Local hero? A bit curious about that rack...

Saw this in the local paper .. was thinking "Great .. some good vet press" and then I started looking at the rack. I don't have that much experience with WW2 / Korea ribbons, but does this look kosher? What's the ribbon with the 4 stars?

http://dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1086&ArticleID=147322

He was eager to serve his country.

At only 14 years old, Ron Johnson lied about his age and enlisted with the Navy to fight the Japanese.

The legal age to join the military back then was 17 or 16 with parental consent. It was not uncommon, however, for young men to fib their way in, especially with the amount of anger Americans had right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, according to Johnson.

"Some were caught and sent to Leavenworth (a United States Disciplinary Barracks in Kansas)," Johnson said.

Fortunately for Johnson, he got away with it.

"I think it was because I was in combat all of the time and I was serving a purpose in combat and they didn't want to find out that I was only 14 years old," Johnson said.

Part of the reason may have also been that he was raised as an orphan in a Catholic convent, so when he used a fake name (Ronny Frascona) when enlisting, his records weren't the easiest to trace.

Johnson served from February 1942 as a gunner and dive bomber until the end of the war in August 1945.

He and his pilot never had to eject from their plane, but they did crash into the ocean five times (three of which were due to running out of gas).

"At that time of the war, which was the beginning, we often went beyond the call of duty or the intelligence or our brains," Johnson said.

One instance that made a significant impression on Johnson was when he rode on top of his plane rather than in it during a rescue mission.

When he was on the USS North Carolina, a fighter pilot had been shot down in the Bay of Truk and needed rescuing because he was wounded and within range of Japanese fire.

Johnson's pilot, Mr. Mead, devised a plan that put Johnson in great danger. Johnson agreed nonetheless.

Mead landed in the bay just outside the range of fire. Johnson tied a long rope around his waist. Mead tied the other end to the strut of the pontoon and Johnson swam to the wounded pilot. Once he reached the pilot, Mead dragged them to safety.

There was also the matter of getting all of them back on the USS Carolina in one piece. The King Fisher pontoon had only enough room for two people, a gunner and a pilot. Mead had to fly and the wounded pilot took the gunner's seat.

"My question was ... where are you going to put me?" Johnson recalls asking Mead.

Mead responded: "You're going to straddle the strut and I'm going to tie your hands and feet around it and your back is going to be to the propeller," Johnson said.

"What if we don't get off the ground and we crash?" Johnson continued.

"He said, 'Well, then you're dead,'" Johnson said.

"I said [sarcastically], 'Thanks a lot sir, I really agree with your plan here.'"

It was risky, but they managed to get into the air and make it back to the USS North Carolina safely.

After the war, Johnson continued to serve in the Navy from 1945 to 1950 as a boxer. Out of his 116 fights, he lost only once as an amateur and once professionally.

In May 1950, he re-enlisted with the airborne to fight in the Korean War that began in June 1950. He spent three years there leading a platoon.

Despite all of the action he saw, Johnson was only wounded once. Shrapnel from an exploding suicide plane in Okinawa struck him. However, he recovered quickly.

"The injuries weren't debilitating at all," Johnson said.

Johnson, 83, now lives with his wife, Caroline, in Cordes Lakes.

He used to frequently volunteer for organizations in his area before he went blind three years ago. Yet even today, he still helps out the community as much as he can with his fellow wartime veterans in the American Legion Post 122.