Education is so very important today!
In the summer of 1962, Dusty's father (the late
Capt. Bernard A. Johnson, USNR Ret.) was assigned
to the Pentagon as a liason between the White House
and the U.S. Navy. During that time he became personally
acquainted with the President Of The United States,
the late John F. Kennedy. Kennedy began a correspondence
with the aide's son and in the early summer of 1963,
awarded the boy a presidential appointment to the
Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. That young lad
was Dusty. During that summer, he went through the
intelligence tests for admission and scored one of
the highest scores ever in the State Of Florida, missing
just five questions out of 1496 and finishing the
two day testing before the first day ended.
Regretfully, physical exams later showed the young
lad to be color-blind to pastel colors and lights
and he was unable to attend the academy as a requirement was the ability to distinguish colors when flying. Dissapointed, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Information on his military service is located elsewhere on this site.
After leaving the military in December 1969, Dusty tried to
attend the local community college, but mental stress
which later was diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder kept him from focusing his attention on his
studies. He returned to the college in the early 1980s,
but this time let extracurricular activities such
as the Student Government Association and the need
to work for a living, get in his way.
In 2004, at the age of 57, Dusty returned one more
time to the college campus, this time to finish what
he started so many years ago. Working on a dual major,
he has earned a 3.7 GPA average since returning to
class and is already pre-enrolled at the University
Of Central Florida. His dual majors are in Communications
(a Liberal Arts degree which he started in 1965) and
in Internet Information Technology. Dusty shuttles between two campuses taking classes during the day Monday through Friday and two evenings per week.
