Army Sgt. 1st Class Allen C. Johnson

Died April 26, 2005 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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31, of Los Molinos, Calif.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died April 26 in Khanaqin, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces using small-arms fire attacked his patrol.

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Senior NCO from Calif. killed in Afghanistan

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Sgt. 1st Class Allen C. Johnson, a Special Forces medical sergeant, saw “The Polar Express” in November with his wife, Staff Sgt. Eunice Johnson.

They both cried during the movie, which was their final outing before he was deployed to Afghanistan and she to Iraq.

“We were missing our kids,” she said.

Allen Johnson, 31, was killed April 26 when his unit was attacked in Khanaquin, Afghanistan. He was born in Sun Valley, attended elementary and middle schools in Burbank and joined the military shortly after his 1991 graduation from Los Molinos High School in Northern California.

The couple’s children, Joshua, 3, and Naomi, 1, stayed with Allen Johnson’s parents when their parents went overseas.

“He was very proud of his children,” Eunice Johnson said. “Joshua and Naomi made him laugh a lot. He’d put Josh on his back and horseplay. He’d tickle Naomi and Joshua and chase them around the house.”

As a youth, Allen Johnson loved to draw and ride horses and wanted to become a veterinarian.

“He was a fantastic child and a fantastic boy,” said his mother, Adriaantje Johnson. “He was my buddy and my friend and my only son.”

An older brother, Brian, died in a 1988 motorcycle accident at age 22.

Allen Johnson met his wife at a club in Fayetteville, N.C., in 2000 while both were acting as designated drivers for friends.

“Because he had long hair, I thought he was a civilian,” she said. “He wasn’t like a regular Army soldier with a high and tight” haircut.

The two married on Dec. 31, 2000.

“I will teach his kids what an awesome man he was, what an awesome soldier he was, and what he gave to the United States and to the American people,” Eunice Johnson said.

Johnson was posthumously promoted to sergeant first class and awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Combat Medical Badge.

Along with his wife, children and mother, Johnson is survived by his stepfather, Ray Johnson; his father, Gary Haggerty; and a daughter from a previous marriage, Stacy, 9.