A wonderful and well-loved portion of our “Jamestown on the Homefront” Exhibit, available through February 28th, is the story of service, extreme danger, and the sadness of death softened by a beautiful and lasting love story. Our great appreciation to the Robert H. Jackson Center for the loan of “The Parachute Wedding Dress” for this exhibit and to Dan Johanson and Rebecca Rosen for getting the ball rolling.
The story begins when Major August Johanson came to Jamestown from Providence, Rhode Island, to assume responsibilities as an officer of the Jamestown Salvation Army, along with his wife and sons, Fred, Carl and Ernest in August 1942.
Fred began working at Marlin Rockwell for thirty-five cents an hour and then enlisted in the Army on Feb 10, 1943. He had Basic Training at Camp Grand, Illinois and then was sent to Fitzsimmons General Hospital in Denver to be trained as a medic. He was soon approached by a representative of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS – super secret) for top secret and dangerous activities in an undisclosed place, being chosen because he was a medic and he because spoke Swedish.
He was immediately sent to Washington, D.C., along with his best friend, Robert Anderson, who was also a medic and would be on this mission. In Washington, they discovered that they would be dropped behind enemy lines to destroy rail lines and bridges in an attempt to disrupt supplies and information from reaching the enemy. While in Washington, Robert introduced his best friend to a girl he knew from Fluvanna, Elsie Jane Gordon. What are the chances that two local people would meet for the first time in Washington during war times? Elsie worked at the Pentagon, and during the five months that Fred and Bob were in Washington, Fred won Elsie’s heart.
In January of 1944, the outfit for this Mission was sent to England for further training. The outfit was divided into smaller groups and at this point, Fred and Bob were in different groups. Each group was assigned 2-4 medics, but because the D-Day plan had been formulated, they were sent to Ringway Royal Air Force Base to get ready to parachute into France on June 6 instead of the original mission to Norway. Even though the place was different, the mission was the same and they ended up 200 miles from Normandy. After several demolition jobs they were being hunted by German troops, doing demolition by night, and hiding by day. At one point, Fred was hiding with the enemy all around and after three days he finally made his way back to camp. He was technically MIA at that point, and they were worrying that he had been killed or taken prisoner.
While in France, when things had calmed a little, Fred found a French seamstress who agreed to make two handkerchiefs out of his green parachute. He may have worried that Elsie had gotten wind of his MIA status and wanted to send her a message. One of the young pilots they rescued was from New Jersey, and Fred told him they would see to it that he returned safely to the states. He asked him to go to the Pentagon and find Elsie, give her a hand kerchief, and tell her “I’ll bring the other one when I come home.”
In September 1944, it was decided that they would leave France and finally get back to the original mission, which was to do all the same things, but in Norway. They were “liberated” by 2 C-47’s that flew in from England and picked them up under the cover of darkness. Once in England, they were right back in training for their mission in Norway, to work with the resistance. Once in Norway, Fred discovered that several of the planes had run into trouble trying to find them or being overloaded and had crashed into the mountains. His best friend Bob was one of the eight casualties on a plane that some locals had seen crash and guided them to the site. Fred found Bob and retrieved his ring and zippo lighter to give to his mother. They buried them under the rocks of the mountainside, the best they could do at the time. It was grueling work and never-ending watchfulness as they went about their mission.
In Norway, travel was done on skis that they referred to as “torture boards”, pulling heavy loads of explosives on sleds to the next demo site or hiding spot. Soon the war was over, and suddenly they needed to report to Trondheim and take charge of the German surrender from a Nazi general. In order to look presentable, they cut scarves out of their parachutes to jazz up their uniforms. Fred also cut out three panels of his parachute to take home.
Fred was discharged from the Army on Nov. 10, 1945, and on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 1945, he and Elsie were married at the Salvation Army Chapel in Jamestown. He must have sent the panels home to Elsie, as this is the excerpt of their wedding announcement, “The bride, given in marriage by her father, wore a lovely gown of white satin and net, with white nylon made from a parachute with which Sergeant Johanson, now honorably discharged, landed on Norwegian soil last Easter morning. She wore a blue rhinestone pendant with a miniature of the groom’s parachute wings.”
A very special visit by two granddaughters of Fred and Elsie was enjoyed in January. Jim Wahlberg happily snapped photos of Ashleigh Roscishewska and her sister Lindsay Ratcliffe, who had travelled here to see their beloved Grandmother’s wedding dress once again. Further talks have revealed that their mother, Fred and Elsie’s eldest daughter, Deborah, had worn the dress for her own wedding, and granddaughter Ashleigh had worn the dress during her senior play, “Oklahoma”, and during a fundraising event for the building of the WWII Memorial in Washington, held here in Jamestown, on a float representing the Bro Laine’s Bridal Shop. They expressed their happiness at seeing the dress again and were touched that their Grandfather’s best friend was included in the exhibit.
“Our Mom was so proud to wear Elsie’s dress for her own wedding in December 1972. Seeing the wedding dress again, we were deeply moved. Seeing our grandparents’ wedding attire in the exhibit–along with the photos, articles, and curated text panel–was so meaningful to us. We are thankful to the Fenton and the Jackson Center for ensuring that Fred and Elsie’s story is remembered.”
To which we say, it has been a huge honor to share this story, and the many others that bring back touching memories on many different levels, and new insight to those of us who were born after World War II.
If you haven’t seen it yet, there is still time! PS – bring a hanky!
