Shadow box

Gustave Norman Johansen, 97, a retired Navy rear admiral, World War II veteran and former commander of the Naval Security Station in Washington who later helped his wife organize a musical competition for children, died March 11 at the Goodwin House West retirement home in Falls Church. He had bronchitis.

Adm. Johansen, who had a 34-year military career, was a Naval Academy graduate and a witness to two historic World War II events. He was assigned to the temporary flagship USS Jarvis at Pearl Harbor when Japanese fighter planes attacked Dec. 7, 1941, killing nearly 2,400 servicemen.

At the end of the war, he was aboard an amphibious force flagship in Tokyo Bay as it passed the battleship USS Missouri, where formal surrender ceremonies were being staged.

Between those events, he commanded destroyers and participated in the recapture of the Solomon Islands.

His post-World War II assignments included command of a division of destroyers modified to sweep mines and service on the staff of the commander of the Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet.

He also served on the staff of the chief of naval operations, and then commanded the Naval Security Station in Washington before retiring from active military duty in 1959.

He next worked about six years for private aerospace firms and then 10 years for the Navy's Electronic Systems Command.

In retirement, he volunteered to serve on the Arlington County Services Board as well as a county committee that monitored the operations of a nursing home.

Admiral Johansen's military decorations included the Bronze Star, USS Halford 1944. He was a member of the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Naval Institute, Pearl Harbor Survivors and the National Association of Retired Federal Employees.

Johansen, Gustave Norman, Sr., RADM