This weekend marks the observance of Memorial Day 2019 and it officially occurs on Monday, May 27.
Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Desert Hot Springs’ very own Eddie Johnson has become the face of Veterans Park in Desert Hot Springs formerly known as Memorial Park formerly known as just a regular city park.
Eddie Johnson himself was raised in Burbank California and enlisted in the Army just before being sent to Vietnam before he was 20 years old. In this video interview he spoke of many things including how much he liked the military food that he ate on a regular basis.
He tells many stories of his experience serving as an infantryman including how his Army post took in an orphaned Vietnamese child that lost it’s parents in the war and how he was instructed to recover the remains of a soldier who lost his life after succumbing to a land mine.
Speaking of War, Eddie speaks of how he adds the word War to the magnets he has made up that remind people of Vietnam which is officially recognized as just “Vietnam”. Eddie plays by his own rules sometimes and he chooses to call “Nam” as some like to call it the “Vietnam War”.
Eddie tells us about his harrowing experience taking an RPG to the transport vehicle he was travelling in and how he remembers being blown out the doorway after manning the 50 caliber gun. He fills us in on the damage that that strike did to his emotional cells of his brain while he was hit during the Tet Offensive.
Eddie shows us pictures of his meeting with Goldie Hawn and Ruth Buzzie of the set of the show Laugh In when he was home on leave.
Eddie covered how he has a job given to him by the City Manager in Desert Hot Springs who hired Eddie to go around town and replace damaged American flags free of charge on poles or buildings NOT city owned.
Eddie has big plans for Veterans Park in Desert Hot Springs and considers it his goal to see 5 Granite and Marble columns go in on the park property and is actively pursuing donations to get them built.
His goal is to reach $80,000 to see his dream come to fruition. Right now the bricks on the ground are running out of room for new veteran names to be added so he would like to honor the new names that get blasted into stone at the park to be located on vertical wall surfaces on sides of future columns.
This weekend’s memorial celebration kicks off at 9:30 A.M. at Veterans Park where Veteran Edward G. Johnson will be there to lead us off in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Thanks for your service Mr. Johnson…. or as he’s affectionately known in DHS, “PT Eddie”.
