Medal awarded after 60 years

DRAPER — Sixty years after being wounded in the Marshall Islands and 16 years after his untimely death in a traffic accident, Army Cpl. Grant Jennings Johnson of Orem has received a Purple Heart.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, pinned the medal on Johnson's widow, Leah Johnson, during a ceremony Wednesday that was the culmination of a family scrapbook project begun years ago. The family discovered official Army correspondence sent to his mother, Henrietta G. Johnson, in February 1945 saying Johnson had been wounded.

That raised the question of what had happened to his Purple Heart. When the family didn't discover one, Leah Johnson began proceedings with the Utah National Guard and Bennett's staff to get one.

Grant Johnson, who joined what was known as the Utah State Guard at age 17, was activated along with the rest of the 145th Artillery Battalion after completing two weeks of summer training at Camp San Luis Obispo, Calif., in September 1940. He was 18 and stayed in the Army for the next five years.

Grant Johnson was killed while riding his motorcycle in Orem in April 1988 when he was hit by a drunken driver. He was 55.

In a letter of commendation dated Feb. 22, 1944, from the 7th Infantry Division Headquarters, to which the 145th was attached in support of the battle for Kwajalein Island, the 145th was cited for an outstanding job of pounding Kwajalein from nearby Carlson Island.

With its howitzers firing nonstop for several days, three overheated guns exploded and killed seven men and wounded 21 others, including Grant Johnson.

Son Jim Johnson, one of the Grant Johnson's six children, spoke on behalf of the family and friends at the ceremony and expressed his regret that his father never spoke directly of his war experiences. "He always talked about his positive experiences in the war. I'm sure a lot more of you could tell me about his experiences," he told the 36 people at the Utah National Guard headquarters.

Grant Johnson worked at Geneva Steel in Orem for 33 years until he was killed. "I told my children the greatest tragedy they had was that they didn't get to know him and that he didn't get to know them," Jim Johnson said.

Leah Johnson, 82, said she thinks maybe she was able to stay alive so long so she could pass along to the next generations the history and heritage of her husband.

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