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| Col. Gerald Johnson was the 4th leading ace in the Pacific flying P-38 Lightnings. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56112091/gerald-richard-johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_R._Johnson |
Gerald Richard Johnson never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Gerald was born on June 23, 1920 in Akron Ohio. His parents Harold and Hazel were born in Indiana and Ohio, respectively. His father worked as a real estate agent and later as an attorney. The family moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1936. Gerald had three brothers (including twin) and two sisters. He participated in Boy Scouts both as a youth and later as a leader. Showing early tendencies that would play a part in his future, friends notice that he was fearless when riding a bike, trying to as fast as possible when going downhill. By 1940 Gerald was still living at home. He had attended one year of college and was working as an attendant for the Department of Agriculture. He completed three years at the University of Oregon before volunteering for the Army Air Forces in 1941.
He got his wings and was made a lieutenant by the end of 1941. He first served in the 54th Pursuit Group. He wanted to marry his girlfriend Barbara Hall after finishing flight school but her mother strongly opposed it. On one leg of his flight from California to Alaska he buzzed both his parent's home in Eugene and his girlfriend's dorm in Portland.
While a lieutenant, he shot down his first enemy plane over Kiska in the Aleutian Islands flying a P-39 Aircobra. He went on to serve 15 months in the New Guinea area, mostly flying P-38 Lightnings in the 49th Fighter Group. He was made a captain in August 1943.
By October 1943 Captain Johnson was proving to be one of the most talented fighter pilots in his squadron. During one mission he shot down three planes, bringing his score to eight. For this action he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was promoted to major and put in command of the 9th Fighter Squadron. He was soon up to 13 confirmed planes downed.
His family got a scare in the spring of 1944 when they got news that a flyer named Gerald Johnson had been shot down. They learned that it was not their Gerald. Soon after, there as a real tragedy -- Arthur Bills, a young man raised by the Johnsons when he became an orphan, was killed in action at Bougainville around this time.
While on leave, Gerald finally married his sweetheart Barbara on June 1, 1944. They had one son. Later that summer he attended general staff and command school. He was able to have more leave time at home in September and was a guest speaker to the Eugene Lions Club and spoke of his wartime experiences.
Major Johnson next saw action in the Philippines. By December local papers reported he had shot down 23 enemy planes including another three during a single mission on December 7, 1944 which earned him his second Distinguished Flying Cross and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In April 1945 he shot down his final plane over Hong Kong. At that point he was the leading ace in the 5th Air Force and by the end of the war was recognized as the fourth leading ace in the Pacific. He was also a 25 year old full colonel and the 5th Air Force's Deputy Operations Officer.
After the war Col. Johnson flew a rescue plane to locate an American POW in Japan. He was made commander of Atsugi Air Base in Japan and was expected to be promoted to general - at age 25.
On October 7, 1945, Col. Johnson was flying a B-25 from Ie Shima to Astugi when it encountered a typhoon. It was not possible to continue and the odds of making it safely back to Ie Shima was low. He ordered four of the crew to bail out over an island he found, even giving up his parachute to one man who did not have one. His copilot stayed with him to help him ditch the plane. The plane slammed into heavy seas and sank from sight. The four men who jumped survived.
He is remembered at the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. His widow remarried and died in 2012. I don't know what happened to his son.
In 1947 a surplus army chapel was delivered to the Eugene area airport where Col. Johnson learned to fly to serve as a memorial to him and to provide a meeting place for a local congregation without a chapel.
Colonel Johnson has his own Wikipedia page and a detailed Findagrave memorial. After writing this profile I was reading the book Race of Aces: WWII's Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become the Master of the Sky by John R. Burning and found whole sections about Gerald Johnson. I added some more details to this story, but I am sure there is more I haven't read yet. It's a great book.
This is one of the final 100 stories (72) to be written as part of this project which ends on September 2, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. At that time more than 1,370 men and women will have been profiled. The project will live on in an expanded program to write the stories of all 400,000+ US World War II fallen. Visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org to learn more. We welcome your continued support and interest and encourage you to help write some of these stories.
Last year on this date I profiled Salver Gagliardi, 12th Armored Division. You can read about Salver here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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