Terrible, terrible story. Thought you¹d be interested ...
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On 6/29/08 8:25 AM, "Hilde Lindemann" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In case you haven't been following this:
>
> The tragic story of LaVena Johnson
> Salon has published quite
> <http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/07/women_in_military/> a bit
> <http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/05/27/female_ptsd/index.html> about
> how American women in the military sometimes face more danger from their
> fellow soldiers than from their enemies, but the stories never seem to stop.
> And all too often, they go largely ignored by the media, as with the case of
> Pfc. LaVena Johnson. <http://www.lavenajohnson.com/>
>
> In July 2005, 19-year-old Johnson became the first female soldier from
> Missouri to die in Iraq. She was found with a broken nose, black eye and loose
> teeth, acid burns on her genitals, presumably to eliminate DNA evidence of
> rape, a trail of blood leading away from her tent and a bullet hole in her
> head. Unbelievably, that's not the most horrifying part of the story. Here's
> what is: Army investigators ruled her death a suicide.
>
> Beyond the obvious evidence of abuse, there was no sign of depression or
> suicidal ideation in Johnson's psychological profile. The bullet wound was in
> the wrong place for her to have shot herself with her dominant hand, and the
> exit wound was the wrong size to have come from her own M-16, as the Army
> suggested it did. The blatant lie the military has tried to sell Johnson's
> family is on a par with the cover-up surrounding football star Pat Tillman's
> <http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2005/06/15/tillman2/index.html> 2004
> death in a friendly fire incident. Unlike Tillman's widely reported story,
> however, outside the blogosphere -- where writers like Philip Barron
> <http://www.waveflux.net/lavena-johnson/> have worked tirelessly to keep
> Johnson's name in the spotlight -- the LaVena Johnson case has rarely been
> noted. And sadly, it is far from unique. In a story in the New Zealand Herald
> <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10518131>
> on Wednesday, Tracey Barnett writes, "[LaVena's father] John Johnson has
> discovered far more stories that have matched his daughter's than he ever
> wanted to know. Ten other families of 'suicide' female soldiers have contacted
> him. The common thread among them -- rape."
>
> Regarding the runaround her family got from the military, Pat Tillman's mother
> said to the New York Times in 2006,
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/politics/21tillman.html?pagewanted=print>
> ""This is how they treat a family of a high-profile individual. How are they
> treating others?" LaVena Johnson's story is just one tragic answer to that
> question.
>
> -- Kate Harding
> Salon.com
>
>
>
> Hilde Lindemann
> Philosophy Department
> 503 South Kedzie Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> tel: (517) 353-3981
> fax: (517) 432-1320
> [log in to unmask]
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