WEST JORDAN — Johnny Johnson thought his parents were at his house Tuesday after work to talk about a family trip next week to California.
"My dad just said, 'Son, it's about Ty,' " Johnson said. "I asked if he had been killed, and he said, 'Yes.' "
Sandy native Spc. Ty J. Johnson, 28, had recently re-enlisted in the Army for another six years. He was killed Tuesday in Kirkuk, Iraq, when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee.
Johnson was with the 101st Airborne Division and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. He is the 16th Utahn to die in Iraq since the United States invaded in 2003.
At the time of his death, Ty Johnson's wife, Corinne, their daughter Krystin, 3, and son Rand, 1, were in California visiting with Ty's sister Brook and his mother, Lisa, who lives in Elk Grove. Ty and his family have been living the past few years on the Fort Campbell Army base in Kentucky.
Lisa Johnson talked on the phone about missed opportunities with her son, to spend more time with him and see him achieve more and to grow old. "I'll miss those opportunities," she said.
Johnny Johnson was planning on a kind of family reunion next week at his daughter's home in Sacramento, until he heard the news.
"It's like a part of me died — I still feel very empty today," Johnson said Thursday while taking a day off from work. "I haven't been able to get over the feeling yet."
Ty Johnson was born in Sandy. He went to Sprucewood Elementary School, Indian Hills Middle School and Jordan High School, and he attended classes at Dixie State College in St. George. He loved to fish and camp, his father said.
Ty's siblings include a younger — by two minutes — twin brother, Blake, who served in the Marines for four years before the war in Iraq.
Both brothers were inspired by their grandfather, Neels Johnson, who served in World War II and the Korean War.
"I know when they got together, it was a lot of military talk," Johnny Johnson said.
Ty joined the Army three years ago, his father said, because it represented a path that was "worthwhile and meaningful." He was about to start training to become an aquatic engineer.
"He just felt like it was the right move," Johnny Johnson said about his son's decision to enter the military.
But it was dangerous. In an e-mail to his father a few weeks ago, Ty Johnson talked about how soldiers in convoys were getting injured.
"And to have that happen to him like that . . . " Johnson trailed off.
Johnny Johnson added that his son enjoyed his job, which included being a driver for a commanding officer and helping to carry 40,000 ballots in Iraq's first free election.
"He thought they were really doing some good out there, especially for the young kids there," Johnson said. "He thought they had something to look forward to in their country, and that's what he was the most proud of."
Lisa Johnson said her son felt like he was helping to make history in Iraq and bringing democracy to oppressed people. "My son believed the people were grateful," she added.
But she also recalled how 28 "young men — fathers, sons, children, grandchildren" have died this week in Iraq, and how people close to those killed got the dreaded "visit" that means bad news.
"We have to try something else," she said. "Obviously, if this is the only way we can bring peace, we're doing something wrong."
Funeral arrangements are pending an arrival date within the next two weeks of Ty Johnson's body from Iraq. He will be buried in Utah, although family members at this time are uncertain whether they would like to make the exact location open to the public.
As of Thursday afternoon, the family was in the process of setting up a trust fund at Bank of America for Johnson's children.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com