“Before we met, she said she’d never marry a farmer,” said Johnson. “Her brother, a youth pastor, invited her to come from Chicago to a town celebration in Kiron in 1974. I thought, ‘Well, that’s a girl I’d never seen before, so I invited her to sit on my 3020 tractor. We got married a year later, just shy of my 30th birthday. Soon after, we built our home here and started to add outbuildings.”

The couple have two children, Kim, 46, of Phoenix, and Carmen, 42, of Nashville, and are blessed with four grandchildren.

Johnson grew up just a mile from where he lives now.

“My dad had 300 acres of land as well as a few hogs and cattle,” he said, “but it wasn’t enough for my brother Reese and I to continue to farm with him. I’d always hoped to farm with my brother someday.”

After high school in 1963, Johnson followed his brother Reese – who graduated in 1961 – to Chicago where they both drove truck delivering drywall.

“We made good money, but it was a terrible job,” said Johnson.

In another faith-building moment, Zane and Reese’s father called in 1966 to make them aware of 450 acres for sale to the east of their farm. “My brother and I bought it and came home. We bought a combine and a baler and did custom work, and we didn’t look back.”

It was the Vietnam War era and the same year that Johnson signed up for the Army National Guard.

“Sioux City was the only Army National Guard still taking sign-ups,” said Johnson. “Storm Lake, Ida Grove, Denison, and Cherokee were all filled up, so I grabbed the opening in Sioux City.”

Johnson took basic training in Missouri and then Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) in Colorado for a total of six months training. From there, he attended meetings monthly while farming with his father and brother.

In April of 1968, Johnson’s unit was activated and sent to Colorado.

“That was not a good day,” said Johnson. “We had bought the farm and worked it for a couple years – which was a dream come true, and then I had to leave it to go to Colorado for reasons that weren’t clear. My brother and a neighbor helped Dad keep the farm going while I was gone; to this day, when I see that neighbor, I thank him for doing what he did to help Dad and my brother.”

Reese Johnson was in the Army National Guard as well, but his unit never got activated.

After a year in Colorado, Zane Johnson was called to go to Vietnam in April of 1969.

“Each month, the Army would have a levy, where they would call names out of people who would leave for Vietnam,” said Johnson. “You weren’t called up by units but by individuals. Every month, they would call names, and I wasn’t called until the very last month the levy was held.”

After 30 days leave, Johnson landed in Vietnam in May of 1969. “I was trained to drive a personnel carrier,” said Johnson, whose track was No. 11. “It was the same year of the moon landing, so I took shaving cream and wrote ‘Apollo’ before it. It’s one of the few times that Johnson — a happy farm kid — smiled at a memory he recounts from Vietnam.

As the driver of a personnel carrier, Johnson hauled ammo as well as six additional soldiers.

“I was responsible for driving the squad leader who sat behind me, and we could talk over the intercom,” said Johnson. “We were the first vehicle to leave when we’d travel. Before I got there, the two guys who were personnel carrier drivers were killed when they hit a landmine.

The vehicle is designed for the driver to sit at the very front at the far-left corner; when the carrier hits a mine, it blows the driver apart.”

At home, Johnson’s mother and aunt prayed for him daily. “I’m a Christian, and this is what I call the ‘favor of God’; the night before I left to be there, the protocol was changed, so tanks led first. When the tanks hit a mine, it didn’t kill anybody; it just blows the tracks off the tank.

Within the first two hours of my first day, the tank in front of me hit a mine, and that would have been me. The little farm boy I was at that time was not a fighter; I was taught to love people — but those moments make you a different person. When a mine went off, we were taught to shoot everything in sight.”

Shelling and gunfire were especially prevalent at night, and drinking and drug use — prevalent throughout the Vietnam War — did not make it any easier for Johnson to get much needed sleep. “We had to stay up four hours a night to keep watch behind a machine gun into the black of night. Many nights I would pull my shift and when I’d wake the next guy, he’d be either drunk or on drugs. I’d slam his head into the pillow, and I would go back and be on duty for another four hours. Our medic would get high, and he was supposed to take care of us. Some guys got so messed up over there, and some of them still are today.”

Johnson was the exception to the drinking and drug culture.

“We would get a case of beer every month,” said Johnson. “I drank one beer on a 110-degree day when I didn’t have access to fresh water, and it was the last one I ever drank. I would auction off my beer and cigarettes to the guys when they ran out.”

While many soldiers put in requests for early dismissal for college, Johnson had farming-related reasons to do so.

“I put in to go back to work the farm with my dad and brother,” said Johnson. “I wanted to go help dad who owed money to the bank, Massey-Fergusen, and John Deere. My dad sent papers over to support my request. When I was chosen to go home, it was the happiest day of my life.”

Even with the go-ahead to return home, Johnson wasn’t quite free and clear of danger.

“They put me in the back of a Jeep,” said Johnson, “I was exposed with only my M-16 rifle for 40 miles. When I arrived, I was told I didn’t have a bed to sleep in for the night; I looked out at the South China Sea, and the beach looked safe enough to sleep on.”

Years later — in 1992 — Johnson was on a mission trip to the Philippines. “We had a day off and were told we were going to go scuba diving in the South China Sea,” said Johnson. “I just started crying right there; 23 years ago, I slept next to the same sea that I was blessed enough to dive in at that time through a mission trip.”

It’s moments like that which Johnson continues to point out as favors of God. “I’m a blessed man,” said Johnson. “I’ve been a farmer most of my life, and — by the will of God — I came home from Vietnam to support my family through farming and acknowledge Him who made it all happen.”