Memorial

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Maj James V. Johnston Jr. graduated from Grant High School in 1935 and Oregon State University in 1939.

Publication in the Nebraska State Journal Lincoln, Nebraska 27 March 1945:
Kenneth L. Dixon, writing from the Belgium front, devoted his 20 January column to the story of Major (then Captain) James V. Johnston of Portland, Ore., a plnt-sized ball of fire, who had become a frontilize legend for his fighting ability and leadership of men. Wes Gallagher tells the rest of Johnston´s short, but brilliant story.

The western front´s three-gun indestructible midget is dead. He died as he sometimes expressed the hope he would - by a direct hit from an 88. He was Major James V. Johnston, 28, five feet, five inch, fighting machine from Portland, Oregon, who in a few short weeks had become a legend with the 84th Infantry Division.
No one knows how many Germans he disposed of. In one attack alone, he killed 20 and captured 88. He was in the forefront of every fight the division had. His only decoration was a bronze star. And he threw that away when he heard it had been given to officers who never had been in combat and held desk jobs.

Johnston had his own personal patrol which he led into enemy lines on ´dull days´. It´s a wonder he lived as long as he did - men had begun to think of him as indestructible.

His concern for his own troop equaled his dislike of the enemy. He would give shivering doughboys the clothes off his own back - and he always carried K rations. He never ate them himself.
His habit of walking around nonchalantly under fire made him a choice sniper target. But it took an 88 to kill him with a direct hit. He died in one of the division´s last battles before reaching the Rhine.