hard decisions that will give the U.S. Navy a real future in the 21st century. Johnson is a passionate man, one who cares deeply about his country, his Navy, and the sailors who serve under him. He channels all that emotion into one goal: to build the U.S. Navy into a superb fighting machine, an organization that is once again the envy of military officers everywhere in the world.
Jay L. Johnson came into the world in Great Falls, Montana, on June 5th, 1946. The son of a soldier in the Army Air Corps, he spent the bulk of his youth in West Salem, Wisconsin. Let's let him tell the story of his journey into naval service:
Tom Clancy: Could you please tell us a little about your background and Navy career?
Admiral Johnson: I was born in Montana. My dad was serving there at the time. I didn't stay there long-only about a year. I spent the rest of my youth in Wisconsin, in a little town with a lake near it, not far from the headwaters of the Mississippi River. That's the total exposure to water that I had in my early years.
Tom Clancy: What made you choose the Navy as a career?
Admiral Johnson: I'd been intrigued by the military service academies as I was growing up. I had a distant relative who had gone to West Point, and was thinking about applying there myself. Then I went to a Boy Scout National Jamboree out in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in what is now the Black Forest, just down the road from the Air Force Academy. It was in 1960, I believe, about a year after the Air Force Academy had come into being. As part of our stay, we were invited to a tour there. We also got to see a show by the Thunderbirds [the Air Force precision-flight demonstration team]. As I watched that performance, and looked at that academy, I said to myself, 'I can do this!' When I returned home, I decided that I'd apply to the Air Force Academy. Before I did so, I found that I had an option to go to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. I looked into it, found out a bit about carrier aviation, and decided that was what I wanted. I took that opportunity, and here I am.
Tom Clancy: Did you have any particular 'defining' experiences while at the Academy?
Admiral Johnson: Well… I got to watch Roger Staubach [the great Naval Academy and Dallas Cowboys star quarterback] play football. On a more serious note, the most striking thing I remember about my time there is how close my company mates and I became. To this day, we're inseparable. A lot of them are still in the Navy today. Admiral Willie Moore, who is the USS
Tom Clancy: Were there other notable members of the Academy classes while you were there?
Admiral Johnson: Guys like Ollie North and Jim Webb [the former Secretary of the Navy]-and of course Roger Staubach from the class of '65. I have always admired him. Even then, he was a man of great integrity, courage, and superb physical prowess. What I see of Roger today matches exactly what I saw then. It's nice to see a guy who is that solid early in his life, remain so through a highly visible career, retirement, and new career.
Tom Clancy: You graduated during the depths of the Vietnam conflict [1968]. Were you immediately sent out to flight school and into the Replacement Air Group [RAG]?
Admiral Johnson: Well, they did move us through at a nice pace, though I don't remember it being any kind of 'rush' job. I went through flight training in pretty much a normal time frame. I got my wings in October of 1969. From there I headed out to San Diego and NAS Miramar to learn to fly the F-8 Crusader.
Tom Clancy: You must have been there with some living legends, men like 'Hot Dog' Brown and Jim 'Ruff' Ruffelson, right?
Admiral Johnson: Yes, they were there. Being one of the F-8 'MiG Killers' was kind of the unusual for a new guy back then. It was the time when a lot of the guys fresh out of the Academy were getting orders to F-4's [Phantom IIs], and most of us were lined up to get into the Phantom community because they were new and they were hot! More than a few of us wound up flying F-8's though, and in retrospect it was the best thing that ever happened to me. The F-8 was an awesome airplane. And, as good as the airplane was, the community of people who flew and supported it was even better. We're all still pretty tight. We have F-8 Crusader reunions every year.
Tom Clancy: Could you tell us a little about your experiences in the Crusader?
Admiral Johnson: I had about a thousand hours in the Crusader. I did two combat cruises to Vietnam in VF-191 aboard the USS
Tom Clancy: From your record, it looks like you spent the majority of your career in the Tomcat community.
Admiral Johnson: That's right. I did my department head tour and my squadron command tour in Tomcats. However, when I went to become an air wing commander, I tried to fly most of the air wing airplanes. The planes I flew back then included the A-7 Corsair, which is like a stubby-nosed cousin to the F-8 without an afterburner. I also flew the A-6 Intruder. Later, on my second CAG [Commander, Air Group-the traditional nickname for an Air Wing Commander dating back to the beginnings of carrier aviation], on my battle group command tour, I wound up flying the F/A-18 Hornet. I still remember flying the F-8, though. Your first jet assignment is like your first love. It's where everything is defined for you.
Tom Clancy: Following your time in F-8's, you seem to have spent most of your time in the East Coast units. Is that correct?
Admiral Johnson: It's correct, but it really wasn't a conscious decision on my part. I guess it just worked out that way. Initially, when I learned to fly the Tomcat, I headed back out to the West Coast and went through the F-14 RAG [Replacement Air Group], VF-124. Then I was moved back to the East Coast, where I have pretty much stayed ever since.
Tom Clancy: Obviously, you spent an eventful couple of decades with the fleet in the 1970's and 80's. Can you tell us a few of the things that stand out in your mind?
