Robert S. Johnson, Army, Staff Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Robert S. Johnson, 23

Army, Staff Sergeant
Based: Ft. Lewis, Wash.
1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: December 21, 2004
Forward Operating Base Marez, Mosul, Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Seaside
High School: Seaside High (Seaside)
Burial: Mission Memorial Park, Seaside, Calif.

Johnson, 23, was among 22 people killed Dec. 21 when a man, apparently dressed in an Iraqi military uniform, set off a suicide bomb in a mess tent near Mosul in the deadliest attack yet at a U.S. base in Iraq.

[His father] Peter Johnson said in an interview he will remember the basketball games he played with his boy, banging bodies under the backboard at their home.

Johnson said he'll remember the 30-minute showers his son used to take, the way he kept his room and clothes neat and orderly even before he joined the Army, and the way his face would light up when he drove his customized, fire-engine red pickup truck.
Johnson said he couldn't be prouder of his son and soldiers like him.


"I'm appreciative of all of their efforts and every breath they have given for our freedom," he said.

"Robert believed in what he was doing. And he was willing to sacrifice his life for people he knew and didn't know in this country," Johnson said.

Read the entire LA Times article about Army Staff Sergeant Robert S. Johnson here, read more here and find remembrances a tributes at Fallen Heroes Memorial.