Found dead on the military base in Balad, Iraq in July, 2005, a short time after she began serving there, the United States Army ruled 19 year old Pfc. Lavena Johnson’s death as a suicide resulting from a self-inflicted M-16 rifle shot wound, and sent her home in a box. This ruling despite the fact she was found with a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, acid burns on her genitals (which some suggest were to eliminate DNA evidence of rape), a trail of blood leading away from her tent, and a bullet hole in her head . Five years later I m hard pressed to find any mention of Lavena Johnson, save a rare OMG – WTF post from someone who has only recently discovered the case. There was some coverage in Australia last year, as the story suddenly popped up there as if it hadn’t been heard before.

I wrote of it in The New Yorker, Obama, and Real Tragedy, only a couple of years ago — the first of several posts I wrote on her case. Though the incident occurred in the summer of 2005, that summer of 2008 was the first I had come across it. The coverage at it’s peak was found most often in a few progressive newspapers and blogs. Despite a petition with 50,000 signatures instigated by Color of Change, and in the summer of 2008 an oversight hearing on sexual assault (by the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs) — to address sexual abuse in the military, the hope that Lavena’s case could be presented were shattered. Lavena’s case was not addressed, the case remains a suicide we all know never occurred.

Time passes, I understand. Obama gets elected, banks fail, we lose a our money, tea baggers go nuts, oil gets spilled, Lindsey Lohan gets drunk, Michael Jackson dies, someone is dancing with the stars, and insurance companies win. For all our losses we are preoccupied, and a murdered young solider and the subsequent cover-up, no matter how horrific, slip our mind.

That Lavena Johnson is not the first, and will not be the last, bear keeping in mind, on this memorial day.

Lavena Johnson: The Silent Truth

Link Collection:

Lavena Johnson

LaVena L. Johnson
Lavena Johnson
Press release from Color of Change.org(50,000 sign petition)
Female Buyers Beware of Obama’s Call to Service
Who Murdered Army Pvt Lavena Johnson?
The Cover-Up of a Soldiers’ Death
The tragic story of LaVena Johnson
Defense Dept. Uncooperative in Sexual Assault Hearings
LaVena Johnson’s Update:Oversight Hearing on Sexual Assault in the Military This Morning at 10:00 EST
Color of Change Launches Campaign to Get hearings for LaVena JohnsonTracey Barnett: Women GIs in fear of the enemy in their army
Suicide or Murder? Three Years After the Death of Pfc. LaVena Johnson in Iraq, Her Parents Continue Their Call for a Congressional InvestigationU.S. Army Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, RIP
The Next Pat Tillman-Style Cover-Up?
LaVena Johnson: Raped and Murdered on a Military Base in Iraq
LaVena L. JohnsonLaVena Johnson: Murdered By Her Colleagues, Ignored By The Army
Justice for Pfc. LaVena Johnson

The famous “Just Wow” link for the day is, Walter Reed Officials Asked: Was Hasan Psychotic?. They asked this some time ago, long enough ago to have prevented this. There is something very strange, very wrong, and completely messed up here. We live in a country where you can get kicked out of high school, or at least expelled for the term, for carrying Motrin or Tylenol, but they won’t kick you out of the military, or even do a proper investigation if you are possibly psychotic and antagonistic toward the country you are serving?

The highly regarded “I’m loving it” link goes to The Hiking Artist.

The dreaded “you should vote” link goes to The World Challenge 09 finalists. There are 12 chosen finalist all innovative and awesome in their own right. My four choices use sun, shit, refuse, and disaster for the greater good. My top picks are Fuel Cell Kenya, Solar Sisters India, The Love in Haiti Project which many of you have probably already heard plenty about, and Old School Thai. Go find your favorites.

The rare “I’m sad I no longer live in N.Y. because I can’t go to this” link belongs to 33rd Annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival .

The coveted link, “My favorite non fiction blogelle” (a short piece posted to a blog), for this week is Get a Wife from the travel series Nowhere Slow at the Bygone Bureau.

The final and usually ignored must read link, Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance.

A research team at Harvard Medical School ( yea, yea, probably socialist), estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.

The researchers, who released their analysis today [Tuesday], pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture.

Peace

We struggle with making amendments to prevent rapists from getting away with rape, yet we rush to protect those who had a choice.

We have hearings about the consequences of grown men making conscious decisions (no pun intended), to concuss themselves into stupidity for monetary compensation, yet we have a hard time allowing Lavena Johnson’s case in front of even the most insignificant of committees.

If only we spent a fraction of this time asking questions about the murder/cover-ups of women soldiers like Lavena Johnson, and similar incidences, I’d feel a little bit better about Congress’s purpose.

A player entering the NFL is aware that he is going to take a beating, aware he could even end up somewhat more stupid on exit than when he arrived. I am certain that 19 year old Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson did not expected to be lying in a pool of blood, murdered, raped, burned with chemicals, and pronounced a suicide by a gunshot to the head, in a very large cover-up that has yet to be publicly addressed.

You’d think we’d be just as interested in protecting our female soldiers as we are in protecting our football players.