Charleston va honors ralph h. Johnson’s 75th birthday | va charleston health care | veterans affairs

PRESS RELEASE January 10, 2024 Charleston , SC — The Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System will honor its namesake, Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Ralph H. Johnson, at 12 p.m. on January 11,

2024, in the VA’s main lobby with a birthday cake cutting celebration. Pfc. Johnson would have been 75 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, 2024 – what would have been his 75th birthday. Please contact Will Brugge at [email protected] for more information or to

cover. Media contacts William Brugge, Public Affairs Specialist PHONE: ###