When his platoon leader was gone and the platoon was about to come apart at the Chosin Reservoir, a sergeant named James Johnson stepped up, steadied them, and then stayed behind alone to cover their escape, fighting the enemy hand to hand in the snow. When his men last saw him, he was wounded and still swinging. They would not know his fate for three years. Johnson was a Marine sergeant from Idaho, following his father, who had served in the same Marine regiment in World War One. On December 2, 1950, in the frozen hell of the Chosin Reservoir near Yudam-ni, his platoon was in a desperate spot, taking heavy fire, and the platoon leader was out of action. Johnson did not hesitate to fill the gap. In the middle of the incoming fire, he moved from man to man, shouting encouragement, steadying the frightened, and directing their fire, holding the platoon together by sheer presence. The enemy that day was doing something especially treacherous, attacking while wearing the uniforms of friendly troops to sow confusion in the freezing chaos. When the order came to withdraw, someone had to cover it or the whole platoon would be cut down as it pulled back. Johnson took that job himself. He moved to an exposed position, out where he would draw the enemy onto himself, and fought to hold them off so his men could get away. His ammunition and the close range of the fighting soon pulled him into the most personal kind of combat there is, throwing grenades and then fighting the enemy hand to hand. The last time his fellow Marines saw Sergeant Johnson, he was wounded but still on his feet, still fighting, still trading grenades and blows with the enemy closing around him, buying his platoon its way out. Then the snow and the chaos swallowed him. He did not come back. For three years he was carried as missing in action, his family not knowing, until his status was finally, officially changed to killed in action in December 1953. James Johnson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and his widow received it. The sergeant who took command when there was no one else, and then stayed behind alone in the frozen dark so his men could live, following his father into the Marines and into history.