Memorial Day honors heroes in BP
Doug Johnson, a graduate of Blooming Prairie High School and the U.S. Naval Academy, provides the keynote address during the BP Memorial Day program. He serves as president of the board of directors at the BP Servicemen’s Club. Staff photo by Kay Fate
It was an unusual place to hear a military oath of office, but it was fitting.
Doug Johnson recited the oath at the beginning of his keynote address at the Blooming Prairie Memorial Day program – held at the Blooming Prairie Cemetery.
Johnson is president of the board of directors for the BP Servicemen’s Club.
He is a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a class that has lost 14 members who died serving their country. One of Johnson’s classmates was captain of the USS Cole; he lost 17 sailors when the ship was attacked by a pair of suicide bombers in October 2000.
Part of the speech was devoted to two of Johnson’s heroes: “It needs to be said that I am a better person because I knew these two special people,” he said.
One was David Michael Sperling, a Naval Academy classmate who loved flying, but whose vision prevented him from being a pilot. Instead, “Sperls” sat in the back seat of planes as a naval flight officer.
He was the bombardier/navigator in a plane that crashed on a training mission near Pusan, Korea in 1984. He was just 26.
Johnson also spoke about his Blooming Prairie High School classmate, Mark Hoffman. The two were on the football and wrestling teams together, played saxophone in the band and sang in the choir at BPHS.
Hoffman joined the Air Force, where he served as an aircraft mechanic, including on a tour in Afghanistan from 2004-2005.
“Mark didn’t die in military service, but his time in Afghanistan started the process,” Johnson said. “Whether it was the burn pits or some other catalyst during his service, cancer started to slowly attack his body.”
Hoffman died of cancer in 2023.
“I am sharing their legacy of honor,” Johnson said. “Remembering and honoring the legacies of those who aren’t with us today is the true meaning of Memorial Day. … The true way to honor the fallen is to live in a way worthy of their sacrifice.
“That means strengthening our communities, helping our fellow veterans, supporting military families, and teaching the next generation what this day truly means,” he said. “We must tell their stories. We must speak their names.”
Johnson closed with a quote from Abraham Lincoln.
“He said a nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure,” Johnson said. “He was right. But we should also ask ourselves, would a nation that didn’t honor its heroes be a nation in which we would want to live?
“Your attendance here answers that question. We are here for them.”