Carl W. Johnson II - Corporal, United States Army

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release
IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 1011-06

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Corporal Carl W. Johnson II, 21, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvaia, died on October 7, 2006, in Mosul, Iraq, from injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Johnson was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington.

A funeral service will be held this weekend for Army Corporal Carl W. Johnson II, 21, of Wissinoming, who was killed in action in Iraq.

He was the only son of Peggy Johnson Crocker in a family of three daughters. His father, Carl W. Johnson, died before his son was born.

Corporal Johnson died in Mosul October 7, 2006, when an improvised explosive device detonated near a Stryker fighting vehicle he was operating. He was a member of the Second Battalion, Third Brigade, Second Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Washington, and had been in Iraq since February.

“I last spoke with Carl on the Internet on Friday [October 6, 2006], before he went to chow,” Crocker said. “Then we spoke again later that night for quite a long time. He asked if I would make his favorite cookies and send them and candy to the guys in his battalion.”

Crocker said she is going to make those cookies.

She also asks volunteers to help gather candies to fill boxes that will be sent to the troops before Thanksgiving. Boxes will be placed at Belfield Recreation Center, 2101 W. Chew Avenue, and at Lawncrest Recreation Center, Rising Sun Avenue and Comly Street.

He played football at Simon Gratz High School, from which he graduated in 2003. He had dreams of going to college and buying a motorcycle when his military service was over, his family said.

He enlisted July 2, 2003, “because he wanted to be in the Army,” his mother said. “He was athletic, smart, funny, and a little overprotective of his sisters.”

Corporal Johnson wore size-16 shoes. “When he was in high school, I tried to buy size-16 football cleats from a Foot Locker,” his mother said. “The manager told me that if I brought my son in and he wore a size 16, he could have them for free.”

Crocker said she and her son were not against the military, but did object to the Iraq war. “He did not want to be sent there to kill people,” his mother said.

“He was looking forward to coming home,” she said. “He hoped to spend the last year of his enlistment in Washington” state.

In addition to his mother, Corporal Johnson is survived by sisters Chanta Crocker, Rebecca Worrell and Teshia Johnson.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Zion Baptist Church, 3600 N. Broad St. Friends may visit at 8 a.m. Burial will be at 11 a.m. October 27, 2006, in Arlington National Cemetery.

Donations may be sent to Simon Gratz High School Athletic Program, in care of principal Delores Williams or coach Leonard Poole, 1798 W. Hunting Park Ave., Philadelphia 19140.

On Friday, 21-year-old Corporal Carl Johnson was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was killed October 7, 2006 in Operation Iraqi Freedom when a makeshift bomb exploded near his vehicle in Mosul.

On a cold and gray morning of October 27,2006, when the rain was hanging in the air and the wind touched the trees a funeral service was held for Army Corporal Carl Johnson II. He was the 268th person killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was the only son of Peggy Johnson Crocker in a family of three daughters.

The funeral service was quiet and brief. Mother Peggy Johnson Crocker arrived at 11:30am accompanied by her daughters Chanta Crocker, Rebecca Worrell and Teshia Johnson with families. They were all seated under the tent that covered the burial ground where the casket was set. The ceremony was done as custom with the Firing Party, a bugler to played Taps, and the folding of the U.S flag that was presented over to Mrs. Peggy Johnson by Brigadier General Charles Anderson.

Corporal Carl Johnson was a member of the second Battalion, Third Brigade, Second Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis,Washington, he had been in Iraq since February 2006 and was due home in January 2007.

Officer, Soldier Shared Passions
Two Slain in Iraq Loved Family, Country and the Military, Mourners Say

Army Corporal Carl Johnson, 21, and Army Captain Shane Adcock, 27, died miles apart in Iraq. Johnson died October 7, 2006, of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Mosul. Adcock died October 11, 2006, in an enemy grenade attack in Hawijah.

They shared a deep love of family, country and the military.

Yesterday, the men were interred within hours of each other under an overcast sky at Arlington National Cemetery. They were the 268th and 269th people killed in the Iraq war to be buried there.

Shortly before noon, mourners walked through the soggy grass to grave site No. 8429 to honor Johnson, who was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, in Fort Lewis, Washington.

Johnson played football and was a member of the service club at Simon Gratz High School in his home town of Philadelphia.

“He was always smiling and willing to help people,” said Rich Kozlowski, his football coach.

Johnson enlisted in the military in 2004 and was quickly promoted to corporal, said Erin Benson, a military spokeswoman. Only soldiers who exhibit unusual leadership and promise are selected for the position, she said.

Friends said Johnson was skilled at driving the Army’s 23-ton combat vehicles on the crowded streets of Mosul. His battalion commander often singled him out because of his driving ability, and he was being considered for another promotion, friends said.

“He is remembered by his brothers-in-arms as a soldier who took great pride in his profession and strove to do well at all the tasks assigned to him,” Major Robert J. Bennett said at Johnson’s memorial service at Fort Lewis this month.

“He is also remembered as a confidant and friend to his family and his fellow legionnaires,” he said.

Johnson is survived by his mother, Peggy Crocker, and his sister, Tisha Johnson, according to the military.

Later yesterday, mourners gathered one grave site over to pay respects to Adcock, of Mechanicsville, Virginia. Hundreds of people followed the procession to Adcock’s grave in the rain. Many mourners huddled under an awning and umbrellas as a chaplain spoke.

Adcock was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

His parents said it came as no surprise when he joined the military after graduating in 2003 from Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Adcock’s grandfather was a Navy veteran who shared military stories with him and took him to visit the naval base in Norfolk.

Adcock was an adventure seeker and enjoyed rock climbing, hiking, surfing and kayaking, family members said.

“He used to always tell me, ‘You know Mom, I gotta live life on the edge,’ ” Vera Adcock said. “And in all of it, he kept God at the center of his attention.”

His first deployment was to Afghanistan in 2004. At a welcome-home party in the middle of that deployment, he met the woman who would become his wife, Jennifer Skeele, a doctoral student in physical therapy at Duke University. When he returned to Afghanistan, they kept in touch via e-mail and talked on the phone nearly every day.

“He was the most upstanding, moral person you’ve ever met,” Skeele said. “He was caring and compassionate. When he was in Afghanistan, he had more patience and joy in his life than people I know walking around every day in a free country. He was so calm and collected that it blew me away.”

They were married in Hawaii in June. Nearly two months later, he was deployed to Iraq.

Adcock loved the military and was planning to make a career of it. He also wanted to start a family, his wife said.

“I think it’s clear for all the soldiers that they love what they’re doing, but they just miss their loved ones,” she said. “It clarifies what we take for granted every day. He missed the simple things like waking up next to his wife. That’s all he wanted to do. . . . My heart goes out to these men. We have no concept of what they go through every day.”

A solemn bugler waits for the start of funeral services for Army Corporal
Carl W. Johnson II of Philadelphia, at the Arlington National Cemetery

Peggy Crocker, right, weeps as the flag draping the coffin of her son, Army Corporal
Carl W. Johnson II of Philadelphia, is folded during funeral services at Arlington National
Cemetery, Friday, October 27, 2006.

Brigadier General Charles Anderson, left, presents Peggy Crocker the flag that draped the
coffin of her son Army Corporal Carl W. Johnson II of Philadelphia, during
funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery

JOHNSON, CARL
CPL US ARMY

DATE OF BIRTH: 11/01/1984
DATE OF DEATH: 10/07/2006
BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 8429
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard

Carl W. Johnson II – Corporal, United States Army

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