luzon to his new prison camp. They were marching through Fort McKinley and Bob turned his head to look at the set of quarters where he and Mary had lived. A friend of his tried to get him to apply for the Purple Heart decoration but Bob declined.</div>
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After being evacuated to Luzon he developed a very bad case of dysentery and for that reason he was not placed on the Prisoner of War ship going to Japan. The ship was later bombed and about 250 American prisoners were killed.</div>
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He narrowly missed being killed in that prison camp. Just before the Japs abandoned the camp they racked the building with machine gun fire. Bob was in his bed, flat on bis back and a burst of bullets missed his stomach by inches. Had he been on his side he would have lost his life. He was liberated when tire American troops re-captured the island of Luzon.</div>
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He later served at Fort Riley, Kansas, as commanding officer of the 85th United States Infantry Regiment, He had two tours of duty in Europe after leaving Fort Riles. On the first tour he was assigned to Headquarters, European Command, but was returned to the United States in 1953 for medical reasons. After quite a stay in Fitzsimons General Hospital he was assigned to West Point where he was the Secretary of the Association of Graduates.</div>
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After his second tour of duty in Europe he was returned to the United States and was retired in 1961.</div>
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As my father had spent his life travelling the earth, it seemed fitting that he die this way. All those close to him agreed that he'd rather leave this world with his boots on.</div>
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He spent three and a half years as a Japanese prisoner. This experience ennobled him rather than embittered him. I found him to be strong, wise, kind and just. He was a true patriot and loved his country.</div>
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One of the highlights of his career was in 1948 when he went back to the Philippines and unearthed some official papers that he had secretly buried in a metal lined ammunition box at the beginning of his internment.</div>
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When my father retired to Columbus, Georgia in i961, he retained his passion for travel which the Army had nurtured in him. His curiosity about the world and its peoples, and his vitality in satisfying that curiosity, were unquenchable. He never ceased learning from life and appreciating its blessings. He was a “bon vivant” in the highest sense, and his charm warmed his friends all over the world. He was loved and well respected. God Bless him.</div>
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<em>—Barbara Johnston and a devoted friend—JPK</em></div>
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