Philip Johnson Honored, Laid to Rest

Hundreds In Enfield Honor A Slain Lance Corporal From The Close-Knit Town. Philip A. Johnson’s Boyhood Friends Are The Last To Leave The Cemetery.

Silence as hundreds of people gathered under an overcast sky to watch the casket of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Philip A. Johnson arrive at the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Enfield.

Silence as the casket, draped with an American flag, was carried out of the church by fellow Marines and laid upon a horse-drawn hearse.

Silence as the procession of family and friends, neighbors and strangers, walked a quarter-mile down North Street to Hazardville Cemetery, past the tombstones to the blue canopy covering the burial plot.

The family of Marine Lance Cpl. Philip A. Johnson: sister Jessica Titus, father Lou Johnson and mother, Kathy Johnson.

Then, after the afternoon ceremony was over and the hundreds of mourners shuffled back to their cars, came the sobs. It was like a collective recognition among Johnson's oldest and closest friends - this was their final goodbye to the 19-year-old gentleman with one brown eye and one blue eye who could make anyone laugh, the one who achieved his childhood dream of becoming a Marine.

"The last thing he said to me, I remember: It was, `I can't wait to go to Iraq and fight for my country,'" said Justin Gelgat, an 18-year-old aspiring Marine, whom Johnson mentored when the two served in a Young Marines detachment at Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts.

Before he left for Iraq, Johnson prepared a list - just in case. In it, he asked seven childhood friends to do something that would represent the bond they shared. They chose to make armbands out of his Young Marines uniform.

Johnson served with a weapons company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, from Camp Lejeune, N.C. He died Sept. 2 when a roadside bomb detonated as his unit traveled from Ramadi to Habina. He became the second Enfield serviceman, and second Enfield Marine, to die in Iraq.

He didn't want his friends to worry about his deployment, and during the last day they spent together in Enfield he got a tattoo and they all reminisced about the good times.

This week, two of those friends got tattoos of Johnson in uniform - one brown eye, one blue - and the buddies reminisced again. They visited his parents, Louis and Kathy Johnson at their Frew Street home and told them about the mischief that they had gotten away with - silly pranks like turning off or changing the channels on the television sets of unsuspecting and perplexed neighbors, and even more serious capers.

Jordan Meyer, left, and Kevin Verheggen, longtime friends of Philip Johnson, pay their final respects to the Enfield Marine

"He said he had a lot of stories to tell me," recalled Jordan Meyer, about what his close friend said to him in a five-minute phone conversation from Iraq. "Never get to hear them now."

Read the rest at the Hartford Courant

Fond words recall Enfield Marine, 19

CHICOPEE - Philip A. Johnson was remembered yesterday as someone who gave his best to the Westover Young Marines program before giving his life for his country in the Iraq War.

Johnson, 19, of Enfield, a lance corporal, was killed in action on Sept. 3, doing the job he loved, according to those who served with him in the Young Marines program. Johnson had joined the program in 1998, continuing through July 2005.

Stephaine A. Stetson, 17, of Chicopee, a student at Chicopee Comprehensive High School and a former Young Marine, said Johnson was one of her closest friends from the program, "more like a brother to me."

"I just started bawling my eyes out," Stetson said of the day she heard the news. "I'm really sad that he is gone."

Others from the Young Marine program, including the unit's commanding officer, retired Marine Sgt Maj. Edward Mitrook of East Longmeadow, praised Johnson for his enthusiasm and dedication.

The line that Marines don't cry "is a lie," Mitrook said, recalling the Young Marines' drill night that followed news of Johnson's death.

"You see their faces and the eyes start to tear up; it choked me up," Mitrook said. "Trust me, this is a heart-wrenching moment in all our lives who knew Philip."

Read the rest at the Republican


Enfield Marine killed in Iraq returns home

(WTNH, Sept. 12, 2006 10:30 PM) _ The body of a Connecticut marine killed in Iraq has returned home.

It was a somber ceremony that started at the airport as the flag draped coffin of Lance Corporal Philip Johnson made his final return home.

He landed about 3:45 p.m. at Bradley International Airport where he was brought out before family, friends and an honor guard.

They a police processional guided the hearse up Interstate 91. Flags were draped over overpasses, and people lined up to salute or put their hand over their heart.

The procession made its way to Enfield High School where teens practicing on the sports fields lined up to honor the fallen classmate as he went by.

Read the rest at WTNH 8

Related Link:
Enfield Marine killed in Iraq (Philip Johnson)

Note: Due to problems with blogger we were unable to post news of the fallen for the last 10 days. This post is part of the update from that period.