Women soldiers in the Iraqi-Afghanistan theaters have mostly been ignored, save when they can be trotted out for the cameras like Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Used by the armed forces in greater numbers, women soldiers are not only serving in ways their predecessors never got to. One in three women who join the military will be raped or sexually assaulted by men in the military. Of the 94 women who have died in Iraqi or in Operation Iraqi Freedom, 36 died from "non-combat related injuries."
One of these was Pfc. LaVena Johnson.
Pfc. LaVena Johnson was an honors student from St. Louis, Missouri, who joined the Army after graduation in 2003. Photographs show her with a brilliant, engaging smile; she played the violin, participated in walks for the American Heart Association, and donated blood. Upon joining the Army, she was assigned as a weapons supply manager at Fort Campbell, KY, to the 129th Corps Support Battalion.
On July 19, 2005, she became the first woman soldier from Missouri to die while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Shakesville has a brief account of what happened. The horrific element is that Pfc. Johnson's death was labeled by the Army as a suicide. Her father, Dr. John Johnson, didn't believe his daughter had killed herself, and told himself and the Army coroner, "Somebody murdered my daughter, and you picked the wrong person to fuck with."
Through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and Congressional offices, Dr. and Mrs. Johnson, their family, and their friends relentlessly hounded the Department of the Army for answers about LaVena's death. They requested documents, and every piece of evidence led to yet another piece that had to be demanded and claimed. It took two and a half years before the Johnsons were able to see what had happened to their daughter.
CommonDreams.org recounted the discovery:
After two years of requesting documents, one set of papers provided by the Army included a xerox copy of a CD. Wondering why the xerox copy was in the documents, Dr. Johnson requested the CD itself. With help from his local Congressional representative, the US Army finally complied. When Dr. Johnson viewed the CD, he was shocked to see photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter’s body as it lay where her body had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken during the investigation.
The photographs revealed that Lavena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been struck in the face with a blunt instrument, perhaps a weapon stock. Her nose was broken and her teeth knocked backwards. One elbow was distended. The back of her clothes had debris on them indicating she had been dragged from one location to another. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her body. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned apparently from a flammable liquid poured on her and then lighted. The photographs of her genital area revealed massive bruising and lacerations. A corrosive liquid had been poured into her genital area, probably to destroy DNA evidence of sexual assault.
Despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in the burning tent. There was a blood trail from outside a contractor’s tent to inside the tent. She apparently had been dressed after the attack and her attacker placed her body into the tent and set it on fire.
Investigator records reveal that members of her unit said Lavena told them she was going jogging with friends on the other side of the base. One unit member walked with her to the Post Exchange where she bought a soda and then, in her Army workout clothes, went on by herself to meet friends and get exercise. The unit member said she was in good spirits with no indication of personal emotional problems.
The Army investigators initially assumed Private Johnson’s death was a homicide and indicated that on their paperwork. However, shortly into the investigation, a decision apparently was made by higher officials that the investigators must stop the investigation into a homicide and to classify her death a suicide.
As a result, no further investigation took place into a possible homicide despite strong evidence available to the investigators.
The Johnsons are demanding an investigation into LaVena's death, much as the Tillmans demanded one into the death of their son Pat. Unfortunately, the petition to the Armed Services Committee of the Senate and the House closed on May 24, but you can still contact the relevant members by going to this page:
The Armed Services Committee Members, House and Senate
Many thanks to Shakesville and CommonDreams.org. Their accounts can be found here:
Shakesville: Congress Must Investigate
The Pfc. LaVena Johnson Petition
CommonDreams.org: Is There An Army Cover-Up of Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers?