Willard Johnson, of Fairfield, Iowa, spent over three years on an island on the other side of the world without communication to his wife, Doris May, when he was only 21 years old. It was one of the hardest parts about being in the military, he said.
“The thing that was most difficult (was that) I never had any contact with my wife for 38 months,” he said. “…We didn’t have the kind of technology like we do now. Everything was slow.”
By “everything,” Johnson meant the mail. He said it took about a month for mail to travel from his wife’s home in San Francisco all the way to Papua New Guinea, where he was working on military aircraft.
Johnson, now 102 years old, remembers his days in the military like it was yesterday.
“I was over with the United States Air Force in the South Pacific area for 38 months, fighting for freedom,” he said. “I was a mechanic. I was crew chief on a cargo plane, and I also helped get fighter aircraft ready for combat. I went into the military in March of 1942 and was discharged in December ’45.”
Johnson is among the last of those to have fought in World War II. According to the National World War II Museum and the US Department of Veterans Affairs as of September 2021, out of the 16 million WWII American veterans, there are only 240,329 left today, and they are passing at a rate of roughly 234 each day.
“I’m one of — I guess there are six men left here, individuals, that are World War II,” he said of his current residence at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home.
Johnson was drafted into the military at age 21 while he was working for an aircraft company in Wichita, Kansas. Even before he was drafted, he was working on military equipment. He actually had been working on aircraft for the U.S. Air Force when Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941.
“The PA system announced that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, and everybody just stood there and looked at each other. Nobody said anything,” he said. “…We just stood there and looked at each other and went back to work. We were in the process of building two engine trainer aircraft for United States Air Force.”
When he was drafted in 1942, the Air Force found his experience with military aircraft useful, and put him to work doing much of what he had been doing in Wichita, just 8,000 miles away.
“When the squadron was formed at Brookley Field in Mobile, Alabama, all the people in the squadron didn’t get to go with us. In other words, we had to have certain qualifications,” he said. “…We were getting fighter aircraft ready for combat, and they wanted people that took life seriously, because you was working on a piece of equipment that another man depended on. We were a select group of that squadron.”
During his time in the military, Johnson and his crew prepared 1,000 P-38 aircraft ready for combat. P-38s were fighter and fighter-bomber aircraft that served as bomber escorts, tactical bombers and photo-reconnaissance platforms.
A few months after the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, Johnson was discharged from the military, and he went back to the airplane factory in Wichita.
“It was good to be back home with family,” he said.
Johnson spent the rest of his life moving around the Midwest doing various mechanic and engineering-type jobs, eventually ending up in Greeley, Colorado, before being placed at the Western Nebraska Veterans Home not too long ago. He said if he had to end up anywhere, he was glad it was here.
“I am enjoying the veterans home. This is a good place to be,” he said. “…This Western Nebraska Veterans Home is an excellent facility.”
Despite being one of the last veterans of World War II in the United States, Johnson said he’s still going strong. World War II wasn’t the only thing he fought in his life; he’s also fought and won a battle with cancer. However, Johnson said none of the trying times in his life brought him down.
All that is thanks to a positive attitude, he said.
“I have enjoyed doing what I’ve been doing all my life. I’ve had no ups or downs. I’ve had no quarrels to pick with anybody. I am enjoying life. I’ve always enjoyed life. … What happened yesterday, that’s the furthest thing from my mind. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
*Originally published in the Star-Herald on Nov. 16, 2021.
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