Charleston VA Honors Ralph H. Johnson’s 74th Birthday

Press Release

The Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System will honor its namesake, Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Ralph H. Johnson (right), at 11 am on January 11th, 2023, in the VA’s canteen with a birthday cake cutting celebration. Pfc. Johnson would have been 74 years old.

The event will begin with remarks from the Health Care System’s Director and CEO Scott Isaacks and will be followed with a birthday cake cutting by Ralph H. Johnson’s sister, Ms. Helen Richards, who is a Charleston resident.

Pfc. Johnson was born in Charleston on Jan. 11, 1949. In 1967 he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Vietnam in 1968. During an ambush, a grenade was hurled into Johnson’s two-man fighting hole. Johnson selflessly threw his body onto the grenade and was killed saving his fellow Marines. For his heroic act, President Richard Nixon posthumously awarded Johnson with the Congressional Medal of Honor.

On Sept. 5, 1991, the Charleston VA Medical Center was formally renamed the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in honor of one of Charleston’s most heroic natives. The Health Care System celebrates Pfc. Johnson’s life and sacrifice on Jan. 11, 2023 – what would have been his 74th birthday.

Please contact Will Brugge at William.Brugge@va.gov or at (843) 997-0073 for more information or to cover.

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