WASHINGTON (March 31, 2008) – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deputy Commanding General Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson completed a distinguished 32-year military career and relinquished his position with the Corps in a retirement ceremony March 31.
“I love the Army and I always will. I love the people I’ve had the pleasure and honor of serving with,” Johnson said in his farewell remarks to coworkers, civilians, fellow Soldiers and friends in a packed auditorium.
Johnson’s introduction to the Army came through junior ROTC at a Chicago high school where, he said “an angel” ROTC instructor “tricked” him into pursuing his education at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
He said his Army career has been fun and he plans to continue to work very hard for the next several years and continue to hone his skills. “I am as energetic now as when I first joined this team called the United States Army,” Johnson said.
A Chicago native, Johnson was commissioned as an engineer officer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in June 1976. He held a variety of positions during his career including: director of the U.S. Army Installation Management Agency; dual-hatted as the commanding general of the Corps’ Gulf Region Division and as the U.S. deputy director to the Program Management Office, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad, Iraq; and commanding general of the Corps’ Pacific Ocean Division, Hawaii.
Chief of Engineers and Commander of the Corps, Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, said previously that Johnson “played a shaping role in the future of Iraq as the commanding general of the Gulf Region Division, headquartered in Baghdad ... building clinics, schools, roads, pipelines, and power distribution systems. And he was the first African-American to serve as the Army’s senior engineer in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, Gen. William E. "Kip" Ward, served as the guest host of the retirement ceremony. He congratulated Johnson “for having done the things that have caused each of us to be better human beings.
“Your service to this nation, our Army, this institution, is characterized in ways that point to nothing other than being selfless,” Ward said.
“From his junior ROTC days in Chicago to every command assignment, every staff assignment, he, through leadership, through example, through professionalism, caused those things he was responsible for, those teammates with whom he served to be the very best that they could be just by pure force of will and personality,” Ward said. “That doesn’t stop just because that phase of this life journey is about to transition.
Earlier this year, on Feb. 16, Johnson received the Black Engineer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award during the 22nd annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference on in Baltimore. Since 1986, the conference and the associated awards ceremony have recognized the outstanding achievements of African-Americans in companies across America, according to BEYA officials.
In addition to the lifetime achievement award, Johnson is also the recipient of the 2003 Black Engineer of the Year Award for Professional Achievement in Government Service.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers comprises approximately 34,000 civilian and 600 military employees, who serve the Armed Forces and the Nation by providing vital public engineering services and capabilities across the full spectrum of operations—from peace to war—in support of national interests.