Colonel Lois Anne Johns
- Unit: 629th Medical Detachment, 3rd Field Hospital, Army Nurse Corps
- Date of Birth: April 24, 1927
- Date of Death: August 14, 2011
- Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
- Place of Death: San Antonio, Texas
- Award(s): Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Unit Citation, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm, National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
- Cemetery: Section C1, Row W2, Grave B114. Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas
Early Life
Lois Ann Johns was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was the only child of Charles R. Johns and Marjorie Johns. Upon graduation from West High School, Cleveland in 1944, Johns attended The Ohio State University School of Nursing, in the last Cadet Nursing Corp class of World War II.
Johns graduated in December 1948 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education in June 1950. Additionally, in 1950, she was commissioned into the United States Army Reserve as a Second Lieutenant and became a member of the 4th General Hospital, which was known as the Western Reserve Unit during World War II.
From 1950 to 1953, Johns was a civilian nurse at the Cleveland Clinic and a teacher at St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing. In 1953, she made a cross-country move to Texas to advance her career at Baylor University as a nursing faculty member. In 1956, Johns received a scholarship from the National League of Nursing and returned to Cleveland to pursue a Masters Degree in Nursing from Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.
After graduation, Johns returned to Baylor University School of Nursing as an Assistant Professor and taught there until June 1960. During her time at Baylor, Johns was very active in professional organizations. She served on several Texas Nursing Association state-level committees concerning nursing education and practice. She also engaged in national-level committee work for the American Nurses’ Association, which focused on nursing education and levels of nursing practice.
Homefront
Lois Johns’s teenage years in Cleveland, Ohio, during World War II likely played a significant role in her decision to enter the Cadet Nursing Corps program at college in 1944, and later the U.S. Army Reserves in 1950. Similar to cities throughout the United States, Cleveland provided strong support for the war, as evidenced by victory gardens, rationing, and war bonds purchases. The focal point for Cleveland area wartime support activities though was the War Service Center, located in Public Square. This temporary structure housed offices for recruiting, war bond and stamp sales, the USO, Red Cross, and War Housing, which made it a one-stop shop for war-related services.
One of Cleveland’s most significant World War II homefront contributions was as the originator of the Block Plan, which sought to promote and organize bond, blood, and scrap drives on the neighborhood level. By the final loan drive, as a result of this innovative program, county residents accounted for $2.5 billion worth of bonds.
Beyond bond drives, the U.S. military was even more dependent on support from Cleveland’s industrial sector, which was ranked fifth nationally in industrial output. Cleveland was especially prominent in aircraft and tank production. However, its ability to support the war effort was swiftly and severely undermined by the East Ohio Gas Company Fire of 1944, which claimed 130 lives and cut off power to 39 war plants.
Military Experience
Johns entered the U.S. Army Reserves in 1950 during the Korean War following her graduation from Ohio State University. On June 21, 1960, when she was living in Dallas, Texas, she entered active duty in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps as a captain.
Johns’s first assignments were at Brooke Army Medical Center and later the Surgical Research Center (The Burn Unit-SRU) in San Antonio, Texas. The latter assignment allowed Johns to explore the intersection of burn research and care, which changed the course of her career. In 1961, Johns was reassigned to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (RAIR) in Washington, D.C. where she furthered her education and research practice by carrying out several of her own research projects under the tutelage of two strong, female, military role models.
In 1963, having advanced to the rank of major and with the support of her mentor Lieutenant Colonel Werley, Johns was reassigned from RAIR and entered a PhD program at the University of Utah. Her program had two areas of emphasis. Her first focus area was psychology in preparation for a seemingly imminent assignment to Vietnam. Her second focus area was carrying out her own clinical research study concerning vigilance in nurse-patient monitoring. Upon graduating with her doctoral degree in June 1967, Johns was soon whisked away to military duty in the Vietnam War.
Less than a month following the completion of her degree in July 1967, Johns deployed to Vietnam where she served as the charge nurse for a renal unit in the 629th Medical Detachment attached to the 3rd Field Hospital in Saigon. In an oral history interview, Johns reported “Most of the patients were injured drastically. We had several civilians attached to the military that came as patients. And we had one Vietnamese child. We had other Vietnamese [patients], also.” Her unit received only the most serious cases and, as a result, personnel were frequently reassigned elsewhere after only four or five months. Following her service, Johns published two academic papers regarding her experiences in Vietnam with renal patients and was awarded a Bronze Star.
After her service in Vietnam, Johns returned to the United States in April 1968, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was reassigned to the Institute for Surgical Research, a burn unit, at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas. There she conducted groundbreaking research on best practices for burn patients and became a founding member of the American Burn Association, for which she received the Legion of Merit Award.
In 1976, Johns was transferred to Korea and promoted to colonel for her last overseas military assignment, Chief Nurse of the 121st Field Hospital. In addition to normal administrative duties, she made visits to adjunct clinics at Pusan (Busan) and Taegu (Daegu) for inspections and review of personnel activities. It was during this time that the Women’s Army Corps was discontinued and its members integrated into the Army, a topic on which Johns later published several papers.
In July 1977, Johns returned to the United States for the final assignment of her military career at a familiar place, the Academy of Health Sciences at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas. There she conducted research concerning the effects of time spent with patients on care outcomes. Johns was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army on April 30, 1980, following nearly 30 years of military service.
Veteran Experience
Upon her retirement from military service, Johns initially dealt with a number of family hardships. When her father died, Johns’ mother moved in with her as she needed her daughter’s assistance to manage her chronic medical conditions. Lois Johns cared for her mother until her death in 2002.
Despite her caretaking responsibilities, Johns was also extensively involved in supporting Navajo and Sioux Missions for educational purposes and four Native American colleges. Additionally, she was appointed State of Texas coordinator for the Vietnam Memorial, where she organized promotional events and raised money to construct the memorial.
Colonel Lois A. Johns died at the age of 84 on Sunday, August 14, 2011. She was survived by her life partner, Marilyn Becher, many cousins, and friends. Johns is interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, in San Antonio, Texas.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
“39 War Plants Crippled by Fire and Lack of Gas.” The Plain Dealer [Cleveland, Ohio], October 22, 1944. Newspapers.com (1059635835).
“Await ‘Kickoff’ Sunday in Block Plan Drive.” The Plain Dealer [Cleveland, Ohio], December 4, 1942. Newspapers.com (1059562242).
Interview of retired Colonel Lois A. Johns on her career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and her service in the Vietnam War. Oral history transcript. February 6, 2007. Women’s Overseas Service League Oral History Project, Michigan State University Libraries. n2t.net/ark:/85335/m5db7zz4t.
Lois Johns, DD-214, Department of the Army. National Cemetery Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Lois Johns, Legion of Merit Commendation. National Cemetery Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Lois Anne Johns. Obituary for Lous A. Johns (written by herself in advance of her death). Veterans History Project, Library of Congress (AFC/2001/001/66831). https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2001001.66831.pm0001001/?st=gallery.
Ohio. Cuyahoga County. 1930 U.S. Census. Digital images. http://ancestryclasroom.com.
Ohio. Cuyahoga County. 1940 U.S. Census. Digital images. http://ancestryclasroom.com.
Ohio. Cuyahoga County. 1950 U.S. Census. Digital images. http://ancestryclasroom.com.
“Operating Room Nurses Will Meet.” The Plain Dealer [Cleveland, Ohio], January 6, 1952. Newspapers.com (1059766189).
“Right There.” Longview News-Journal [Longview, TX], August 30, 1968. Newspapers.com (184310456).
Rigler, John. “Research Will Replace Old Ways of Nursing.” The Daily Utah Chronicle [Salt Lake City, Utah], December 6, 1963. Newspapers.com (291785160).
Secondary Sources
“Lois A. Johns.” San Antonio Express News [San Antonio, Texas], August 27, 2011. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sanantonio/name/lois-johns-obituary?id=22064639.
“Lois Anne Johns.” Find a Grave. Accessed November 7, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75132554/lois-anne-johns.
“Lois Anne Johns.” Veterans Legacy Memorial, National Cemetery Administration. Accessed November 7, 2024. https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/LOISANNEJOHNS/AE3FD94.
“Lois A. Johns.” U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-current. https://ancestryclassroom.com.
More, David W., Justin B. Edgington, and Emily T. Payne. “Blueprints for the Citizen Soldier: A Nationwide Historic Contest Study of United States Army Reserve Centers.” Department of Defense Legacy Management Program, July 2008. https://www.denix.osd.mil/legacy/denix-files/sites/33/2021/12/Blueprints-for-the-Citizen-Soldier-A-National-Historic-Context-Study-of-United-States-Army-Reserve-Centers-Report-2008-Legacy-06-295.pdf.
Vacha, J. E. “World War II.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University. https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/world-war-ii.
This profile was funded by a grant from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.