Walter P. Johnson

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Walter P. Johnson (1195001), Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving with Company E, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, FIRST Marine Division (Reinforced), in action against enemy aggressor forces in the Republic of Korea on the night of 5 July 1952. When an enemy hand grenade landed in his bunker while he was participating as a member of a thirty-man unit defending an outpost against a fierce assault by an estimated company of the enemy supported by artillery, mortar and heavy machine-gun fire, Private First Class Johnson unhesitatingly threw himself on the deadly grenade, smothering the blast in order to protect a companion occupying the same bunker. Severely wounded as a result of this heroic and selfless action which left his comrade unscathed, Private First Class Johnson, by his great personal valor in the face of almost certain death, upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.