Pfc. Ralph H. Johnson, USMC was born January 11, 1949 in Charleston, South Carolina. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967. On March 5, 1968, while deployed in Vietnam, Pfc. Johnson heroically absorbed the impact of a hand grenade blast and was killed instantly, saving the life of a fellow Marine at the cost of his own and preventing the enemy from penetrating their perimeter.

Johnson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. In September 1991, the Charleston VA Medical Center was renamed in his honor and in March of 2018, the USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) was commissioned in Charleston, South Carolina. The USS Ralph Johnson is the 64th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in the United States Navy.