Donald Johnson

This Lake Wissota boy was born on March 31, 1921 in Chippewa Falls, the youngest son of Emil A. and Kathryn A. (Hazen) Johnson. He was a lifetime resident of Chippewa Falls. From the time he was nine years old he helped his dad and brothers at their father's business, Johnson Monument Company. He graduated from Chippewa Falls High School in 1941 and he was inducted into the Chippewa Falls High School Athletic Hall of Fame. The following year he hitchhiked to California where he was a welder and helped build windshields for automobiles, where he also played football for that company. Due to his unique employment, a military deferment kept him from the WW II draft. Despite these conditions, he chose to enlist in the U.S. Army on February 13, 1943. During his service, a special need arose to build windshields for airplanes for which Don had some expertise and he was reassigned from his unit and transferred to Santa Anna, Calif. While he was waiting to be transferred, his entire unit was killed in the Pacific Theatre and Don always felt he had been divinely protected.