Florida centenarian was on 1939 expedition to Antarctica

Robert Johnson, who turned 100 in early July, on a hot and sunny Florida day, barely hesitated when asked what he’d do if given another chance to go to Antarctica, the land of eternal ice and snow that he first journeyed to as a teenager.

“It would be very tempting, it would,” he said. “That place stays in your heart. It really does.”

At 19, Johnson was the youngest member of Adm. Richard Byrd’s 1939 expedition to Antarctica aboard the USS Bear, a woodhulled ship with sails and diesel.

He went back with Byrd in 1946 for Operation Highjump, then joined another U.S. Navy expedition there, Operation Windmill, in 1948. Johnson was in the Navy from 1937 to 1956, ending up at Naval Station Mayport as a chief bosun’s mate. He then worked for the Postal Service until 1990.

The son of a chief warrant officer in San Diego, Johnson was a Sea Scout who trained on sailing ships as a teen. He’s believed to be the last living member of any prewar polar expedition by any country, said Glenn Stein, a polar and maritime historian.

Stein came to Jacksonville for Johnson’s 100th birthday party, attended by pandemic-masked family members and friends. Five police cars drove by, sirens blipping, and neighbors and friends drove by as well, holding signs of support. The officers then visited Johnson as he sat in his driveway.

Stein has interviewed Johnson several times and marvels at his still-sharp memory.

“He’s a treasure, an absolute treasure,” said Stein, author of “Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition.” “This is a time when things like this just aren’t done anymore, this kind of adventure.”

A whole room in Robert and Mildred Johnson’s house is dedicated to his three Antarctic adventures. He calls it the chief ’s quarters, and it’s decorated with photos, awards and memorabilia.

“That’s quite a place,” he said of the bottom of the world, some 72 years after his last trip there. “It’s different from anything else, that’s for sure. It is a wonderful place down there.”

BOB SELF / FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (JACKSONVILLE) Robert Johnson sits at his Jacksonville, Fla., home during his 100th birthday party near a photo of him at 19 on the USS Bear, which Adm. Richard Byrd led to Antarctica in 1939.