User:Dragon Information/sandbox

Anthony Holmes Johnson, known as “Tony,” was born on November 11, 1948 in Pensacola Florida.

Most of his childhood was spent with his grandparents in the small town of DeFuniak Springs, Florida. As a child he assisted his grandfather who was a bootlegger, smuggling illegal moonshine whiskey. He learned to drive in an old pickup truck with 10 gallon jugs of moonshine in the bed, covered with a tarp.

His grandfather introduced him to the outdoors life, including fishing, hunting and boating on the Choctawhatchee River in a small wooden boat that he had helped his Grandfather build. Tony was participated in the Boy Scouts and attained the rank of Eagle Scout.

(Scuba tank)

When Tony was 15 his grandfather died, leaving his grandmother with little income. Tony left home to take a job that provided a place for him to live. Although he continued his schooling, the demands of supporting himself took a toll on his academic accomplishments and he graduated from Walton County High school with the lowest academic average in his class.

The month after graduation from high school, at the age of 17, he reported to Parris Island South Carolina for US Marine Corps boot camp. He served in Vietnam for 13 months, during the height of the war and including the TET offensive.

After the Marine Corps he went to Washington D.C. where he attended George Washington University and American University where he graduated with a BS in the Administration of Justice.

As soon as he attained the age of 21 he applied for and was accepted by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department where he served as a uniformed patrol officer before being assigned to an undercover role investigating a motorcycle gang. For a year he was deep undercover as a drug dealing biker. After the undercover assignment he spent a year in the Special Operations Division patrolling high crime areas as well as being a member of the barricaded criminal unit, in the years before it was called a SWAT team. His last three years were spent as a detective.

While working as a police officer he continued his studies at American University, where he graduated with a degree in criminal justice. Soon after, he moved back to his home state of Florida where he was a uniformed Deputy Sheriff in Pinellas County.

Although his work and studies were very demanding on his time and tuition consumed his strained financial resources, he indulged in a couple of hobbies. He bought a 21 foot sailboat which he kept in Annapolis and sailed on the Chesapeake Bay.