Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, said on Friday that he will retire at the end of the 115th Congress.
“After much prayer, I have decided I will not seek re-election to serve the Third District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018,” the 13-term lawmaker wrote in announcing his retirement. “This will be my final term in the appropriately named ‘People’s House.'”
Johnson was a fighter pilot who flew missions during the Korean and Vietnam War. He was shot down over Vietnam in 1966 and spent seven years in the infamous North Vietnamese “Hanoi Hilton” prison.
He later was an instructor at the flight school known as “Top Gun.”
“He is my hero,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said about Johnson. “This is a man who, after serving in two wars and enduring seven years in the Hanoi Hilton, went right back to flying and ran for public office.”
“We spent many years together on the Ways and Means Committee, where I learned so much from Sam about tackling the big issues that make a difference in people’s lives. Sam’s retirement from this House is sad news, but we can take heart today in all this man — the greatest living man I know — has done and given to our country,” Ryan said.
