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Soldier brought smiles when friends needed it

Oct-12-2006 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

SEAN COCKERHAM; The News Tribune

MOSUL, IRAQ – Rare dark clouds obscured the desert sun Wednesday as Fort Lewis soldiers filed quietly into a dimly lit recreation center to remember their fallen brother.

Cpl. Carl W. Johnson II died last weekend in the cramped front compartment of the Stryker he drove in combat. He was 21.

“We lived it up back at Fort Lewis,” said his close friend Pvt. Michael Williams. “It’s hard to realize he won’t be there when we get back.”

In some ways, memorial services in Iraq are similar to the ones held on post in Tacoma several days later – the playing of taps, the reading of scripture, the shedding of tears.

But there’s one big difference: Some of these mourners had just returned from patrols in the same streets of Mosul, Iraq, where Johnson died Saturday afternoon. Some would return to those streets within hours.


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