“Deadliest soldier” discussion continues (UPDATED)
Several of you sent us this link to the latest Army Times story about SFC Dillard Johnson, whose book calls him the “deadliest soldier”. Apparently, as he did when I talked to him the other day, Johnson still blames his publisher for the tag, and everything else that’s wrong with the story;
Johnson is the first to admit the claims are bogus. He blames the hype on his book publisher, HarperCollins, which he says ignored his efforts to tone down sensational parts and spread the credit.
“The actual numbers that squadron came up with are incorrect. And the actual numbers that the U.S. Army had were incorrect,” Johnson said. “We didn’t go back into the compounds and count bodies, we left. We shot people for 28 miles, but nobody went over there and counted people.”
Yeah, well we knew the claims were bogus, but there they are on the book jacket, regardless. As I said the other day, he sent me his DD214 which I promised that I wouldn’t publish. I had some questions about it and I emailed my concerns which included; he’s never been infantry, but he has a CIB. No one on the planet is authorized a second award of the CAB, yet there it is. He has senior jumpwings, but there’s no mention of either the Basic Airborne Course or the Jumpmaster course. There’s a Southwest Asia Service Medal with only one bronze star. Mine has three silver stars for Desert Shield/Desert Storm/Provide Comfort. He has ONE Good Conduct Medal in 20 years? He claims that he has a boatload of sniper kills as the unit (E7) sniper – but no sniper training is listed.
So, he wrote back;
Yep your right I just looked I never did the full sniper school only did the short MTT at Stewart. So I never said I went to the course so there should be no issue there. I guess I missed the other items I had a hard time getting my MSM on there when I retired. My secondary of 11B should still be on my ERB that you have. I will look and see if I have a copy of that I have my Cert for JP school.
That was on June 28th and I haven’t heard back and I looked at his ERB again, and I don’t see an 11B secondary, but that might be these old eyes malfunctioning again. I’m guess that an MTT at Fort Stewart means that a mobile training team came to Stewart, but the training should still generate an academic report and an annotation on the ERB, I would think, but I could be wrong. I just know that two weeks of German language training is on my 2-1, so sniper training would rise to that level of importance in my mind. I got an MSM after I retired, too, so it’s not on my DD2214, but then I don’t claim to have one, it’s certainly not worth the time to get it on a DD215, it’s only an MSM. I’d get sniper training on my DD214 before I’d fight to get an MSM on it.
From the Army Times article;
“Dillard was a good soldier,” retired Command Sgt. Maj. Anthony Broadhead told Army Times. “However, he tends to exaggerate a bit.”
Broadhead is in the book, as the then-sergeants first class and their crews destroyed an Iraqi police compound and fought off an ambush in late March 2003.
“This is a very smart guy tactically,” said Broadhead, who added that he hasn’t read the book yet. “He’s a good guy to have with you in combat, but he’s self-absorbed into being some sort of hero.”
Yeah, I bought the book a few weeks back, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it yet. I’m waiting for my inquiries to be completely answered. Someone tells me that the DD214 stinks and he’s having some AG-types read it, so we’ll see, one way or the other.
UPDATED: I talked to SFC Johnson this morning and he’s sent me documentation for his CIB from when he was assigned to 2/18th Infantry of the 197th for Desert Storm. He also sent documentation for Jumpmaster School at Fort Bragg when he was with the 82d Airborne Division. So we can lay those issues to rest.
Category: Who knows
#37, Jonn- what year does he claim he successfully completed Jumpmaster School at Fort Bragg? Does he claim he attended the 82nd’s JM school or an “SF” course?
hope he was able to sell the movie rights to the book before everything went south. not.
82d’s course, 17 July 98.
thinking about writing a book and calling it “My Life and How I Did It”, so i can be like Tony Herbert and Dave Hackworth. But then, all their awards are documented, unlike SFC (Ret) Johnson.
Some folks just won’t stop digging, even after they know they’re in over their head…
I called Bullshit on the ass clown two years ago. I contacted Mary over at the POW Network. He was claiming a Silver Star, BSM/v and 4 Purple Hearts. he has profited off of his lies more than once. Here is some of his bullshit pulled from a 2009 forum: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=941429 “A little background first, SFC Dillard ‘CJ’ Johnson (Ret.) is a Silver Star, Bronze Star w/V Bronze Star and 4 Purple Heart recipient. After retiring from the Army after 21 years of service in early 2006 he went to work as a security contractor in Iraq and has been there ever since. He has had a number of articles written about him and was mentioned in a recently published book on snipers. There are 2.5 pages devoted to his exploits in the official US Army history of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He’s also written quite a few articles on the war in Iraq. We’ve been best friends since we first met in 2005. Well, he called up from Iraq and we were chatting yesterday and I mentioned an article he wrote was going to be in one of next annuals. It was on a sniper duel he was in using an M14. Anyways….we were chatting and he says, “Well you know that I had 121 confirmed kills with that rifle…” I was like, “WHAT?” He goes, “Yeah, I thought you knew that…..that was in 2005 when there was a lot of people that needed shooting. You have to understand that a lot of them were around IEDs, so I could shoot 2 or 3 at a time. Or they were only 200-400 yards away. One time we set up in a building and left the lights on, I shot 5 with the lights on and 6 after we turned them off….” I was like, “Did they confirm these?” He was like, “Yeah, when I say 121 I mean 121 that I went and picked the rifles up off of.” “Did you keep a log book?” “Of course I kept a log book, how else would I know it… Read more »
@56: Ooh-he referenced Simo Hayha, nobody compares favorably to “the White Death” with over 700 dead commies killed.
Anyone here ever get “fuzzy” about whether you attended Sniper School at Benning? My LAR BN sent alot of Marines there, about 4 per class. Attrition was heavy, and I remember each Marine had his own private training regimine to get ready for it. These guys treated a Sniper School slot like a ticket to “the show”, like finally getting a tryout for the Majors. 20 years later, I bet every single one DISTINCTLY remembers Sniper School, even the ones who got dropped.
@54…don’t forget Betty Tisdale who “founded” an orphanage in Vietnam. Seems it was there several years before she “founded” it.
As for Hackworth- we now know no Ranger …I always wondered about his Master Parachute wings. Never quite added up (his non airborne unit assignments).
As for Herbert- he put himself out there and the knives were tossed. Some stuck, others didn’t.
#55, you should be a man and mention who you are talking about.
What we have here is merely a fellow who is quite impressed with his own Johnson, so to speak. The Airsoft gunners will buy the book and the blowhard stuff is merely a combo of his own sense of importance and his publisher’s PR. That’s the way I see it, anyway.
Re: “CIB from when he was assigned to 2/18th Infantry of the 197th for Desert Storm”
I will have to dig back through some things, but at the time of Desert Storm the Heavy Infantry BN Scout Platoons assigned to HHC were man’ed by 19D’s by MTOE. So that should be an error.