Hometown: Ely, MN
Branch: U.S. Air Force
Unit: 30th Civil Engineer Squadron, Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Military Honors: Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Heart, Air Force Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal
Date of Sacrifice: October 5, 2010 - KIA west of Kandahar, Afghanistan
Age: 23
Conflict: War in Afghanistan, 2001-2021

Danny Johnson was born on June 20, 1987, in the small town of Ely, Minnesota. He was the third of four sons born to Jim and Holly Johnson. In 1997, when Danny was ten years old, his family moved to Cottage Grove—just east of Madison, Wisconsin’s state capitol. There he attended Monona Grove High School, where he was a three-sport athlete excelling in football, swimming, and track (pole vault).

In the summer before his junior year in high school, Johnson went on a mission trip that visited 16 European countries in 6 weeks. His group used dramatic performances for Christian outreach. He graduated from high school in 2005.

Johnson moved to Schiller Park, Illinois after high school, living with his grandmother so he coud attend Triton College in nearby River Grove. He studied to be an Emergency Medical Technician, with the intention of becoming a paramedic.

Johnson decided instead to join the United States Air Force. His mother, Holly, recounts that she “cried for many weeks” in fear over her son’s decision. “I remember him saying to me, ‘You know, Mom, I’m going over there to save lives, not to take them.’”

Johnson joined the Air Force in November 2006. After basic training in San Antonio, Texas, in September 2007 he graduated with honors from the Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He was then assigned to the 30th Civil Engineer Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles, California. There he worked as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) technician.

EOD specialists perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the military, detecting and removing explosives to save American military and local civilian lives. According to the Air Force:

Mitigating the hazards of explosive materials and other weapons takes immense courage, precision, and skill. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) members undertake some of the Air Force’s most dangerous missions in diverse and unforgiving locales worldwide. These brave Airmen work solo or in teams and employ special tools and vehicles to safely locate, identify, recover, disarm, and dispose of dangerous weapons that threaten people, property, and natural environments.

Senior Airman Johnson’s first deployment came in 2009 with a 7-month tour in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. An avid outdoorsman and rock climber, Johnson built his own climbing wall while deployed in Iraq. He’d train by wearing his heavy, hot bomb suit while climbing.

When he returned to the U.S., SrA Johnson completed U.S. Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vermont, graduating with honors and earning his Combat Skill Certification.

While stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Johnson met and married Kristen Harlow in June 2010. Outside of his military duties, SrA Johnson was active in the local community—serving as a mentor for the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and working to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s “Fill the Boot” Campaign.

Just two months after their wedding, SrA Johnson was deployed for a second time. On August 25, 2010, he was assigned to the 755th Air Expeditionary Squadron’s EOD Flight and sent to Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.

On October 3, 2010, SrA Johnson’s team was investigating an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack on an Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier in Kandahar. The area was well known to be a hotbed of insurgent activity. As his team collected information and was returning to a staging area, one of their Afghan escorts was thrown 30 feet by an IED blast. Johnson put himself at high risk by rushing to retrieve the badly injured Afghan soldier.

According to a “Profiles in Courage” report from Vandenberg Air Force Base:

Airman Johnson solely tended to the soldier’s life-threatening wounds, multiple complex fractures, and open lacerations. He then directed the evacuation of the severely wounded soldier to a helicopter landing zone. Upon the soldier’s medical evacuation, Airman Johnson turned his attention back to completing the investigation of the IED attack. His exceptional efforts that day saved the life of the wounded Afghan soldier. Airman Johnson’s lifesaving efforts strengthened the relations between the Coalition Forces and ANA operating in the area.

Two days later, on October 5, 2010, SrA Johnson was conducting an explosive ordnance operation west of Kandahar when his unit was attacked. An IED blast took Johnson’s life and injured one of his teammates. SrA Daniel Johnson was 23 years old and had completed a month of his planned 6-month deployment in Afghanistan.

After SrA Johnson’s death, Vandenberg Air Force Base erected a memorial on the boulevard of the main entrance and renamed the street SrA Daniel J Johnson Blvd.

At the Phantom Ranch Bible Camp just outside of Mukwonago, Wisconsin—where Daniel Johnson worked as a young man—the SrA Daniel James Johnson Memorial Climbing Center was named in his honor.

While in Scotland on his mission trip at age 16, Danny bought a souvenir flowered mug for his mother, Holly. She remembers, “At that point, no military discussion had ever been brought up. At the time, I didn’t even notice that [the flowers on the mug] were poppies. And he didn’t know. I don’t think he knew what that would even mean. It wasn’t until seven years after he was killed that I realized those were poppies on that mug. Knowing that poppies represent death on the battlefield has brought me…a peace and comfort to my broken heart and soul—an assurance that Danny accomplished his destiny in his service to our country.”

Sources
Photo and details provided by Holly Higgins, SrA Johnson’s Gold Star Mother.
Wisconsin Life: Wisconsin Airman Killed In Afghanistan Remembered By Mom, Brother
Military Times—Honor the Fallen: Air Force Senior Airman Daniel J. Johnson
EOD Warrior Foundation: SRA Daniel J. Johnson
Fallen Heroes Project: Daniel J. Johnson
Daniel Johnson Fund: SrA Daniel James Johnson Memorial Golf Classic—Dan Johnson
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, (TAPS) Inc.: Faces of TAPS: Surviving Mother Holly Higgins Story
Lompoc Record, Oct. 10, 2010—via Legacy.com: Daniel Johnson Obituary
Burial Site: Find a Grave