Operation Homefront comes through for Johnson Family

Army couple finds help after pain of Iraq, deaths of their 3 children
09:23 PM CST on Thursday, January 3, 2008
By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News
dmclemore@dallasnews.com

CIBOLO, Texas – In near-freezing temperatures Thursday, Spc. Austin Johnson and his wife, Lisa, cut through a yellow ribbon stretched across the porch of their new home and walked in to a house full of furniture.

The move into the new home – their first house since the couple married right out of high school – is bittersweet for the Johnsons.

Last August, Spc. Johnson, 27, received a traumatic brain injury from an improvised explosive device blast in Iraq, his fifth explosion in two tours.

Tragedy struck again in October, not long after he began rehabilitation at Brooke Army Medical Center. Their three children were killed after Mrs. Johnson's car was overturned by heavy winds in West Texas as she drove from El Paso to be with her husband.

"There are a lot of Johnsons out there," said Amy Palmer, co-founder of Operation Homefront, the nonprofit group that called on local businesses and dozens of donors to help the Johnsons.

More than 30,000 troops have been wounded in six years of war; and as many as 100,000 may experience post-traumatic stress disorder.Officials with Operation Homefront hope Thursday's event serves as a model to help other wounded service members whose lives have been disrupted by war.
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