Pearisburg VA couple recuperate together at the Salem VA Short Stay Rehab

Mr. Johnston, an Army Veteran, was an M47 tank driver in the 64th Tank Battalion attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. He served in South Korea until he left the Army in 1954 and returned home to Southwestern Virginia. 

Mrs. Johnston, also an Army Veteran, enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) in 1961, and was the secretary to the Colonel of the 902nd Intel Group in Washington D.C. before the second Colonel she served under decided she “didn’t look old enough to serve as his secretary” and transferred her to a personnel office. Remembering back to her transfer Mrs. Johnston stated that she “was sad at first but I soon stopped being sad as I was then working in a room full of young GIs.” 

Mrs. Johnston separated from Army in 1964 and was home in the Pacific Northwest for only 2 months before deciding she missed serving and returned to D.C. to take a Civil Service position working for the Secretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon, where she served until 1970. 

Howard and Jean started courting later in life after meeting at their church. To propose, Howard took Jean out into the middle of Smith Mountain Lake. As he tells it, Jean wasn’t a very good swimmer so would have to say yes or find a ride back to shore. The Johnstons have been exploring together ever since, taking over 30 tour bus trips since retirement.

Sometimes their time together is unplanned, such as the circumstances that brought them both under the care of the Short Stay Rehab team. Jean was visiting Howard at a community hospital, where he was receiving care for an injury, when she fell and sustained an injury of her own. They were admitted to adjacent rooms on Salem’s Short Stay Rehab floor to recover from their injuries in tandem. The Johnstons were discharged in July and returned to the home they built together 29 years ago.