Wounded warrior adapts to new life at local restaurant

ALBANY — Regular patrons of the Mellow Mushroom restaurant in Albany have grown used to seeing the staff member with one arm working alongside his fellow employees over the past six months that Chambliss Johnson has been employed at the restaurant.

Still, though, there are plenty of surprised double- and triple-takes.

Johnson, like restaurant owner Lisa Lewis a native of Edison, some 36 miles west of Albany, is a different kind of American war hero. After serving four years in the United States Marine Corps and coming home “because I’m a warrior and had no interest in sitting behind a desk,” Johnson’s friendship with Ukrainian citizens led him to sign up to fight for the country after it was attacked by Russia.

After a period of training Ukrainian fighters, Johnson joined the battle, fighting along the front lines as the Russian invasion intensified. One fateful day, he and other members of a reconnaissance team walked into an ambush and drew heavy fire. A Russian attack helicopter launched a rocket that exploded within 10-15 feet of Johnson’s location.

“Shrapnel from that rocket took off my arm,” Johnson said.

Back at home, after a period of rehab, Johnson grew restless. He started looking for a job, but the cold hard fact was that employers weren’t keen on hiring an employee who had only one arm.

That’s when Lewis came into the picture.

“I know Chambliss’ mom, and she told me he was having a tough time finding a job,” Lewis said. “I told her to tell him to come see me.”

Johnson immediately fit in once he was hired at the popular restaurant, his work ethic impressing his new boss.

“He’s never allowed his missing arm to be an excuse,” Lewis said. “I’m sure a lot of it is his military training, but he has a wonderful attitude. He’s grown so much since he first started, and little by little he’s gotten better and better. I talked it over with my managers, and we agreed that his work ethic earned him a raise.

“The story about his raise is a funny one. I called Chambliss in with one of my managers and said, ‘You know, I’m sick and tired of you; you really suck as an employee.’ My manager was holding back laughter, and we expected some kind of negative reaction. He just said, ‘Yes, ma’am’; at no time did he pop off or show any kind of attitude. I said, ‘You’ve made me so mad I’m going to have to give you a raise.’ He was just so professional and courteous through all that.”

Johnson signed up for the Marine Corps at 18, as soon as he graduated high school. He trained as a rifleman at Camp Lejeune and received further training with Japanese troops in Okinawa. But the training did not offer the young Marine the opportunity he’d sought when he signed up, so he left the Corps after his initial four years of duty.

“I came home, helped look after my dad, hunted, fished a little bit,” Johnson said. “Then, 28 days later, war broke out in Ukraine. I watched what the Russians did to that country, and I decided I wanted to go and help them.”

Johnson said he’d made friends from Ukraine and visited the country several times while serving in the Marine Corps.

“Theirs is a warrior-based culture, and the people are really beautiful people,” he said. “I was there multiple times with a friend and her family, and I really fell in love with the country.”

Johnson met up with a friend whose feelings for the Ukrainian people matched his own in Krakow, Poland, and they crossed the border into Ukraine. At a military checkpoint, they announced their intention to fight for the country and were given gear. Johnson’s experience with the U.S. Marines proved invaluable, and he was recruited to train troops. After three weeks of training, he was sent to the front lines to fight.

“I was there a year; we’d spend two weeks fighting on the front and then two weeks off in the barracks,” he said. “I look back on that time and have no regrets, but not long after I got there it became very real to me that I could die.”

What would be his final mission turned bad when Johnson and his recon team learned they’d been lured into an ambush. After he was injured by the rocket, a medic dragged him to safety. Two days later, Johnson said, that person was killed in combat.

Johnson spent three months in recovery, during which time he had two surgeries. The lower part of his right arm had been blown off just below his elbow, but a blood infection in the arm forced doctors to remove another section, above his elbow.

“I came home and spent three weeks in Washington, D.C., where I was fitted for a prosthetic,” Johnson said. “It was funded by the Ukrainian government.”

Now, with his job at Mellow Mushroom secure, Johnson is finding a new normal for his life. He hunts, fishes — “I caught a 6-pound bass the other day” — and he’s found a romantic partner. 

“The hard thing is trying to tie my shoes with one hand, and I used to be a swimmer,” he says. “But I’ve learned to adapt. Now, I’m just living my life. I have to work twice as hard to do things, but I don’t let it affect me. If I start to feel down, I think about ‘Fox,’ our machine gunner serving in Ukraine. He had a prosthetic arm, a prosthetic leg and he lost an eye. But he never complained.

“Yes, my life has changed, but I have no regrets. If I had the chance to do it again, I’d do it a thousand times over.”

Staff Photo: Carlton FletcherStaff Photo: Carlton Fletcher

Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher