Erik Frithjof Johnsen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in August 1925 and had one brother who had been born in 1922. Growing up, he attended AH Wilson Grammar School [Annotator's Note: Andrew H. Wilson Elementary School] and Fortier High School [Annotator's Note: Alcée Fortier High School]. Johnsen's father told him he could go to any college anywhere if it only costs seven cents for transportation. That was the local streetcar fare, so he went to Tulane University. When he started in 1942, his brother had been there three years. He completed one year in May 1943. His brother volunteered for the US Merchant Marine immediately after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Johnsen volunteered at age 17 for the Merchant Marine Academy and was sent to Henderson Point, Mississippi for training until October 1943. He was then assigned as a cadet on the SS Dolly Madison. Their first voyage was the maiden voyage out of the East Coast of the United States with military supplies for the European Theater. They were not aware they were building reserves for the invasion of Europe. Transatlantic voyages were accomplished in convoys of about 60 ships escorted halfway by US Navy destroyers and then picked up by British corvettes. The British would escort them to Loch Ewe, Scotland, a large basin that could accommodate large amounts of vessels. Some ships were then diverted to Murmansk, Russia or London, England. Occasionally they would be delayed by bad weather or encounters with enemy submarines. When nearing the English Channel, they would encounter E-boats [Annotator's Note: the Allied designation for the German Schnellboot, or S-Boot], similar to American torpedo boats. British Air Command fought them off successfully each time.

Erik Johnsen, a Cadet in the US Merchant Marine says that New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 1920s was active with all sorts of hype from good market conditions. He was only five years old and didn't know much, but recognized the times getting bad during the Depression. Radio was the only medium of news and entertainment. The children played a game called hit-the-stick because they couldn't afford a baseball. Street hockey was played with palm branches as hockey sticks. He feels that people were more comfortable with neighborhood activities and comradery. With no air conditioning and open windows, neighbors would gather on his lawn to hear his mother play her piano. These activities and the city's growth were stymied due to the economic conditions that were difficult for the adults. Johnsen thinks that the family-oriented conditions of the country in general created a sense of purpose that served soldiers well in the war. He describes his father has tough, fair, but soft-created love but set parameters for his children's behavior. At Tulane University, Louisiana, a publication called "The Hullabaloo" had a running letter contest between Johnsen's brother and his friends and the editor. There was a sense of war coming with the Germans and that they were going to be sent to fight. The Hullabaloo was against this and Johnsen's brother would write the editor to point out that all Americans were going to have to respond. Johnsen's parents had purchased property in Covington, Louisiana which is where they were listening to the radio when they heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. He feels that the nation was really not prepared for war. Johnsen feels that Franklin Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklon D. Roosevelt], against the sentiment in Congress, was preparing as best he could. Johnsen's father, a shipping agent in New Orleans, represented the British Ministry of War Transport which gave him good insight into what was happening very early on.

Erik Johnsen was in school at Tulane, University in New Orleans, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He feels this caused a change in his mental outlook as to what war meant. Johnsen's father was already involved in shipping large amounts of material to Europe through his shipping agency. His brother was only six months from graduating from Tulane and he immediately volunteered for service and never completed his university education. Johnsen was unable to volunteer until he was 17 years and nine months old, so he finished his first year at Tulane before volunteering for the US Merchant Marine. He went to the Henderson Point, Mississippi, Merchant Marine Academy in July 1943. Because his father was in the shipping business, he was already familiar with ships and there were so many people volunteering that it made the wait to get into the naval officer training long. By going into the Merchant Marine, one could get a Third Mate's license and become an Ensign in the US Navy simultaneously. This would allow the administration to direct the graduates into the service that needed them the most. Johnsen was directed to the Merchant Marine and kept his Naval reserve status. Later this would result in his being recalled to duty after he had left the military in 1946, went back to Tulane and completed his Business Administration degree. In June 1950, he was called to duty in Japan for the Korean War.

Erik Johnsen's training in the US Merchant Marine at Henderson Point, Mississippi was very similar to that of a raw recruit in the US Navy. Basic training was four months long and he had to learn terminology, navigation, cargo handling, and seamanship. War accelerated the training by quite a bit. After basic, he did follow-up training over six months at sea. He then went to Great Neck on Long Island [Annotator's Note: to the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York] where he graduated in January 1945. He says that what they learned in one and a half years, now takes four years of training. He feels what was taught was mostly insight and that they would learn more by experience. Military life adjustment was not difficult due to the essential nature of what was needed. Even feelings of missing family were diminished by the focus on the jobs at hand.

Erik Johnsen was a Cadet in the US Merchant Marine and his first ship assignment was the SS Dolly Madison which they picked up in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a new Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of cargo ship], one of 7,000 which were built. Liberty ships had a very simple design with a 2,500 horsepower reciprocating engine which could reach ten knots, best speed. Many, including the Dolly Madison, had weld problems and in bad weather could break in half. The Dolly Madison developed a crack on the first trip that would open and shut in the bad weather. Despite that, Johnsen feels the ship was well constructed. It carried a small gun on the stern and two 20mm antiaircraft guns on each wing of the bridge. There was a total of 60 personnel on board. Johnsen remembers his first trip vividly due to the weather and the fact that they traveled with all lights out. The captain ordered him onto the windward side of the bridge with binoculars. He had never been so cold in his life and he was stationed there all night long. As a Third Mate in 1944, he went on board the SS Louis Hennepin. When he boarded the ship he was told he was the designated doctor. He protested this due to having no medical training. The captain sent in medical books for him to study. After a few hours of study, Johnsen found that Epsom salts were a great medicine. After three days of handing out Epsom salts, nobody ever came back. He says that it is funny in reflection but that was what happened as the officers had to get people from one place to another and rarely had more training than the crew they were commanding. Johnsen feels that is part of what brought the country together, people working together doing things they had never done before for the same cause.

Erik Johnsen was a Cadet in the US Merchant Marine and served on Liberty ships [Annotator's Note: a class of cargo ship] during the war. He did serve on Victory ships [Annotator's Note: a class of cargo ship] after the war. He says that the Americans and British in 1944 started building faster Victory ships to outrun submarines which could easily attack the slower Liberty ships. Johnsen says living conditions were spartan and clean and quite satisfactory. He remembers being on the bridge of the SS Dolly Madison with the captain, halfway across the Atlantic Ocean. Suddenly the ship's lights turned on an off three times which frightened the crew. A Commodore ship at the head of the convoy immediately sent back a Morse Code message asking what was wrong. Johnsen was sent down to investigate and discovered a black mess man at the switchboard flipping switches on and off. He said he had no lights in the mess and was trying to turn them on. Johnsen took the man to see the captain who pulled his revolver and told him he would blow his head off if he went within five feet of a light switch again. This shows how serious a mishap could be due to momentary lack of focus. He says that they had an all-male crew, and that fact makes him feel that co-ed fighting forces are no good due to the distractions he feels female crew member will cause. He says that food was amazingly satisfactory. Johnsen and his captain were not especially close. The captain was an older person who was strict in orders and Johnsen was just trying to learn everything he could. Later, during the Korean War, he had good relationships with the Navy captain, but he was also more senior in rank himself then. They played Bridge together often.

Erik Johnsen was a Cadet in the US Merchant Marine on the SS Dolly Madison. The major missions of the ship were transatlantic into north Europe. Johnsen had one brief deviation from these missions when he was sent for training on the SS Lake Pleasant operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of his voyages on the Dolly Madison were to London, England. Johnsen says that the British really treated the American crews well. He attended a play at the London Palladium theater and an air raid siren sounded. The show stopped for a moment to allow people to leave and seek shelter but nobody did. The all clear sounded as they were leaving the play. Each time they came to London and docked at East India Docks the damage from German bombing was worse than the time before, however, the British always cleaned up enough for them to discharge their cargo easily. Johnsen feels that a large difference between the civilian population's experience in England and the United States was that generally speaking there was limited exposure to the effects of war in America. He feels the British in contrast suffered greatly. In Piccadilly Circus, London, there was a large structure for entertaining service people which was regularly filled to capacity. Johnsen says that at that time, there was no drug or pornography problem with military personnel like there is now. He feels these issues are due to the Korean and Vietnamese Wars that exposed Americans to the drug trades of the Far East.

Erik Johnsen served in the US Merchant Marine on the SS Dolly Madison. He doesn't recall the cargo on his first trip other than howitzers and bombs and he felt very proud to be part of the convoy. When the ships arrived into Loch Ewe [Annotator’s Note: Ewe Loch, Scotland], a Scottish ship pilot would come aboard and escort them down the coast where they often would be attacked by German E-boats [Annotator's Note: Allied designation for German Schnellboot, or S-Boot; torpedo boat]. Once a shorter Scottish pilot asked for a box to stand on so he could see over the rail. Johnsen feels lucky because in 1943 and 1944 the loss of ships wasn't as severe as previous years and the Dolly Madison was never torpedoed. The toughest part of being on the open water of the Atlantic Ocean was navigating which had to be done separately by each ship. The most difficult time to navigate was in fog. They did not have radar and could not see the other ships. Someone had designed a wooden apparatus that could be pulled about 150 feet behind the ship. This way a person on the bow of a ship could see the one ahead and keep the two from running into each other. The best navigation was by star-sighting on clear nights. Today's captains now have satellites and radar to assist them, however in World War 2, they were quite literally operating in the dark.

After Erik Johnsen graduated from his final training at Kings Point, [Annotator's Note: US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, New York] he served aboard the SS Louis Hennepin. He joined as Third Mate and went to Australia in January 1945. The Hennepin took on cargo in Baltimore, Maryland, New York, Boston, Massachusetts. Their course took them through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific Ocean without incident. The Hennepin arrived in Sydney, Australia April 1945. While in port in Sydney, the crew learned of the surrender of Germany. The Australians then threw a three-day party. Johnsen was 21 years old at the time, and was ready to party. An older officer named Bradley went ashore with Johnsen and they took part in what Johnsen described as "spontaneous joy." After the celebrations, the Hennepin proceeded to Port Pirie, Australia to pick up lead which they delivered to Norfolk Naval Shipyard. There, Johnsen was shifted to a Victory ship [Annotator's Note: a class of cargo ship], the Northrop Victory [Annotator’s Note: unable to verify ship name] to the Baltic Sea. The ship docked in Oslo, Norway, Malmo, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland. The German military had left the area just prior to their arrival in August and September 1945. Johnsen's father had been born in Norway to a ship owner's family. His grandfather had sent his father to Australia, San Francisco, California, New York and finally to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1915. In New Orleans, Johnsen's father marries his mother with the idea that they would return to Norway. Once in Norway, they decided to return to New Orleans. His father then came back to New Orleans empty-handed to start his new life. Johnsen's paternal uncle stayed to run the business. When Johnsen arrived in Oslo, he got to see his uncle and aunt who had been through five years of German occupation. The occupation had taken a toll on his uncle who died only five years later. The Hennepin's next port was Malmo, Sweden. Johnsen said there were bad feelings between the Swedes and the Norwegians due to the Swedes working with the Germans in the war. He said that Helsinki was also awkward due to a Russian presence there. The Finns had been a tough adversary to the Russians who had attacked them. Since the American military had become an ally of the Russians, it made their interactions somewhat uneasy as the Finns were annoyed by the Russian presence.

Erik Johnsen served in the US Merchant Marine during World War 2. As a result of the war, his father realized his dream of establishing a ship-owning company in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1947. Congress passed the Warship Sales Act of 1946 [Annotator's Note: Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946] giving preference to United States citizens to buy Liberty ships [Annotator's Note: a class of cargo ship]. The enemy's submarines had erased most of the merchant fleets of the world except the United States. In 1947, his father's company, Central Gulf Lines had one ship and today they have 50. When Johnsen returned from duty, he finished his schooling at Tulane University, New Orleans. His brother had met and married a woman in New York during the war. His brother returned to New York with his wife and they had a child in 1945. His brother had a tough time after returning home because his ship had been torpedoed off of Durbin, South Africa and he was in a lifeboat for two weeks. Johnsen said returning to a normal routine was easy for him. His father's company was shipping supplies to Europe for the rebuilding that was started by Secretary of State George Marshall and the Marshall Plan [Annotator's Note: European Recovery Program]. Johnsen feels that both Americans and Europeans forget what the Plan did for them after the war. He feels that this was a softness on the part of the Americans who lost family during war and he is angry with the French. As a ship owner he feels that the country that didn't recognize what we did for them was France and he dislikes DeGaulle [Annotator's Note: French President Charles de Gaulle]. Johnson was in the Korean War, 1950 to 1953. His first ship was a tanker and was ordered to the North Pole assisting the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US Naval construction battalions] building the radar defense shield in August 1951. He was then shifted to an ammunition carrier called the USS Vesuvius (AE-15) as Operations. They were there to evacuate the troops but that changed after MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] came to Inchon and reversed the tide of the war. Johnsen's company is now building ships in Japan and South Korea. Ships built today are 35 tons and cost 35 million dollars apiece. At a party at shipyard in South Korea, Johnsen told his workers he was happy to see them again as he had long ago been in their country in the war. He said they rose, clapped, and bowed to him which was the most humbling experience he ever had in his life.

Erik Johnsen served in the US Merchant Marine during World War 2. Thinking about the war, he says that during it he didn't like it but afterwards he felt it was the best thing that ever happened to him. During the Korea War he was in the US Navy. The ability to have studied stability which is crucial to ship building, in both the war and merchant ships, was valuable and helped him very much in business. He feels the US Merchant Marine was vital because of the heavy delivery of the military supplies that enabled the war to be won. He feels the Merchant Marine was initially overlooked, but the fact that 7,000 ships were built validates their importance. The losses of personnel in percentages is comparable to the Army's. At 88 years old, Johnsen feels that the world's continuing conflicts are a true shame and he blames a lot of the problems on religion. He feels that we make a big mistake in extending ourselves to places like Afghanistan and Iraq where we can't do anything good. He blames this on Foster Dulles [Annotator's Note: John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower] and Alan Dulles [Annotator's Note: the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence], the view was that there was no neutral country in the world. Vietnam [Annotator's Note: the Vietnam War] cost a lot of men. Foster Dulles refused to talk to Ho Chi Minh [Annotator's Note: former Prime Minister of North Vietnam and President of Vietnam] when the French were carving up the country and after that there was no turning back from war. The Bay of Pigs [Annotator's Note: Bay of Pigs Invasion on 17 April 1961] was put together by Allen Dulles under President Dwight D. Eisenhower even though it was blamed on President John F. Kennedy. He feels that today's government is too partisan and wasting money for war that could be building our own country's infrastructure and Defense Department. Johnsen feels that The National WWII Museum is a structure that is more than a building and the most important thing the country has done since World War 2. He knew Stephen Ambrose and feels Nick Mueller [Annotator's Note: Gordon Mueller, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus, The National WWII Museum] is doing a good job moving it forward. He is surprised by the lack of teaching of American history in the schools. He overheard kids thinking Germans were our allies during the war. Johnsen likes that the museum talks about what Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] did to his own citizens and to Jews including the genocide. He discusses the claim that Hitler and Braun [Annotator's Note: Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress then wife] were taken to Australia and then lived in Argentina after faking the suicides. His message to future Americans is that as a country we should learn from the mistakes of the past. He says to continue to foster good family values and domestically steer attention to the development of the infrastructure of the country while being prepared against enemies who want to destroy the American way of life.