COPPERAS COVE, TX — On Saturday, dozens of Fort Hood soldiers and community members alike led a parade in one Copperas Cove neighborhood in honor of U.S. Army Sgt. James G. Johnston.
Across the country people paid their respects to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have risked their lives disposing explosives.
It is all a part of National Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Day.
Sgt. Johnston was killed June 2019 in combat while defending our country in Afghanistan.
The 24-year-old was deployed to the Uruzgan Province in March 2019.
His unit surprised the fallen Fort Hood soldier's family with the very special parade.
"For a day that we were all supposed to be down in Florida, celebrating not just him but our whole EOD family, and on our sixth year anniversary today, it was unbelievable. I felt the love from all of them. I just don't know how to thank all of them enough," said Krista Johnston, the fallen soldier's widow.
Krista had the couple's firstborn baby at the end of last year, just months after Sgt. Johnston's death.
Sgt. Johnston entered active duty in July 2013 as an explosive ordnance disposal specialist.
National Explosive Ordnance Disposal Day is observed each year on the first Saturday of May.
