Ernest Fred Johnson was born on December 15, 1892 in Randolph, Utah to John August Johnson and Sophia Anderson Johnson. Following the entry of the United States into World War I in 1917, Ernest Johnson was drafted into the Army. He trained at Camp Lewis, Washington before being deployed to France in June 1918 where he served in Company I, 363rd infantry of the 91st Army Division. On September 28, 1918 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Ernest Johnson was killed in an explosion by an enemy shell casing fragment and buried in an American cemetery in France. Following the request of his mother, his body was returned to Randolph, Utah where on August 21, 1919, he was given a soldier's burial.
From the guide to the Ernest Fred Johnson World War I Papers, 1918-1940, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives)
