Second Lieutenant Johnson entered the U.S.
Army Air Forces from Delaware and served in both the 819th Bombardment Squadron and the 38th Bombardment Squadron of the 30th Bombardment Group.
He was killed in action on 21 January 1944, in an airplane crash shortly after take off from Betio, Tarawa.
Johnson’s body was buried in the main Cemetery on Betio, but his remains were not identified during disinterment efforts following the war and he was declared unrecoverable.
In 2017, the non-profit organization History Flight Inc. located casket burials Cemetery33 on Betio and recovered human remains there.
Johnson was among the remains recovered.
DPAA analysts used modern forensic tools and identified these remains as those of Lt.
Findagrave Memorial DPAA Press Release Delaware’s World War II Fallen DPAA Personnel Profile
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