This week an Ottawa County man will be honored in Washington D.C. with a Congressional Gold Medal for his service during World War II. It was a service many Americans during the time of the war didn't know men and women were providing. It was a group called the OSS and it played a major role in America's victory.
Hudsonville native Al Johnson was part of the Office of Strategic Services a group around from 1941 to 1945. It's an organization many have never heard of before and that's not surprising, seeing as a lot of information about the OSS wasn't declassified by the U.S government until 2008.
Now, the members that are still alive are being honored. Al Johnson was just 19 years old when he signed up.
"We ambushed moving the troops and you don't stick around to count the dead. You hit them with everything you got and you leave," he said.
"You know what the OSS is?" he asked as he sat in his basement, surrounded by war memorabilia. "It was a volunteer organization. You couldn't get in unless you volunteered to for hazardous duty with a short life expectancy."
Sitting at 94 years old so much for that life expectancy huh?
"We did not exist, according to the military at least," Johnson said. "We couldn't tell anybody who we were. We were paratroopers, that was all and we traveled in army uniform, but we worked behind enemy lines. That was the big difference."
Johnson worked behind enemy lines in France and China gathering intelligence and capturing key locations as well as a few relics.
"When we captured the hydro-electric plant, I went through the office I got as much junk as I can jam in my pocket," he said as he showed a book of stamps with Adolf Hitler's face on them.
Memories, Johnson shelved for a long time because when he came home he knew he was on to his next orders.
"When we got back, we knew we had to rebuild a country. We had to get married; we had to have children."
After meeting his next door neighbor, mission accomplished.
"There she was waiting for me," he said with a smile. "Smitten by her immediately. 70 years, 70 wonderful years."
Now in his 90s, he's headed to Washington D.C. to receive an honor he doesn't quite know how to feel about.
"It's a little like jumping out of a an airplane," Johnson said.
"The first time you jump out you don't know what to expect. The second time now you know what to expect. I don't know. It's nice to know now it's being recognized."
Johnson and his kids traveled to Washington on Monday. The ceremony was held on Wednesday afternoon, March 21. Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi were all in attendance. Watch the ceremony here.
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