Who Killed Army Pvt. LaVena Johnson?
LAVENA JOHNSON, PVT, U.S. ARMY
Raped and Murdered aboard the Balad military base in Iraq
By Alicia Cruz
Raped and Murdered aboard the Balad military base in Iraq
By Alicia Cruz
Senior writer
theblackurbantimes.com
LaVena Johnson, a high school honor student, decided to enlist in the Army to pay for college. On July 19, 2005, after serving eight weeks in Iraq, she was killed, eight days short of her 20th birthday. She died on what should be one of the safest places in the world: a military base.
Pvt. Johnson (posthumously promoted to private first class) was found dead in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, the former subsidiary of Halliburton. Pvt. Johnson was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army has officially ruled her death a suicide, saying she shot herself in the head. Johnson's family was suspect from the beginning. having spoken to johnson days before her death, they knew that Johnson was far from sad let alone suicidal. She was returning stateside for the holidays and was very excited.
Eyebrows and questins were raised beginning with the viewing of their daughter's body at the funeral home. Johnson's mother and the mortician noticed suspicious bruises inconsistent with the report the Army gave the family. In an attempt to get the Army's version of this story, I telephoned the office of the Sergeants Major and was told that he could not comment on this blackurbantimes.com story or any other.
LaVena Johnson, a high school honor student, decided to enlist in the Army to pay for college. On July 19, 2005, after serving eight weeks in Iraq, she was killed, eight days short of her 20th birthday. She died on what should be one of the safest places in the world: a military base.
Pvt. Johnson (posthumously promoted to private first class) was found dead in Balad, Iraq, in a tent belonging to military contractor KBR, the former subsidiary of Halliburton. Pvt. Johnson was the first woman from Missouri to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army has officially ruled her death a suicide, saying she shot herself in the head. Johnson's family was suspect from the beginning. having spoken to johnson days before her death, they knew that Johnson was far from sad let alone suicidal. She was returning stateside for the holidays and was very excited.
Eyebrows and questins were raised beginning with the viewing of their daughter's body at the funeral home. Johnson's mother and the mortician noticed suspicious bruises inconsistent with the report the Army gave the family. In an attempt to get the Army's version of this story, I telephoned the office of the Sergeants Major and was told that he could not comment on this blackurbantimes.com story or any other.
The Army claimed that a right-handed Johnson had shot herself in the head with an M-16 rifle, but the gunshot wound was on the left side of her head. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the family of LaVena Johnson requested copies of the autopsy report along with photos and that's when things heated up:
At 5-foot tall and weighing 100 pounds soak and wet, this petite woman had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument. Her teeth had been knocked out, her back and right hand had been doused with a flammable liquid and set afire. Her nose was broken and there were bruises, scratches and teeth marks on her upper body. Debris found on her body suggested that Johnson's body had been dragged. Her genital area was lacerated, bruised and there was a substance later proven to be lye that had been poured into her vagina.
At 5-foot tall and weighing 100 pounds soak and wet, this petite woman had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument. Her teeth had been knocked out, her back and right hand had been doused with a flammable liquid and set afire. Her nose was broken and there were bruises, scratches and teeth marks on her upper body. Debris found on her body suggested that Johnson's body had been dragged. Her genital area was lacerated, bruised and there was a substance later proven to be lye that had been poured into her vagina.
What an odd and violent "suicide". Why torture yourself before you kill yourself? None of Johnson's family members bought the suicide claim and once the autopsy report and photos came in, they were convinced Johnson had been tortured, raped and brutally murdered.
And despite all this mutilation, she was fully clothed when her body was found in the tent, with a blood trail leading to the tent.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, the Army has refused to investigate. Through an online petition, ColorofChange.org demanded an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and keep the family in prayer.
Johnson's story is really several stories in one, and is about more than an individual Black woman who was raped and killed by her fellow soldiers. African Americans have fought in every war since the Revolutionary War, and often their country has been a far more formidable foe to them than the so-called enemy they were told to fight.
Often, youth of color, lacking opportunities at home and in need of money, look to the military as a career option and a way to pay for school. Perhaps these young people were channeling war resisters of a prior generation, such as Muhammad Ali, who once said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. ... They never called me nigger." That war was devastating to poor communities of all races, and the black community in particular, as their young men came home in the thousands in body bags, or maimed, traumatized, as dope fiends or completely insane.
It was this "cruel manipulation of the poor," as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called it, one that united people of different races "in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit."
Forty years later, we find ourselves in another unjust and senseless war. This "home invasion" of Iraq, as Philadelphia veteran journalist Reggie Bryant aptly characterized it. And Johnson is a casualty of this war and her death runs the risk of being swept under the rug if something is not done about it.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, the Army has refused to investigate. Through an online petition, ColorofChange.org demanded an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and keep the family in prayer.
Johnson's story is really several stories in one, and is about more than an individual Black woman who was raped and killed by her fellow soldiers. African Americans have fought in every war since the Revolutionary War, and often their country has been a far more formidable foe to them than the so-called enemy they were told to fight.
Often, youth of color, lacking opportunities at home and in need of money, look to the military as a career option and a way to pay for school. Perhaps these young people were channeling war resisters of a prior generation, such as Muhammad Ali, who once said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. ... They never called me nigger." That war was devastating to poor communities of all races, and the black community in particular, as their young men came home in the thousands in body bags, or maimed, traumatized, as dope fiends or completely insane.
It was this "cruel manipulation of the poor," as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called it, one that united people of different races "in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit."
Forty years later, we find ourselves in another unjust and senseless war. This "home invasion" of Iraq, as Philadelphia veteran journalist Reggie Bryant aptly characterized it. And Johnson is a casualty of this war and her death runs the risk of being swept under the rug if something is not done about it.
The case of Johnson raises yet another issue: Violence against women is a problem in the U.S. military, and other slayings and suspicious deaths similar to Johnson's are being classified as suicides. And Johnson is not the only woman to die a suspicious death on the Balad military base.
Retired Army Reserve Col. Ann Wright said 1 in 3 women who join the military will be raped or sexually assaulted by servicemen. Of the 94 military women who died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom, 36 died from injuries unrelated to combat. While a number of them were ruled as suicides and homicides, 15 deaths remain that smell suspicious. For example, eight women from Fort Hood, Texas, died of "non-combat-related injuries" at Camp Taji, three of whom were raped before their deaths. Camp Taji is an Army base about 10 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Also, a number of female employees of Halliburton/KBR have been sexually harassed, assaulted and gang raped in Iraq. Their employment contract calls for such cases to be decided through arbitration rather than in a court of law. Halliburton and KBR, these war profiteers awash with money, even wanted one alleged rape victim to pay for their costs to defend themselves in arbitration. Lord have mercy ....
Now is the time that the family of LaVena Johnson, and all those other nameless women killed by the military, will find the justice they deserve.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We appreciates all comments and fosters free speech, however, keep in mind that we have young readers who peruse our site. Having said that, please refrain from using profane language, and know that flaming will not be tolerated. Spam will not be tolerated.