Late Freeport resident Bob Johnston served three tours of harrowing conflict in the Vietnam War, running supplies along the Cua Viet River at Dong Ha.

He served four years in the Navy, 1965-68, basically living on the water while repelling ground attacks and artillery fire from the enemy.

“He made the 7½-mile journey usually three times a day, taking supplies — fuel, ammo, food — to the Marines,” said friend Dave Christopher, who also served in Vietnam and now lives there. He is formerly of Tarentum.

When Johnston died from cancer in 2018 at 71, Christopher helped to scatter his ashes in the Cua Viet River, near the ramp where he used to collect his Navy supplies.

“I performed the full military funeral that we do through the Veterans of Foreign Wars,” Christopher said.

But he wanted Johnston to receive the accolades he deserved back home, too.

Christopher is working with Harrison funeral home director Tom Zidek to apply for military honors for Johnston at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies.

The site in Cecil Township was dedicated in 2005 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The National Cemetery Administration provides markings for deceased veterans without remains, director Edward Hajduk said.

“We have a memorial section for veterans who have been lost at sea, are missing in action or whose ashes were scattered,” he said.

“We would do a search to see if there’s any other headstone or markers to remember this veteran, and, if not, we order a headstone.”

Four decades after the war, Johnston returned to the Southeast Asian country to live out his retirement and give back to the people.

He settled in the city of Tuy Hoa on the south central coast in 2007, operating a small cafe and tourist hostel with his wife, Phoung Diep Minh.

Until his death in 2018, the couple headed up a charity called “Rice Soup From Love,” feeding and clothing the local poor and disadvantaged people in the Tuy Hoa area.

Johnston wrote a book about his excruciating battle experiences, a raw account of war called “Blood and Brown Water” that was released in 2017.

An excerpt from the book reads: “There’s a whole list of our guys who were killed or wounded in direct support of most operations from 1965 to 1972. Small groups of our boats lived and died on the rivers where we did our job. We took the rockets, the mortar fire and the artillery fire from the enemy at night. We stood perimeter watch with the Marines who were our security and were also supported by us. Sometimes our guys fought alongside of them repelling ground attacks and died with them. Then, the next day, we boarded our boats and took five or six more loads up the river … many days like driving along in a shooting gallery, in a minefield.”

Christopher believes his friend deserves the military burial honors for his service.

“Not all veterans that died in Vietnam died during the war,” he said. “With paperwork provided through Bob’s daughter, I hope to get it done. Four years in the U.S. Navy and three tours — I think that deserves recognition.”

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