Vice Admiral Alfred Wilkinson Johnson was born in Philadelphia on 18 November 1879. President Grover Cleveland appointed him to the Naval Academy in May 1895. As a naval cadet, he made six voyages across the Atlantic in a square-rigged ship, and served in the Spanish-American War in his first class year as a signalman. When war was declared in April 1917, Johnson was in command of destroyer USS Conyngham (DD-58) in the first naval force to go overseas. During the war, he also served in destroyer USS Kimberly (DD-80) with the U.S. and British naval forces based on Queenstown, Ireland. After World War I, Johnson was stationed at the New York Navy Yard. He commanded the Atlantic Fleet Air Force from 1920 to 1923, and was in charge of aircraft operations in the bombing experiments against ex-German warships off the Virginia Capes during the summer of 1921. He was Assistant Chief of the Naval Bureau of Aeronautics, afterwards. In 1930, President Hoover appointed him Chief of the U.S. Electoral Mission in Nicaragua where he supervised the congressional elections. Admiral Johnson retired from active duty in December 1940. He was called back to active duty in January 1942 for the duration of World War II, serving on the Inter-American Defense Board, U.S. Mexican Defense Commission, and Permanent Board on Defense-Canada-U.S. He retired from all active duty at the end of World War II after forty-nine-and-a-half years of service. Admiral Johnson passed away in 1963.
From the description of Papers, 1918-1967. (Navy Department Library, Naval History & Heritage Command). WorldCat record id: 50237151
