Yes, you're thinking about the right Johnny Cash. One of the best Country music artists of all time. (No, you're wrong.) I was just as surprised as you all to hear the news. I guess Johnny Cash was possibly the first American to learn that Joseph Stalin died. At least, according to Clash Music.
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Johnny In The Cold War
If you don't know, now you know. Johnny, like most other young men during the Cold War, wanted to stick it to the Soviets. So, he signed up to be in the US Air Force. He was assigned to Landsberg, Germany for three years. Which actually was right on the frontlines.
Johnny's job in the Air Force was to listen in on enemy communications. Just monitor what was happening on the other side. The technical term is a wireless operator. It afforded Johnny a rare chance to peek into the country that many others were not afforded. I mean, the man spent all day listening to Soviet chatter like it was his job. Well, I guess actually it was.
During the days of March 4th and 5th, Johnny heard that Joseph Stalin's health was declining. He listened intently as he tried to pick up and scrub through as much of the chatter as he could. His findings were decoded and sent through military lines going all the way to the head honcho. Mr. Dwight D. Eisenhower himself.
Eventually and somewhat suddenly, Joseph Stalin died. March 5th, 1953. But, was Johnny truly the first to know?
Johnny The First?
Well, there's obviously no way to know for sure. But that little factoid did go absolutely viral on the 70th Anniversary of Stalin's death. We would also come to find out that this had been the Cash family history for a while.
Rosanne Cash, on a social media note, wrote, "This seems too bizarre to be true, but it is. He was an Air Force radio operator stationed in Germany. He told me and my siblings about it many times over our lives." So naturally, he and his family believed it 100%. And I'm certainly not inclined to call Johnny a liar.
I guess he's a little more multi-faceted than many give him credit for.
