Ririe honors 20-year-old, WWII hero who died rushing to the aid of U.S. Marines at Iwo Jima

RIRIE, Idaho (KIFI) – It has been more than eighty years since U.S. Navy Corpsman Calvin Hairl Johnson left Ririe for the front lines of World War II.

In honor of Memorial Day, hundreds gathered at the Ririe-Shelton cemetery to pay tribute to a local hero — the cemetery's most decorated veteran.

Johnson was one of more than 6,800 U.S. servicemen who gave their lives in the battle of Iwo Jima.

“These men were not fighting for a piece of volcanic rock. They weren't just defending a hill or an island," said Johnson's granddaughter Kelsey Tucker. "They were standing in the breach between a brutal, expansionist empire and everything we hold dear – our families, our democracy, our freedom."

He left behind a wife, Shirley, and a newborn daughter Cheryl.

On Monday, Cheryl and her daughter Kelsey shared the legacy they have painstakingly uncovered through hundreds of Johnson's letters and interviews with fellow servicemen.

Twenty-nine days after his arrival on Iwo Jima, on March 20th, 1945, the 20-year-old medic ran into the line of fire to save another wounded Marine.

“Cal didn't hesitate. He moved forward through mortar blasts and machine gun fire, determined to reach the wounded man," Kelsey said. "Shrapnel tore into him, but he kept crawling. He reached the man and rendered first aid. Cal then exposed himself again to enemy fire, intending to get a litter team to evacuate his patient. Cal was hit a second time and killed.”

For his sacrifice, Johnson was awarded the Silver Star, the military’s third highest honor, by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"If that trouble to keep this freedom of ours must go on and on and on, may God help you and me and all Americans to have the fortitude of Calvin Hairl Johnson and his World War II buddies," Cheryl said.