Robert L. Johnson

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Destroyer Sailor

American History Teacher

Author of:

Fletcher Destroyer Bluejacket

Out of Egypt

Three Innocents Abroad In Dixie

Hokusai-The Great Wave

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About The Author

Robert Johnson was born and raised in Carbondale, Illinois, which is located in the deep Southern Illinois area referred to by the locals as “Little Egypt.”  Unlike most of the rest of the state, which is for the most part flat prairie land, “Egypt,” extending down to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers is broken scenic terrain.  These are the foothills of the Ozark mountain plateau.  Carbondale is home to Southern Illinois University.

After graduation from Carbondale Community High School in 1950 and beginning his freshman year at SIU, he enlisted in the Navy with two friends.  “We were tired of school and looking for adventure,” he says.  After being processed in St. Louis, they were shipped out on a troop train to San Diego for Boot training. Assigned to the newly re-commissioned USS McGowan after Destroyer Training School, he spent the remainder of his four years in the Navy on sea duty, except for six months training in anti-submarine warfare at Fleet Sonar School in Key West, Florida. 

After serving in Japan and with Task Force 77 off the East Coast of Korea during the Korean War, on Destroyer Squadron 20’s Around the World Cruise, and NATO maneuvers on Operation Mariner in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, he was discharged and returned home to Carbondale.

At SIU he completed a Master’s degree in history and political science.  For 30 years he taught those subjects at the Senior High Schools in Granite City, Illinois, located just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri.  Following retirement in 1988, he taught courses in history at Southwest Illinois College and at Florissant Valley Junior College in the Saint Louis area.

He is married to Teresa Marzluf, a former teacher of English and now the Library-Media Specialist at Granite City High School.  They have two daughters, Christine, who is an art major at SIU Edwardsville, and Candice, who is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a Liberal Arts degree in English and history.

Since his retirement, Johnson has spent much of his time writing and fishing.  So far, he has published three books: Fletcher Destroyer Bluejacket about his experiences as a Destroyer sailor in the Navy from 1951-1955; Out of Egypt, a book about growing up in Southern Illinois (Little Egypt) during the 1930’s and World War II; and Three Innocents Abroad In Dixie! a fun travel book about a vacation in the South in 1969, where Bob and two friends were caught in Hurricane Camille, one of the great hurricanes of the century.

All of these books are about serious subjects, but are told with a sense of humor and a keen appreciation of the knowledge we gain through living life’s great experiences.

The author in a recent photo, after landing a champion Blue Gill!