The young pregnant widow of a U.S. soldier recently killed in Afghanistan returns to her tiny hometown for two milestones: A tribute to her husband and a baby shower for the daughter he didn't live to see.
Krista Johnston stands next to a photo of her husband, Sgt. James Johnston, who was killed in Afghanistan in June, while pregnant with their first child, in Trumansburg, N.Y., Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019. As the nation's longest war marks the end of its 18th year, Krista returned to her tiny hometown for two milestones: In one weekend in the local American Legion hall, she joined hundreds to pay tribute to her husband with a 21-gun salute, TAPS and remembrances.
In fact, Johnston hadn’t lived here long. But he’d quickly adopted the rituals and rhythms of small-town life. He was No. 55, a tenacious lineman for the Trumansburg Blue Raiders, taking the field under the Friday night lights. He was the gung-ho volunteer firefighter. He was JJ, Jamie or Texas . With its celebration of James Gregory Johnston, the war came home to this hamlet in upstate New York.
He was comfortable around guns; his father, Richard, bought him his first rifle at age 10 and he became an expert marksman.And as the son, grandson and nephew of veterans, Jamie had generations of family to turn to for knowledge, advice — and inspiration. His career path had never been in doubt. He told everyone he met after moving to New York — Johnston’ father, then a paramedic, had relocated there — that he planned to enlist after high school. “He kept preaching the military 24-7,” says Roger Lauper, chief of the Enfield Volunteer Fire Company, where Johnston recruited his father to join him as a volunteer firefighter.
She liked his easy smile, his jokes, his courtly Southern manner; he first called her Miss Krista and opened doors for her. Soon, they were inseparable, two outdoorsy types, zipping around the woods, splashing in the mud in a four-wheeler, hunting deer. Krista’s family, the VanDerzees, had lived in the same place for generations.
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