Ty J Johnson

Elk Grove, California

April 4, 2006

 Killed in Kirkuk, Iraq, when an improvised device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.

A 101st Airborne Division soldier from California who had been scheduled to leave the Army last winter until his service time was extended was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Spc. Ty J. Johnson, 28, of Elk Grove, Calif., died in Kirkuk when an improvised device exploded near the Humvee he was riding in, the Army said. Johnson was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. Johnson entered the Army three years ago and arrived at Fort Campbell a few months later, the post said in a statement Wednesday night. The deployment was Johnson's second to Iraq. His wife, Corinne Johnson, told The Leaf-Chronicle of Clarksville, Tenn., that he would have gotten out in January but the Army extended his service with a "stop loss" requiring him to remain. Corinne Johnson was visiting her mother-in-law in Elk Grove when someone came to the door Tuesday afternoon with the news Johnson had been killed. "I'd received an e-mail from him the night before," she said. "He always liked to talk to me before he'd go out on missions. It made him feel better. He said he'd be back late that night. He never got to read my e-mail before he died." Johnson's father, Johnny Johnson of West Jordan, Utah, said his son loved his family and his country. He said his son grew up in Sandy, Utah, and attended Jordan High School. "I had sent him a little Tonka Truck because he loved Hot Wheels (toy cars)," Johnny Johnson told the newspaper. "The last e-mail I got from him, he was saying he gave it to one of the kids in Iraq. He loved the kids over there." Corinne Johnson said her husband helped carry ballots for the first election in Iraq and she felt he would go down in history as someone who had a purpose in fighting the war. Besides his wife and father, Johnson is survived by a daughter, Kyrstin, and son, Rand, of Fort Campbell; and his mother, Lisarae Johnson of Elk Grove. -- Even as a youngster, Ty J. Johnson had a protective streak, watching over his fraternal twin brother and once driving away a bully who was picking on Blake with the firm warning, "Don't pick on my little brother." "He was two minutes older than I was, and he was always the protecting older brother," Blake Johnson said. "The two minutes was like two years." Ty Johnson, 28, of Elk Grove, Calif., was killed April 4 in Kirkuk when an explosive detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to Fort Campbell and was on his second tour. Johnson excelled in science and math. He developed an interest in forensics and was an avid fan of the television show "CSI." "Ty was always more about helping other people than himself," said Blake. "He'd give a person his last dollar to help them out. I think that's how he viewed things over there _ he was making a difference, even at the cost of not being able to see his family for years." In a recent e-mail home, he wrote: "I'm carrying 32,000 ballots in my Humvee. I'm going to be part of history." He also is survived by his wife, Corinne; daughter Kirsten, 3; and son Rand, almost 2.