The Tragic Story of LaVena Johnson

 
Salon has published quite a bit 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.
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 2004 death in a friendly fire incident. Unlike Tillman's widely
reported story, however, outside the blogosphere -- where writers like Philip Barron 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 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, ""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