A day for veterans

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Thinking about soldiers makes my heart hurt, a little.

For the past three years, anything and everything having to do with the American military - especially the US Army - has been influenced by my understanding of the events surrounding the death in Iraq of Pfc. LaVena Johnson of Florissant, Missouri. The ruling of suicide as the cause of her death, as determined by military investigators; the anguish and anger of her father and mother as their pleas to renew the investigation of the case have met with stony silence and resistance from authorities. Interest from legislators ebbs and flows - mostly ebbs - and progress has come slowly indeed. Three years is a long time in which to see little change, and so LaVena’s fate has come to color everything - for me - when it comes to military service.

There is more involved, however.

My father served in the Air Force for twenty years. His duty carried him to far countries, and we - my mother, my brother, and myself - saw little of him for long periods of time. We finally came together as a family for the last two years of his stint, when we moved from South Carolina to live together at Whiteman Air Force Base, then home of the Minuteman missile. Dad ended his service as a technical sergeant. After that, we moved back to South Carolina.

My father died of cancer a few years afterwards.

I never felt that I knew him - he had been gone so often, and for so long - and I think it is fair to say that he did not know me. Military service came to mean absence. It was just a consequence of wearing the uniform. I was always proud of my father’s uniform. Never knew the man, not really, but I was proud that he had served.

The tension between absence and pride is not meant to be reconciled, and yet everyone with a loved one in uniform must find a way to balance the two. The necessity of doing so is why we always make the distinction, whether or not we realize it or admit it, between citizens and soldiers. On a basic level, though, the distinction does not exist: the sacrifice made by the soldier in answering a call to arms is mirrored by the sacrifice made by those who have to let them go.

So when the death of a soldier goes unanswered by those in charge, it is an insult to the soldier’s sacrifice, and to ours.

This is a day for veterans, a day in which to give them the honor they deserve for having subordinated themselves to something greater than the individual. That does not obviate the injustice of the unanswered death of soldiers such as LaVena Johnson; rather, it underscores the necessity of doing justice by her, and by her family, in the name of their sacrifice.

Though I did not know my father well, I believe that he would agree.

Tell Me More interviews LaVena’s father

The father of Pfc. LaVena Johnson, John Johnson, was interviewed last Friday by Michel Martin, host of the NPR program Tell Me More. Also on hand was activist and retired Army Colonel Ann Wright.

Soldier’s Family Challenges Army Suicide Report

Tell Me More, August 11, 2008 · The Army says 19-year-old PFC Lavena Johnson committed suicide while serving in Iraq, but her family just isn’t buying it. John Johnson explains why he and his wife believe their daughter was brutally raped and murdered, and why the Army wants it covered up. Johnson is joined by Col. Ann Wright (ret.), who raises awareness of sexual assault in the military.

The program was released today and is available for listening at the Tell Me More website.

LaVena’s parents on US Talk Network

Coz Carson, one of the hosts of the Internet-based media station US Talk Network, recently interviewed John and Linda Johnson about their daughter, LaVena. Carson is a former program director at 1690 WVON - The Talk of Chicago, and has been a frequent contributor on CNN Newsroom and CNN Headline News. The link to the interview (WMA format) is currently posted on the US Talk Network home page, as is a song in tribute to LaVena titled “LaVena Johnson - We Got Your Back” (MP3 format).

Truthdig on military sexual assault hearing

Activist and retired Army Colonel Ann Wright has been indispensable to the effort to prompt a renewed investigation of the death in Iraq of Pfc. LaVena Johnson. She has also fought to make known the wider issue of murder and sexual assault of women in the armed forces. Col. Wright attended the recent hearings on sexual assault in the military held by the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, and has written at Truthdig a critical account of the refusal of the Department of Defense to allow a witness to be heard:

Sexual Assault in the Military: A DoD Cover-Up?

There was quite a struggle in Congress this week. The Department of Defense refused to allow the senior civilian in charge of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) to testify in Thursday’s hearing on sexual assault in the military. Rep. John Tierney, chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, angrily dismissed Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Michael Dominguez from the hearing when Dominguez said that he, the DoD chief of legislative affairs and the chief of public affairs, had ordered Dr. Kaye Whitley, chief of SAPRO, to refuse to honor the subpoena issued by the subcommittee for her appearance.

Full committee Chairman Henry Waxman called the DoD’s decision to prevent Whitley from testifying “ridiculous and indicating DoD is covering something up.” It could also place Whitley in contempt of Congress. Rep. Christopher Shays said the DoD’s decision was “foolish.”

One of the questions that would have been put to Whitley was why DoD had taken three years to name a 15-person civilian task force to look into allegations of sexual assault of military personnel. The panel was finally named early in 2008 but has yet to meet. She would have also been queried on the SAPRO program’s failure to require key information from the military in order to evaluate the effectiveness of sexual assault prevention and response programs.

In addition to LaVena Johnson, Col. Wright references the cases of Army Spc. Suzanne Swift, Army Pfc. Tina Priest, and Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach.

Read more of Col. Wright’s article at Truthdig.

It should be noted that the chairman of the subcommittee’s parent, the House Oversight Committee - Representative Henry Waxman - is the named petitionee of a new public appeal for hearings on the LaVena Johnson case. This petition is authored by the advocacy group ColorofChange.

Feed change at LaVena site

A brief programming note: Feed subscribers to the LaVena Johnson website should edit their feed reader settings to use the site’s new Feedburner feed address (http://feeds.feedburner.com/lavena). This address will provide subscribers with access to all blog posts at the LaVena Johnson website, regardless of changes in the website’s platform or even its address.

The website’s use of RSS/RSD/Atom feeds will continue for an indeterminate period, but is subject to coming changes at the site. To avoid possible interruptions in service, subscribers are strongly advised to switch to the Feedburner address.

LaVena PDF handout available

Kriss Avery of the Gateway Green Alliance in St. Louis created a one-page handout for use by Dr. John Johnson when he spoke at this year’s NOW National Conference about his daughter LaVena. Kriss has been kind enough to make that document available for anyone who wants to help spread the word about LaVena and the effort to prompt a new investigation of her death in Iraq.

Just click the link to directly download the file.

Revised: The previous (and free) download account failed for unknown reasons. I’ve replaced it with a more straightforward method you see above. Many apologies for the earlier snafu!

LaVena post at Crooks & Liars

Crooks & Liars returns to the story of PFC LaVena Johnson with a post by Logan Murphy:

Nicole and I have both written posts about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of PFC LaVena Johnson, and Democracy Now! had a heartbreaking interview with her family last week. LaVena’s family has worked hard to find the truth about her death and have finally had a breakthrough in the case. Unfortunately, the new details they uncovered are so disturbing that they could potentially make the Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch stories pale in comparison. The above video from Cenk of The Young Turks captures my exact feelings about this horrific case.  What you’re about to read will sicken and enrage you.

Murphy references a June 2008 article on LaVena from the St. Louis American (last link in the quote), and mentions today’s Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs hearing on sexual assault in the military.

Hearing on military sexual assault

The parents of PFC LaVena Johnson believe that their daughter was murdered in Iraq - contrary to Army claims of suicide - and suspect that she may have been victim to a sexual assault. The Army has resisted calls for reinvestigation of the matter; public and Congressional attention are required in order to change military minds. Gina at What About Our Daughters? has alerted readers to an opportunity to bring LaVena’s case to legislators - a public hearing on sexual assault in the military held by a sub- of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

On Thursday, July 31 at 10:00 am, [the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs] will hold a hearing entitled, “Oversight Hearing on Sexual Assault in the Military.” The hearing will take place in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building and is open to the public.

It should be noted that the chairman of the parent committee - Representative Henry Waxman - is the named petitionee of a new public appeal for hearings on the LaVena Johnson case. This petition is authored by the advocacy group ColorofChange.

The chair of the subcommittee is Rep. John F. Tierney of the Sixth District of Massachusetts. The names of other subcommittee members, and suggestions on trying to put LaVena on their agenda for the day, may be found at the What About Our Daughters? post.

Feministing, BuzzFlash on LaVena

Apologies for coming late to the July 18 writeup on PFC LaVena Johnson by Ann Friedman of Feministing. The post asks readers to spare just a couple of minutes to sign the Danielle Vyas-authored petition to Congress and President Bush, which has (of this writing) 2374 signatures with a goal of 3000. Friedman references posts on LaVena by a number of feminist writers; some of them have been previously noted here, while others are new to me:

You may have read about LaVena recently on Feministing, or from Cara, Megan at Jezebel, Gina at What About Our Daughters, and Kate at Broadsheet…

I am very happy to add Friedman to the growing list of writers whom I owe thanks for support for a renewed investigation of LaVena’s death in Iraq.

Also on that list is Meg White for bringing LaVena’s story to the many readers of BuzzFlash in a news analysis piece posted today. It is a capsule of the Johnson family’s trials in pushing the Army to revisit the investigation of their daughter’s death, and the possibility that she had been the victim of a sexual assault. Like Friedman’s entry at Feministing, White touches on the CommonDreams.org article by retired Army colonel Ann Wright on other suspicious deaths of women in service, and references the recently-launched ColorofChange to Rep. Henry Waxman of the House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Committee. Many thanks to White for this entry.

LaVena’s parents on Democracy Now!

John and Linda Johnson, parents of PFC LaVena Lynn Johnson, were interviewed on Democracy Now! by host Amy Goodman. Activist and retired Army colonel Ann Wright was also part of the program.

Three years ago, on July 19, 2005, Army Private First Class LaVena Johnson was found dead in Balad, Iraq. Her body was found in a tent belonging to the private military contractor KBR. She had abrasions all over her body, a broken nose, a black eye, burned hands, loose teeth, acid burns on her genitals, and a bullet hole in her head. The Army labeled Johnson’s death a suicide. But her parents never believed that story. They think she was raped and murdered and are now demanding a full congressional investigation into their daughter’s death.

The program is available at the Democracy Now! site for viewing or listening in a number of formats: Real Video stream, Real Audio stream, MP3 download, and others. A partial transcript is up as well; I expect a full version will be made available later.

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