U.S. Marine with Hartsville ties killed in Afghanistan
By JIM FAILE
A Hartsville woman is grieving the loss of her grandson who was killed in action in May while serving with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
Cpl. Jeffrey W. Johnson, 21, of Tomball, Texas, died May 11 during combat operations in Helmand Province, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Johnson and another Marine, Sgt. Kenneth B. May Jr., 26, of Kilgore, Texas, died when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded while they were on foot patrol, officials with the 1st Marine Division said in a news release. Both were infantrymen stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. The two Marines were anti-tank assault guided missilemen assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force.
Delores Campbell of Hartsville raised her grandson Jeffrey Johnson until he was 13 when his family moved Tomball, Texas. Most of those years were spent in Charleston, Campbell said, though she and her grandson lived in Hartsville for a year in 1994, the Hartsville native said.
“I was living in Charleston, but I came home to Hartsville about every weekend, and he was always with me,” she said.
“He was such a good boy,” Campbell said.
Johnson was on his second deployment when he died. His first was to Okinawa, Campbell said.
He had been in Afghanistan only about three weeks when he was killed, she said.
Campbell last saw her grandson last September when she and some other family members went to California to visit him. “We just had a wonderful time,” she said.
Johnson’s last visit to Hartsville came in 2008, Campbell said. “His grandmother in Columbia died, and he came home for the funeral,” she said.
He spent about a week in Hartsville then, she said.
“He loved life. He loved to hunt and fish. He loved his brother and sisters. He never had any trouble,” Campbell said. “If he met you one time, he knew you.”
“He’d owned his own car since he was 16 and he never even got a speeding ticket,” she said.
“If I was ever working around the house or out in the yard working, he would jump right in and help. That’s just the way he was.”
Campbell said her husband served in the U.S. Air Force, and Johnson’s father served in the U.S. Navy. Other relatives also served in the military, so there was always a military presence in the young man’s life as he was growing up, she said.
She said she knew early on that he would choose the Marines. “Even when he was little, he always wanted things associated with the Marines,” she said.
She said her grandson was always a happy youngster and said that happiness carried over into adulthood. “He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face if he had to,” she said.
“If you said you needed something, he got it for you or he built it,” she said.
She recalled that he built an outdoor grill for his father, Jerry Johnson of Tomball. The two had a small place near Brownsville, Texas, where they spent a lot of time together hunting, she said.
Campbell said her grandson used to help her out when she worked at a concession stand in Charleston. “When he was 3 years old, 4 and 5, I would let him carry food to the table,” she said. At 5, he asked if he could run the cash register. “He could count back change even then,” she said.
Campbell said Johnson always called her “Mimmie” and her husband “Papa.”
Campbell, Johnson’s grandfather, John Farmer, and brother, Jason Martin, traveled together to Texas for Johnson’s funeral. “Tomball went all out for him,” she said.
“It was awesome how people stood on the streets, children and adults, with big flags and signs that said, ‘God Bless The Hero.’ They closed every store in that town. It was just beautiful to know that he meant that much to Tomball.”
She said the town plans to erect a statue and name a park in her grandson’s honor.
Campbell said she is working locally to set up a scholarship fund and a nonprofit organization in her grandson’s memory.
Johnson enlisted in the Marines in 2007. Campbell said that didn’t surprise her. But she said she was a little troubled when he chose to join the infantry.
“He didn’t want to sit behind a desk,” she said. “He loved his country. He always said if he had to die for his country, he was willing to do that. It was just his time. That’s all it is. He’s guarding the streets of heaven now.”