For those of you who don't know it. Paul Johnson is a Pershing alumni.
During the Pershing II Engineering Development Phase he was a systems engineer in the Pershing Systems Test Lab. After that he moved to the Launch Test Operations Team and worked in the big white telemetry van some of you saw on the test launches. You probably ran into him and didn't even realize it. It was the one we affectionately called the PISS Van (Pershing Instrumentation Support System). He stayed in that assignment until the INF treaty forced him to move. He went to TADS/PNVS support and on to Saudi Arabia. I think this was about 92 that I talked to him and he was going over there. He said at that time it was a position he was taking until better assignments opened up. As you can imagine jobs were very tight in defense then. I had no idea he was still over there.
I worked with him side by side for many years. Been fishing with him, dined with him and of course hoisted a few at times. He is a fine person. Good hearted and caring. He is the type who would do anything for a friend. He certainly doesn't deserve what he is going through right now. Hopefully his fun loving personality will make these cowards realize that he is not a threat to them and he will come back safely.
Let's all hope and pray that one of our own can come home safely.
Rest in Peace Sir
Rest in Peace, Paul Johnson.
We'll take care of things down here.
Very sad. And I'm very angry.