Corporal James T. Johnson was born Aug. 16, 1947 in Wynnewood. After his father’s death, he moved to Davis to support his family as an oil field worker.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on Dec. 5, 1967, and completed infantry training. He was sent to Vietnam and assigned as an assistant Squad Leader with Co. C, First Battalion, 27th Marines of the 3^rd Marine Division.

On June 5, 1968, he earned the Silver Star Medal for Gallantry during a fight with a North Vietnamese Army battalion. Although seriously wounded, Johnson, then a Lance Corporal, ignored his injuries and delivered rapid counter fire on the enemy with his grenade launcher.

His weapon was destroyed in the battle, but Johnson crawled through a hazardous area to a forward machine gun position and fed ammunition into the weapon for the machine gunner until all rounds were exhausted.

Refusing medical treatment, he organized a unit of litter bearers and directed the movement of 13 Marine casualties to relative safety. His heroic and timely actions inspired all who saw him and undoubtedly helped save the lives of several Marines, his Silver Star citation said.

Specialist 4 Willard F. Parish was born June 30, 1941, and grew up in Bristow. He entered the Army in November 1963 and trained as a mortarman.

He was awarded the Silver Star for Gallantry in the first major battle in Vietnam between American and North Vietnamese troops. The unit fought in the Ia Drang Valley west of Plei Me at Landing Zone X-Ray on Nov. 14 and 15, 1965. Parish fired an M-60 machine gun during this battle. He would say he looked to the front and “they (the enemy) were growing out of the weeds.”

When he ran out of ammunition, he stood up with a .45-caliber pistol in each hand and continued fighting the enemy force. He was awarded the Silver Star because of his “courage in the face of the enemy, his determination and heroic actions which saved many of his comrades in that area,” his Silver Star citation said. After the Army he was a country and western band leader and worked for the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.

A Marlow native, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously during World War II, will be inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame on Oct. 21 in Norman.

Private First Class Herman C. Wallace, who was born in Marlow, Ok., in 1924, was killed on Feb. 27, 1945, when he shielded his fellow soldiers from an exploding mine.

Wallace lived in Texas before the war. He and his family moved from Oklahoma to Texas in 1930 or 1931, for economic reasons, but had deep Oklahoma roots. The family members were farmers, according to a relative.

His parents, Ernest Wallace and Cleatus Shaw, were married in Duncan, Ok. On June 9, 1920. They apparently had lived in Oklahoma some time.

After moving to Texas, Herman Wallace graduated from Lubbock High School and attended Texas Tech University for one year, majoring in engineering.

Wallace joined the Army in 1942 and served in Company B, 301^st Engineer Combat Battalion, and 76th Infantry Division. He was killed in action near Prumzurley, Germany while helping clear enemy mines from a road.

Wallace stepped on a well-concealed German S-Type anti-personnel mine. It was called the shrapnel mine or Bouncing Betty because it was thrown into the air, about waist high, and when it exploded it released hundreds of ball bearings, causing many casualties.

Wallace knew falling to the ground in a prone position gave him the best chance to survive, his Medal of Honor citation said. He also knew that doing that would spray the area with fragments and likely kill two of his comrades directly behind him, his citation said. Wallace deliberately put his other foot on the mine and was killed when it exploded.

“Private Wallace was killed when the charge detonated, but his supreme heroism at the cost of his life confined the blast to the ground and his own body and saved his fellow soldiers from death or injury,” his Medal of Honor citation said.

A large installation in the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart, Germany, originally built by Germany, was occupied by American troops after the War. It was named Wallace Barracks in honor of Wallace.

For countless alumni of Oklahoma’s ROTC programs, certain cadre are warmly remembered as role models and mentors — perhaps in some cases as often demanding task-masters.

One such case is found in the person of Lt. Col. Joel Boyd, who is remembered in the above manner by OSU Scabbard and Blade and Army Blades alumni of the mid-1970s. Meeting back on the OSU campus this September, they took up a collection in his memory to help send cadets to this years Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame and to pay for some sort of memorial in the Thatcher Hall cadet lounge.

Through 21 years of service in the U.S. Army and 25 years in his second career in education, Joel saw much of the country and world, but remained a proud Okie his entire life. He served his country in Vietnam, earning the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, and retired in 1984 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

An ardent student of history, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Oklahoma State University.

Joel died at age 73 on March 1, 2015. He was preceded in death by his parents, Joe and Ioma Boyd.  He is survived by his loving wife, Pamela; two sons, Sean and Colin; former wife, Donna Boyd; step children, Jennifer Lestino, Matt Taylor; and six grandchildren.

Clearly, he will always be remembered affectionately by the students he influenced as a Scabbard and Blade advisor and ROTC instructor.