Hometown: Hillsboro, MO
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: 657th Transportation Company, 419th Transportation Battalion, 103rd Sustainment Command, Mount Vernon, IL
Military Honors: Meritorious Service Medal
Date of Sacrifice: March 5, 2019 - North Kuwait
Age: 20
Conflict: War in Afghanistan, 2001-2021

Specialist Jackson D. Johnson’s family had roots in Tennessee and moved to Hillsboro, Missouri in 2015. According to his mother, Jackson enlisted in the Army Reserves a year later “because he wanted to make a difference in the world.”

Johnson enlisted at age 17 while still at Hillsboro High School, spending a few days a week in the Future Soldier training program. He attended Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood—in the Missouri Ozarks—in the summer of 2016 before finishing his senior year of high school. After graduating in 2017, Johnson completed Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia.

Assigned to the Army’s 657th Transportation Company out of Belleville and Mount Vernon, Illinois, Johnson was deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Inherent Resolve—a multi-national effort to eliminate the terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

ISIS was a violent Sunni jihadist group that claimed authority over all Muslims worldwide and threatened to take over the Middle East. According to the U.S. State Department, ISIS was a global terrorist threat that engaged in “gross, systematic abuses of human rights…indiscriminate killing and deliberate targeting of civilians, mass executions…kidnapping of civilians, forced displacement of Shia communities and minority groups…killing and maiming of children…along with numerous other atrocities.”

The United States and a coalition of partner nations in the Middle East and around the globe launched Operation Inherent Resolve to end the ISIS threat.

Spc. Johnson was part of this Operation and was assigned to Camp Arifjan, south of Kuwait City. Camp Arifjan was a forward-deployment camp for military personnel on their way to or from Afghanistan, Iraq, or other countries in Southwest Asia. The camp housed elements of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and National Guard, and was also a forward-deployment camp for forces from Australia, Canada, Romania, Poland, and the United Kingdom.

On March 5, 2019, SPC Johnson was traveling in North Kuwait when a civilian water truck ran a stop sign and crashed into the side of his vehicle. Johnson, age 20, along with fellow soldier Sgt. Holli Bolinski (37) of Pinckneyville, Illinois, was killed in the accident.

According to Johnson’s family, Jackson Johnson had impressed his sergeants and commanders as a leader. Spc. Johnson had planned to return to the U.S. and move up in rank after his deployment. Planning a future of service to his country, Johnson was considering the Military Police or infantry after his Army Reserve contract was completed.

Lost while serving to eliminate the ISIS threat, both Specialist Johnson and Sergeant Bolinksi were posthumously awarded Meritorious Service Medals.

Sources
Details submitted by April and Jason Johnson, Spc. Johnson’s Gold Star parents
Card photo provided by the family
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 2 Soldiers from Illinois-based unit killed in Kuwait crash
Army Times: 2 soldiers who were killed on deployment returning home to families
KSDK-TV: 20-year-old soldier from Hillsboro dies in Kuwait
Kurtis Funeral Home: Johnson, Specialist Jackson D.
Military Times – Honor the Fallen: Spc. Jackson Johnson
U.S. Central Command: Operation Inherent Resolve—Combined Joint Task Force
Military History Fandom: Camp Arifjan
Burial Site: Find a Grave