Earl Vincent Johnson was born on 28 December 1913 in Winthrop, Minnesota

Winthrop, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,367 people, 591 households, and 346 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,303.8 people per square mile . There were 632 housing units at an average density of 602.8 per square mile...

.Eldest son of Dr O.F and Salma E. Johnson. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 31 August 1937, and began naval aviation

Naval aviation

Naval aviation is the application of manned military air power by navies, including ships that embark fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. In contrast, maritime aviation is the operation of aircraft in a maritime role under the command of non-naval forces such as the former RAF Coastal Command or a...

 training the next year. He reported to Scouting Squadron 5 (VS-5) on board USS Yorktown

USS Yorktown (CV-5)

was an aircraft carrier commissioned in the United States Navy from 1937 until she was sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. She was named after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and the lead ship of the Yorktown class which was designed after lessons learned from operations with the large...

 on 18 September 1939, and received a regular commission the following year.

He was detached from the squadron in March 1942 and assigned to the ship's company. During the Battle of the Coral Sea

Battle of the Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4–8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged...

, he flew a SBD 3 Dauntless Dive Bomber with Yorktowns Scouting 5 squadron, attacking Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese shipping

Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

 in Tulagi

Tulagi

Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida Island. The town of the same name on the island Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island (5.5 km by 1 km) in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida...

 Harbor and aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s in the Coral Sea

Coral Sea

The Coral Sea is a marginal sea off the northeast coast of Australia. It is bounded in the west by the east coast of Queensland, thereby including the Great Barrier Reef, in the east by Vanuatu and by New Caledonia, and in the north approximately by the southern extremity of the Solomon Islands...

. Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Johnson was lost in aerial combat on 8 May, and awarded the Navy Cross

Navy Cross

The Navy Cross is the highest decoration that may be bestowed by the Department of the Navy and the second highest decoration given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard, but can be awarded to all...

 for extraordinary heroism.

In 1943, the destroyer escort

Destroyer escort

A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...

 USS Earl V. Johnson

USS Earl V. Johnson (DE-702)

USS Earl V. Johnson was a of the United States Navy, named in honor of Lieutenant Earl V. Johnson , a naval aviator who was awarded the Navy Cross posthumously for "extraordinary heroism" during the Battle of the Coral Sea....

(DE-702) was named in honor of Lt Johnson, sponsored by his mother, Mrs. Selma E. Johnson along with his brother, Lt Curtiss S. Johnson, US Army.