General Lloyd Johnson
When someone looks up the term “Old School Aviator” in a reference book, they will see a picture of General Lloyd Johnson of the Nebraska National Guard. I was looking at some old newsletters from the National Guard in the 1950’s and I came upon a great article about Lloyd Johnson, a new pilot in the Nebraska Air National Guard entitled “Near – Fantastic Feat.” The article is about his exploits in World War II and the miracle shot he got on a German jet that put him in the history books.
Lloyd Johnson was born on Oct. 9, 1923, the son of August and Stella Johnson in Oakland, Nebraska.
Just after the United States entered the war, a young 19-year-old Johnson enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps to become a pilot. His skills were in fighters and he went on to become a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot.
He flew ninety- nine missions in the war supporting ground troops with the heavily armed P-47 (machine guns and rockets). His claim to fame would come on April 8, 1945, about a month before the surrender of Germany. He was on his 90th mission when he spotted three ME 262’s (a German advanced fighter jet) and worked his aircraft into a favorable position for a shot. His gun camera records about 10 seconds of shaking and you can see the jet start to disintegrate under the barrage of .50 Caliber machine gun fire.
Johnson became only one of 10 aviators to successfully down a jet aircraft using a piston driven plane. “The pilot bailed out” he said, “but I blew his airplane up for him.”
At the end of the war, Johnson had two victories, picking off an ME 109 on Dec. 31, 1944. His 100th and last mission was an engine failure crash landing in a minefield near the Rhine River.
After the war, he attended Nebraska Wesleyan and the University of Nebraska on the GI Bill. He married the former Barbara Engel. He rejoined the military in 1949 by enlisting in the new Nebraska Air National Guard (founded in 1946). He would retire as a brigadier general in 1983 after having flown about every aircraft in the Nebraska Air National Guard to include: P-51 Mustang, F-80 Shooting Star, F-86D Super Sabre, C-47, and C-54. He would fly countless governors and VIP’s around the world with the Nebraska Air National Guard.
The general passed away on June 6, 2014, and is buried at Lincoln Memorial Park in Lincoln, Nebraska. This Old School Aviator is one of the many stories at the new Nebraska National Guard Museum in Seward. Check out his story and many more at the museum.
