Son of Roy and Lela Johnson and brother of Bulah Pedersen and Harriet Aubert enlisted in the Navy in 1941. He was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked on December 7, 1941. He served on the USS Minneapolis and then on an aircraft carrier, the Liscomb Bay. He was a radio operator on the Liscomb Bay, which was sunk in November 1943. It went down in the Battle of the Gilbert Islands. His wife and daughter survived him. He received the Purple Heart.