Army Chief Warrant Officer Philip A. Johnson Jr.

Died January 08, 2004 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom

31, of Alabama; assigned to the 571st Medical Company (Air Ambulance), Fort Carson, Colo.; killed Jan. 8 while on board a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that crashed during a Medevac mission in Fallujah, Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer Philip A. Johnson was a committed military man who jumped to the Army after the Marine Corps. The helicopter pilot attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile for three years before joining the Marines. After four years in the Marines, Johnson served in the Army for six years.

“He was very committed. He was doing what he wanted to do, and he felt he was doing the right thing,” said his father, Philip A. Johnson Sr.

Johnson, 31, was born in Davenport, Iowa, and grew up in Chicago before his family moved to Mobile in 1985. He was among nine soldiers killed Jan. 8 in a Black Hawk crash in Iraq. Johnson’s wife, Melissa Johnson, 28, is in the Air Force and lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.

— Associated Press