Photo caption: Leon Reed
During the Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at Olive Park, named after 18-year-old Milton Lee Olive, III, the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War. Ed Johnson who served with him, said he has been honoring the teenage war hero since 1967 and will continue until he can no longer do so.
Johnson, who served with Olive in the Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Vietnam War said, “I do this every year out of respect for Milton because we were in the same company.
“He was from Chicago, and I’m from Chicago, and there is a special camaraderie when brothers find themselves together with brothers who serve with each other and who live with each other,” said Johnson. “He was a South Sider, and I’m still a South Sider. I will come down here until I can’t make it anymore.”
Looking at the gold-plated plaque dedicated to young Olive, nicknamed Skipper by his family, Johnson said he was there when the late Mayor Richard J. Daley dedicated the park after Olive in April, 1966, after President Lyndon Johnson presented the Medal of Honor to Olive’s father, Milton B. Olive, II, and stepmother, Antoinette Mainor Olive, in Washington, D.C.
The plaque was once in front of the gates where the picturesque park is located by Navy Pier. It was moved inside the park grounds after someone defaced it. Ironically, when Olive’s father buried Skipper in the West Grove Cemetery in Lexington, Mississippi, the KKK defaced his gravesite.
In describing Olive, Johnson said, “He was young, quiet and he loved Chicago. He was friendly, not just especially with Blacks, but with whites, too, in Vietnam. The Company was about 50/50 in terms of Blacks and whites, and we respected each other because we had to depend on one another to see that we got back home safely,” said Johnson.
He said in 1965, they left Okinawa, Japan, and arrived at the Bien Hoa Airbase in Vietnam. “The day we got there, they bombed the airbase,” recalled Johnson. “They had to rush to get all the planes off the airbase because they were trying to blow up the planes.”
Genard Polite, the vice commander of the Milton Lee Olive, III, Post 1932, said, “I do this every year in honor of Milton Lee because of the great sacrifice that he did and also representing the African American community as a reminder of the heroic bravery acts that our soldiers have to endure while serving in wars.”
Former Governor Pat Quinn has paid tribute to Olive for many years. He had a previous veteran’s commitment and could not attend the Milton Lee Olive wreath-laying ceremony on May 29; however, he issued this statement: “More than 50 years ago, Milton Olive gave his life for his comrades and our government of the people.
“Today, it is our duty, the people of Chicago, to remember his purposeful life and model our lives after his life of service to others,” said Quinn.
Leon Reed, commander of the First District of Post 1932, said, “Milton Olive made the ultimate sacrifice by saving four lives. I realize that if you save a life and you give your own life, you have made the most ultimate thing…your all.
“Milton Olive was a hero, and we are honored to have him as a patriot of our Post 1932. That love that he had to save the lives of others is the most important act of that day because most people would not give their lives for a brother, let along for four strange people,” Reed said.
Ed Johnson said he hopes Mayor Brandon Johnson will change the current messaging of Olive Park, which he says is touted as a dog friendly park, messaging which does not promote the history of Olive’s bravery and that he is regarded as a teenage war hero.
