The Clear Lake Fire Department will be hosting a 9/11 Memorial on Monday Sept. 11, outside the Clear Lake Fire station at the World Trade Center Memorial Steel. The event will include music by the Clear Lake High School Band, a flag raising ceremony, and a placement of the helmets ceremony. This year’s guest speaker is Captain Stephen Johnson, United States Navy, retired.
Tentative Schedule:
•6 p.m. – Music by the High School Band
•6:10 – Flag Raising and National Anthem
•6:20– Helmet Ceremony
•6:30 – Guest Speaker
Captain Stephen Johnson, United States Navy, retired, grew up in Rosemount, Minn.
After high school, Johnson attended the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He later went on to earn a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He pursued graduate-level study in the fields of nuclear physics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, radiochemistry and nuclear power plant operations from the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power School. This rather unusual Navy career spanned more than 30 years.
Captain Johnson served in several assignments as a nuclear submarine officer during the Cold War and as a department head on surface ships deployed to the Gulf War and to the Bosnian War.
He commanded NATO’s flagship during the Kosovo War and an Aegis Guided Missile Cruiser during the Iraq War. His duties as senior officer afloat during his Iraq deployment included commanding the Northern Persian Gulf Coalition Naval Forces.
Captain Johnson’s next assignment was Chief of Staff of the John F. Kennedy Aircraft Carrier Battle Group. His last operational deployment was a year on the ground in Africa as Deputy Commander of the coalition ground and air forces operating in Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
And 22 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, he was working in the Pentagon.
