SPC. SHOSHANA NYREE JOHNSON: I WILL NOT LET HER BE FORGOTTEN

Spc. Shoshana Johnson is a young  lady whose name registers practically nothing with many people when you speak her name. That Spc. Shoshana Johnson is not as well-known as Jessica Lynch is a travesty. That she was so savagely mistreated by a government that she put her life on the line to serve and protect is unforgivable. I wrote of Shoshana in my post trilogy, “Missing White Woman Syndrome – Conclusion” ( https://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/missing-pretty-white-woman-syndrome-conclusion/ ). Here is an excerpt:

 

“Even the military is not immune from MPWWS.

Remember Jessica Lynch?

Remember all the hoopla over her when she was captured and held prisoner in Iraq and how the military so valiantly rescued her? Even had a TV movie-of-the-week made about her.

Forgotten in all the vigorous media play was Shoshana Johnson.

Oh, never heard of her?

She was the first black female prisoner of war in the military history of the United States.

Both were captured in the same ambush during the Iraq War on March 23, 2003, but Johnson received very little media attention in comparison to Lynch.  Lynch’s story was promoted because Lynch was a more palatable and identifiable figure to promote: a young, blonde white woman, you know, your typical MPWW. Shoshana Johnson, on the other hand, was a black woman who was a single mother.

She too was captured as well, and injured too like Lynch, but, Shoshana was not rescued until 12 days after Lynch was rescued. Lynch was rescued on April 1, 2003. Shoshanna was rescued on April 13, 2003.

Lynch got a million-dollar book deal and more in disability payments from the military than Johnson.

MPWWS.”

Yes, MPWWS strikes across all aspects of life in this country: civilian—and military. Since WOC do not fit the profile of the classic MPWW, you can be rest assured that they will be ignore, pushed to the side, erased from all memory.

The unconscionable double-standard that America shows her WOC military women is sordid and abominable. I will not let Spc. Shoshana Johnson be forgotten. She has served her country so proudly and that the United States government and the U.S. military gave not a damn about her is sick and pathetic. Here are articles on Shoshana that I present to keep her in everyone’s mind, so that all that she has given to her country may never be forgotten.

Lest we forget.

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Johnson’s father . . . says that while neither he nor his family begrudge
Lynch her celebrity or disability payments, he believes that his daughter
should get her due, and it is more than a 30 percent disability benefit.
Photo left: Spc. Shoshana Johnson  escorted to a transport plane at an air base in Iraq.
 
The Real World We Live In!
[Double Standards for Shoshana Johnson]

By Christine Phillip

BET.com Staff Writer
 
Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson, the African American woman who was held prisoner of war in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, was looking forward to a quiet discharge from the Army in a few days. Battle scarred and weary, she has said not a word as her fellow POW comrade in arms Jessica Lynch cashes in with book and movie deals and a celebrity status in the media.
But it is the Army that is forcing Johnson to break her peace. A few days ago, military brass informed her that she would receive a 30 percent disability benefit for her injuries. Lynch, who is White, was discharged in August and will receive an 80 percent disability
benefit.
The difference amounts to $600 or $700 a month in payments, and that is causing Johnson and her family to speak out. They are so troubled by what they see as a “double standard,” that they have enlisted Rev. Jesse Jackson to help make their case to the news media.
Jackson, who plans to plead Johnson’s cause with the White House, the Pentagon and members of Congress, says the payment smacks a double standard and racism.
“Here’s a case of two women, same [unit], same war; everything about their service commitment and their risk is equal. . . . Yet there’s an enormous contrast between how the military has handled these two cases,” Jackson told The Washington Post.
Johnson’s father, Claude Johnson, himself an Army veteran, says that while neither he nor his family begrudge Lynch her celebrity or disability payments, he believes that his daughter should get her due, and it is more than a 30 percent disability benefit.

For its part, the Army, in denying charges of double standard, said Friday that claims are awarded to soldiers according to their injuries.

Johnson, 30, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was held captive for 22 days, when her unit stumbled into an ambush in southern Iraq last March.
Eleven soldiers were killed, and six, including Lynch and Johnson, were taken prisoners. Johnson was shot in both legs and is still traumatized by her war experience. In addition to walking with a limp, she suffers from bouts of depression.
So I ask that you forward this email on to all and inform others of this latest racial attack. Forget about the destroying of stamps, forget about Kobe, forget about Michael Jordan getting fired and fight for the rights of this strong Black Woman!!! Email —
Jennette McNear, Payroll Administrator
The Clark Construction Group, Inc.
301-272-8409 — Phone
301-272-8413 — Fax
jennette.mcnear@clarkconstruction.com
*   *   *   *   *
Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, 30, El Paso, Texas

Her name means “rose” in Hebrew, the inspiration of an aunt who once worked as a nurse in Brooklyn. But her family is Panamanian-American, and although she grew up in an Army family, she never expected to find herself on the front lines. She is fun-loving, her younger sister Nikki says: outgoing, independent and trustworthy—definitely not the kind of person who “stays in front of the TV forever and a day.” Shoshana’s dream was to be a chef, but culinary school costs money, and Army cook was close enough. And it seemed safe enough, too.
But early on the morning of March 23, her father, Claude, was flipping through the channels looking for a cartoon show for Johnson’s 2-year-old daughter, Janelle. He happened to catch a newscast on the Spanish-language network Telemundo. “They said five Americans had been captured in Iraq,” he says. “I caught ‘one African-American female, 30 years old, from the 507th.’ Her name was Shana. I said, ‘It’s got to be her’.”
It was. Now her large extended family, including more than a dozen cousins, are watching and waiting.
Inspired by the relatives of Elizabeth Smart, whose savvy handling of the press helped lead to the return of a 15-year-old kidnapped Utah girl, Shoshana’s relations have appeared all over television and in the newspapers, publicly praying for her release. “I realized media attention is the thing that brought that girl home,” says Shoshana’s aunt Margaret Thorne-Henderson, who has appeared on the “Today” show. “We just want her to be treated humanely,” Nikki told NEWSWEEK, “and to return home swiftly and safely.”
*   *   *   *   *

KFOXTV.com

“We Were A Hot Potato” – Spc. Shoshana Johnson

By David Bennallack – KFOX News Director
“We got turned around and then got lost and we rolled into Nasiriyah before it was secure and when we rolled in there was an ambush waiting for us,” that’s the beginning of a story of courage and survival for El Paso native Shoshana Johnson.
When part of the 507th Maintenance Company rolled into Nasiriyah, Iraq just before dawn on March 23rd, the unit was met with gunfire from every side. 19 507th soldiers were facing an all-out assault, and had little to fight back with. Some of the Ft. Bliss soldiers died where they fell. Shoshana Johnson dove under her truck and was shot – wounded in both ankles, perhaps by the same bullet. Near Johnson were Sgt. James Riley, Specialist Edgar Hernandez, and Specialist Joseph Hudson.
For 15 minutes the battle raged. Then “All our weapons jammed, failed, and people were coming out of the houses with weapons,” said Johnson.
“And then we just got overwhelmed.”
Sgt. James Riley ordered the surrender. The Ft. Bliss Five threw down the weapons and Iraqis pounded on them, kicking and hitting them with sticks.
Not Johnson. They opened her chemical weapons suit “and noticed I was a female,” she said. Then they treated her “very well. I don’t know why.”
Next stop a Baghdad prison. Where the videotape we all saw on TV was apparently made. Johnson said her interrogators asked her about the locations of American divisions. 
“When they finally got that I was only a cook, they started asking me where the food came from, if it was coming from Kuwait,” she said, smiling.
Iraqi doctors performed surgery three times on her wounded ankles. “More than once, a doctor said that they wanted to take good care of me to show that the Iraqi people had humanity,” Johnson said. 
Asked what she thought of that now, she says “I appreciate the care that I was given. But I also know that there was a reason behind it. They didn’t give me care just for the humanity of it.”
As the coalition forces moved closer to Baghdad, the prisoners were moved.
A half dozen times in the last week. Each time there were new guards. “We were a hot potato,” says Johnson “It was getting to the point where I believed they were going to kill us.”
And when the U.S. Marines suddenly knocked down the door, there was another moment of concern. “At first they didn’t realize I was an American,” said Johnson. They quickly realized their mistake and gave her a jumpsuit from one of their light armored vehicles’ crewmen, but she held on to her prison pajamas in a brown plastic bag.
“I broke down. I was like, Oh my God, I’m home,” said Johnson.
And now Johnson says she has one goal, to be at her own home in El Paso by May 20th – her daughter Janelle’s 3rd birthday.
Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press
*   *   *   *   *

KFOXTV.com

Plans For Official Shoshana Johnson Welcome Home Celebration

Friends And Family Begin To Make Inital Plans For Her Return

“It just worked out beautifully. So we just thought there was divine intervention there,” says Claude Johnson.
He attributes Shoshana’s return to a strong sense of hope and a lot of faith and prayer. For him the joy of seeing TV and back in S.S. hands is beyond what he can describe.
“I don’t know if there are any words in any dictionary any encyclopedia that can describe the feeling when you see her and you realize…oh yeah..it’s real. She’s alive…she’s well,” says Johnson.
Well enough to walk on to a military plane, despite several gun shot injuries to her ankles.
Mom receives the good news– Shana Found!
But up until Sunday’s rescue, Johnson says there was a period of uncertainty for his family.
“Oh . . . the period . . . that period from the time we found out that she was a prisoner of war up until the time she came back to us . . . or back in the arms of the u.s. forces, it was extremely stressful,” says Johnson.
He says because there was no news about her, so many concerns were going through his head.
“Where is she? What conditions is she living under? What are they doing to her? And that didn’t lend for good sleeping at all. I would wake up in the middle of the night with all these thoughts going through my mind,” says Johnson.
But those restless nights ended after 3 weeks when Johnson saw his daughter in the company of U.S. marines.
“I was able to get some good sleep, after Sunday. Finally I know that she’s safe, she’s okay and that she’s coming home.”
Although there’s no official word on when she will come home, Johnson says it was wonderful to hear her voice on Sunday when they got the first phone call from her.
“It was great hearing from her. She got to speak to her daughter…and i think that was just fantastic . . . she started crying and then she ended up laughing, you know because she got to speak to everybody.”
Now that she’s safe, Johnson says he is just waiting for the day when Shoshana does make it back.
For her official Welcome Home Celebration there is a meeting planned this Thursday, April 17th at 5:30 p.m. inside the El Paso Times Community Room.
Copyright 2003
 
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On Shoshana Johnson, Jessica Lynch and Disability
In Dissent, Number One Hundred and Forty
by Brian S. Wise
28 October 2003
Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch were wounded in the exact same battle; why is one getting more in disability than the other?

“Shot through both legs and held prisoner in Iraq for 22 days, [Army Specialist] Shoshana Johnson returned home in the spring to a difficult convalescence that lacked the media fury and official hype that attended her friend and comrade in arms, Jessica Lynch,” reported the Washington Post last Friday.  A regrettable circumstance of a regrettable incident, the 507th Maintenance Company’s wandering off course in Nasiriyah and being ambushed last March twenty-third.  “Depressed, scared, haunted by the trauma of her captivity and at times unable to sleep, Johnson walks with a limp and has difficulty standing for long, according to her parents.”  Also most regrettable.
 
“And now that Johnson is on the verge of her discharge from the Army, insult is being added to her injury, [the Johnsons] say.  While Lynch was discharged as a private first class in August with an 80 percent disability benefit, Johnson, set to leave in the coming days, learned last week that she will receive a 30 percent disability benefit for the Army for her injuries.”  The difference is palpable, but not merely financial.  It’s true Lynch’s monthly disability will exceed Johnson’s by as much as $700, but put the money aside for a moment and think about what it means, ideologically, when a soldier who was practically sitting next to an eventual media darling at the time of the ambush cannot merit the same consideration as the current day celebrity.
 
We cannot say whether Shoshana Johnson wanted or expected the media fury that enveloped Lynch, or even a book deal.  (One suspects not; Johnson has had the good sense to avoid the national media thus far, though it would be nice to hear the story of the entire 507th as opposed to one capture and rescue.)  We also cannot say whether Johnson was afforded similar community pleasantries compared to Lynch, but those were hometown movements impossible to intellectually transfer from city to city.  We can say both Johnson and Lynch came about their injuries in the same attack and battle, so there is some wisdom in wondering why one person will receive $125 per week for suffering serious injuries and why the other will receive $375 per week for suffering serious injuries.
 
Enter Jesse Jackson, at the behest of the Johnson family.  Jackson is pretty good at thinking and talking about other people’s money, but even better at getting money out of people and organizations who have no interest in giving it away.  “Race clearly is a factor.  Here’s a case of two women, same [unit], same war; everything about their service commitment and their risk is equal … Yet there’s an enormous contrast between how the military handled the two cases.” 
 
Well, you should be skeptical enough of Jackson by now to consider the first part typical race baiting of the Jackson tradition and par for the course; the implication suggests nothing other than an institutional racism was at work in the decision, something Jackson cannot prove, but that is illogical besides.  Surely there are some black soldiers collecting more in military disability than some whites and vice versa, some whites collecting more than some Hispanics and vice versa, right on down the line.
 
Despite that, Jackson was right to say there was clearly an “enormous contrast” between the handling of Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch, which is problematic because it at least hints to racism and other dishonesties, something the military doesn’t need at any time, but now especially.  It should be said: I have absolutely no knowledge of the processes employed when it’s decided which wounded veteran is entitled to what amount of disability pay; of course it’s possible that many factors unknown to me were taken into account when it came to Shoshana Johnson.  Certainly it’s impractical to suggest every soldier wounded in Iraq should proportionately be allowed what Jessica Lynch was allowed, but how consistent are the current standards?
 
If you believe the military as a whole is an honorable institution that acts in the country’s best interests – and therefore has a vested interest in treating all its soldiers (active, discharged and wounded) fairly – then equal consideration should be lent in equal matters.  Given that Shoshana Johnson was actually shot in combat alongside Jessica Lynch, who wasn’t, that she was held for nearly two weeks after Lynch was rescued and has a child to support, Johnson’s actually seems a superior argument for greater compensation than Lynch’s, and should be reevaluated before an unfortunate, if unintentional, moral mistake is made.
Brian Wise is the lead columnist for IntellectualConservative.com.
   

 
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Essence Exclusive: Shoshana Johnson’s Story
Shoshana Johnson’s Story: To Hell and Back
Shoshana Johnson
Forever etched into our memory is that image: the grainy videotape of a woman with chocolate-brown skin wearing cornrows. She could have been your sister, cousin, best friend. Instead she was a prisoner of war in Iraq.
With terror in her eyes, Shoshana Johnson brought the reality of a conflict that was a world away into our living rooms. A single mother and native of Panama who loves to cook, she had joined the Army to earn money to attend culinary-arts school. But when the news came that she was being deployed to Kuwait, Johnson, who lives in El Paso, Texas, put her car in her parents’ garage, wrote a will, and signed over power of attorney to her parents so they could take care of her then–2-year-old daughter, Janelle.
As she said good-bye to her little girl, she simply said, “Mommy has to go to work.” She didn’t tell her, “Mommy has to go to war.”
 
A month later, on a windy Sunday morning in March, Johnson set out from Kuwait with her unit, the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, in a convoy of Humvees and trucks carrying supplies. But they were ambushed after making a wrong turn near the Iraqi city of Nasiriya. Eleven U.S. soldiers were killed; Johnson was seized, along with four of her comrades, and spent 22 days in captivity before they were rescued on April 13, 2003.
When she arrived home, U.S. military officials prohibited all the former POWs from talking to the news media about their ordeal until the Army released its official report on the incident. For the first time, 31-year-old Shoshana Johnson, the first African-American female POW, tells her story of survival exclusively to Essence features editor Veronica Byrd. Here are some excepts:
 
Veronica Byrd: Would you describe what happened on March 23, 2003, the day you were captured?
Shoshana Johnson: Before we left Kuwait they told us that we would be traveling through two checkpoints and two cities and that we might hit sniper fire. So I knew that was a possibility. But we never expected an ambush. We heard shots and suddenly we were surrounded. We were getting shot at from all directions. I was the passenger in a truck with Specialist Edgar Hernandez. Our vehicle ran off the road. We scrambled for cover and hid underneath the truck so we could return fire. I got off one round and then my gun jammed. All of our weapons jammed because of the sand, so we had no way to return fire. Then I felt a burning sensation in my legs. I knew I had been hit. Hernandez was shot in the arm. After a while, Sergeant Riley said we had to surrender. He was the highest-ranking officer, so he went out first and put up his hands. The Iraqi soldiers came and got me because I couldn’t stand up.
 
Veronica: What happened after you were captured?
Shoshana: I was beaten. They slapped me and punched me in my stomach and back. I remember trying to block a blow from a rifle butt.
 
Veronica: Did the other soldiers try to help you?
Shoshana: They didn’t see it because they were getting beaten, too. And then my Kevlar headgear came off, and the Iraqis saw my braids. That’s when they realized I was a woman. They stopped beating me and immediately separated me from the others.
 
Veronica: Where did they take you?
Shoshana: They put me in the back of an SUV with two guards on each side of me. Then they took me to what looked like an office. I was terrified. There was blood coming out of my boots. Within a few minutes a doctor came in, removed my boots and bandaged my legs. The doctor spoke in broken English and said, “It’s good. Only on soft tissue.”
 
Veronica: What happened after that?
Shoshana: We were taken to Baghdad. Then I was examined again, and I was blindfolded during that. My pant legs were already rolled up so the doctor could see the bandages that the first doctor had put on. He unwrapped my legs and cleaned the wound. And he told me, “You need antibiotics. I’m going to give you a shot.” He said he had to give me the shot in my butt. I knew I needed the antibiotic, but I didn’t want to take any more pain medication when they offered it to me. I had taken some right before we left the first location and it had made me feel really out of it. So when the doctor asked me if I wanted more, I said no. He commented, “Strong woman.” I thought, Shut the hell up. I’m not a strong woman. It hurts! But I’m not stupid. I didn’t want to be in that state of mind again.
 
Veronica: I still remember the first time we saw you, right after you had been captured. What was going on when the videotape was made?
Shoshana: They shot that video within the first hour after we were captured. I was sitting in a chair, and someone with a camera came into the room. They asked me basic questions: my name, age and where I was from. It wasn’t an interrogation. I kept looking left to right because the guy who spoke English was not the same person with the microphone. So one would say something in Arabic and the other would interpret the question. The taping lasted about five minutes.
 
Veronica: This is a difficult question to ask. Were you raped or sexually assaulted in any way?
Shoshana: No. But in one prison the guards kept commenting that I should stay and marry an Iraqi man. At first I thought it was a joke, but after they kept saying it, I started to think they were going to keep me. One guard seemed to really like me and even tried to hold my hand one time. I would kind of duck away from him, but I always wondered when he would not let me say no. That was always in the back of my head. But there was this older guard who moved his bedding and slept right outside my cell door. I saw him when I woke up and banged on the door to ask to go to the bathroom. He did that, I think, to protect me. After that night, I never saw the other guard again.
 
Veronica: You must have spent a lot of time praying.
Shoshana: I did. I prayed that I would survive, but I also prayed that if I didn’t, that at least my body would be found. I wanted my parents to have a body to bury. Because if they didn’t have a body to bury, they wouldn’t be at peace. I know my mother. She wouldn’t give up until she had a body. I said, “Lord, if I die, make it quick and let my body go home to my mother.”
ESSENCE MAGAZINE, MARCH 2004.
 
 
The complete interview—including the day Shoshana thought was her last, and her feelings about the more favorable treatment of Jessica Lynch—was presented in the March 2004 issue of ESSENCE
 
 
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Shoshana Nyree Johnson (born 1971) was the first black female prisoner of war in the military history of the United States. Johnson was a Specialist of the U.S. Army 507th Maintenance Company, 5/52 ADA BN, 11th ADA Brigade. During a gun fight that lead to her capture she suffered bullet wounds to both of her ankles. She was freed in a rescue mission conducted by United States Army Special Operations Forces on April 13, 2003. She was held prisoner in Iraq for 22 days along with four other members of her unit including:
  • Spc. Edgar Hernandez
  • Spc. Joseph Hudson
  • Private First Class Patrick Miller
  • Sgt. James Riley – 31-year-old bachelor from Pennsauken, N.J. As the senior soldier present it was he who ordered the surrender.
  • Jessica Lynch – Part of same 507 unit but held separately in a different location

Contents

Biography

Johnson, a second-generation U.S. Army veteran, is a native of Panama, and moved to the United States with her family when she was a child. She is the eldest child of retired Army Sergeant First Class Claude Johnson and wife Eunice. Johnson was in the ROTC at Andress High School, although she did not plan a career in the military. She was a JROTC cadet in 1991 and joined the U.S. Army in September 1998 while attending classes at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). She has two sisters, Nikki Johnson and Erika Johnson.
 
In February 2003, while serving her second military assignment at Fort Bliss, Texas, Johnson received orders to deploy to Iraq and carry through her duties as a Quartermaster Corps Food Service Specialist (MOS 92G) with the 507th Maintenance Company, 5/52 ADA BN, 11th ADA Brigade. Shoshana enlisted with the duty of preparing meals. She says that she had no intention of going into combat. Her company’s duty was to supply mechanics to repair the Patriot missile trucks housed at the post.
 
On March 23, 2003, one month after her arrival to serve as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Johnson was in a convoy that was ambushed and taken captive in the city of Nasiriyah. Iraqi troops ambushed her supply convoy when it took a wrong turn. There had been bitter fighting around Nasiriyah, a vital crossing point of the River Euphrates. Johnson was among a dozen soldiers in the convoy who was captured. She received a bullet wound to her ankle, causing injuries to both legs.
 
Janelle, Shoshana’s two-year old daughter was taken care of by her grandparents while Shoshana was on duty in Iraq. Claude learned of his daughter’s fate while flipping through the channels, to find a cartoon for his granddaughter. Telemundo was broadcasting Al Jazeera footage of the POWs being interviewed by an off camera reporter for the Middle Eastern network. This capture was later confirmed, when the couple was summoned to Fort Bliss.
 
In April 13, 2003, after subsequent house raids conducted by U.S. Marines of the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division in the city of Samarra, Johnson was rescued along with six other prisoners of war. They were welcomed as heroes in the United States on April 16 with a cheering crowd of over 3,000 people. The U.S. Army recognized them for courage, valor, and service with several awards.
 
In December 12, 2003, Johnson left the U.S. Army on a Temporary Disability Honorable Discharge. Johnson was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War Medal for her service in Iraq and has received numerous awards and recognition for her courage, valor, and service to the United States. She has presented talks throughout the nation about her experience as a prisoner of war, and has been recognized with standing ovations from small groups to over 65,000 people at select events hosted by public and private organizations.
Johnson currently resides in El Paso, Texas with her daughter Janelle.

Controversy

Critics have accused the military and media of racism in that they focused attention on Jessica Lynch, a white woman, rather than Johnson, a black woman. CNN reported that “Lynch got a million-dollar book deal and more in disability payments from the military than Johnson. Some said it was a long standing and well documented issue of race in the military. Shoshana Johnson says reports that she and Lynch were at odds aren’t true.”[1]

Book deal

Johnson signed a book deal with Dafina Books to write her story with Paul T. Brown, titled One Wrong Turn, which will tell her side of the story and tell more about some of her fallen comrades.[2]

Military awards and decorations

Quotations

  • “Just stay strong. Keep your dignity. Try not to let them break you.” – Advice to then-POW Shoshana Johnson from her sister Nikki
  • “She always had an angel following her around. She always manages to get out of stuff. Hopefully her angel is still with her.” – Nikki Johnson on her then-POW sister, Shoshana’s good luck.

References

  1. ^Then & Now: Shoshana Johnson“, CNN, May 26, 2005. Retrieved on 2005-06-19. 
  2. ^Former Iraq POW Johnson signs book deal“, USA Today, August 10, 2006. 

External links

 
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 RELATED LINKS:
“SHOSHANA JOHNSON AND THE GANGSTERS OF WAR”: http://www.blackcommentator.com/71/71_fr_shoshana.html
 
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Thank you so much, Shoshana, for all you have given to protect us. Your patriotic duty, your putting your life on the line is more appreciated by me than you will ever know.
 
SALUTARE.
SPC Shoshana Johnson receives a hug after landing in Kuwait City.

 

12 Comments

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12 responses to “SPC. SHOSHANA NYREE JOHNSON: I WILL NOT LET HER BE FORGOTTEN

  1. THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling this story so completely and so powerfully! I will mention this post to my readers this weekend.

  2. Shoshana and Jessica’s stories could not have been more different. Jessica was severely injured, near death upon her rescue. Shoshana, shot in both legs, did not sustain the injuries that would warrant as much disability payment.

    As for their stories: I attempted to contact both Jessica Lynch and Shoshana Johnson while doing research for my book, “Marines in the Garden of Eden.” Neither responded to my request for an interview. Still, I told both their stories.

    As a matter of fact, I told much more of Shoshana’s story on the day of the ambush, than Lynch’s. I also told the story of every member of the 507th ambush. Eleven soldiers and 18 Marines were killed that day in Nasiriyah.

    Let’s not forget those Americans either:

    1. SPC Jamaal R. Addison

    2. SPC Edward J. Anguiano

    3. Sgt. Michael E. Bitz

    4. LCpl Thomas A. Blair

    5. LCpl Brian Rory Buesing

    6. Sgt. George Edward Buggs

    7. Pfc. Tamario D. Burkett

    8. Cpl Kemaphoom A. Chanawongse

    9. LCpl Donald Cline, Jr.

    10. Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy

    11. PVT Ruben Estrella-Soto

    12. LCpl David K. Fribley

    13. Cpl. Jose A. Garibay

    14. Pvt. Jonathan L. Gifford

    15. Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez

    16. Pvt. Nolen R. Hutchings

    17. PFC Howard Johnson II,

    18. SSgt Phillip A. Jordan

    19. SPC James M. Kiehl

    20. CWO2 Johnny Mata

    21. Cpl Patrick R. Nixon

    22. Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa

    23. 2Lt Frederick E. Pokorney Jr.

    24. Sgt. Brendon C. Reiss

    25. Cpl. Randal Kent Rosacker

    26. PVT Brandon Ulysses Sloan

    27. LCpl Thomas J. Slocum

    28. Sgt Donald Ralph Walters

    29. LCpl Michael J. Williams

    These men and a single woman came from all walks of life and every corner of this nation. They died in the service of their country. Please remember them.

  3. La Reyna

    Thanks again for writing Shoshana Johnson’s story and her place in American life.

    She deserves better than what America dished out to her. She needs to be honored just as Jessica was honored when both were captured in Iraq.

    She won’t be fogotten.

    Stephanie B.

  4. Shoshana Johnson

    Mr. Lowry how can you tell my story if we have not spoken. I can speak for myself. Please stop using me to promote your book. Haven’t I given enough?

  5. Ann

    Ms. Johnson.

    Thank you for your comments and thank you for stopping by my blog.

  6. Aguy

    Let it be known that any Black person who serve for the US military is a fool. It is better just to hit the library and study.

    You risk your life for spoiled white kids, who would not lift a finger if you lay dying in the street.

  7. kyle

    DD Form 149, Sep 1997 application for corrections of Military records under the provisions of title 10 us code, section 1552

    She got out of the military on TDRL 50%, dont seem right even with the appeal! gun shot wounds may amount to the 50%, BUT the PTSD was that included in her retirement, or was there even a Diagnosis or PTSD?? 2003 Ptsd wasnt thought or vastly or at all, kind of sad that till resently its being reconized.

    DID she recieve CRSC when she got out to supplement for not recieving retirement from the military (concurrent reciept)? july 2009 ‘pittance’ is she eligable for that?

    questions inform thy self..wanted to share it took me to too long to find these terms, if your allotted through change due to military service take if your so choose.

    hope all works out for her, found it interested I found out about her today is it my ignorance or public media not sharing the info at fault? doesnt matter all lead me to today and im happy with that.

    I did like her ” ” in the P/R sounds like a good women!

  8. Pingback: SHOSHANA NYREE JOHNSON: “I’M STILL STANDING: FROM CAPTIVE SOLDIER TO FREE CITIZEN” « BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS

  9. BARBARA ORTIZ

    iam ablack american frm a military navy family
    i never thought this woman got a fair treatment
    she sacrificed just being in harms way to serve her country. why shouldnt she get the same benefits
    as Jessica Lynch. It shows MARTIN LUTHER KINGS speeches were in vain. IT BOILS down
    to one thing.PREDUJICE

  10. CElliott

    She was ignored because she was black or because Jessica Lynch was a cute blonde and it made a better story. No one was ignored, the only reason Lynch became a huge interest was because she was taken seperatly from the others. Everyone knew it was going to be alot worse for the soldier who was seperated from the others and had to work quicker on rescuing her first. Thats it!!!!

    • CElliott

      I meant, she wasn’t ignored because she was black. Better make that clear before everyone reads my error and flipps out.

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