Richard J. Johnson was born in Rosholt (Portage County), Wisconsin in August 1916. His family moved soon after to a farm in Larsen (Winnebago County), Wisconsin, where Johnson grew up. He graduated from Neenah High School in 1934, and worked in the area until 1941, when he married Grace Mikkelsen and began working at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Johnson was drafted into the Army in 1942, shortly after the birth of his first child, Nancy. While his wife and daughter moved to live with his parents on their farm in Larsen, Johnson was shipped to the Pacific Northwest where he received armored infantry training at Fort Lewis, Washington. In August 1944 Johnson and his unit, Company C of the 23rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 7th Armored Division, crossed the Atlantic and arrived in England. They then went across the English Channel and landed at Omaha Beach, months after the fateful D-Day landing. From there Johnson traveled to Holland, where his battalion saw its first action. As the Allied forces advanced, Johnson's battalion moved through Germany to Belgium, where they settled into the trenches. As part of the 7th Armored Division, Johnson took part in the Battle of the Bulge at the critical St. Vith salient. On January 25, 1945 Johnson was wounded in battle and began a journey behind the lines through various Allied hospitals, all the way to Paris. After recovering, he rejoined his unit at the front and participated in the final push that broke the German army. After arriving home in late 1945, Johnson returned to his pre-war job at Kimberly-Clark; he worked there until his 1978 retirement. He and his wife Grace had four children and were married 54 years before Grace's death in 1995. Richard J. Johnson passed away in January 2002.
