Does this sound like a suicide to you?
LaVena Johnson, Private First Class, died near Balad, Iraq, on July 19, 2005. She was 19 years old.
According to the Army, her death was a suicide, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Uh huh.
Here’s the evidence in the case:
* Two loose front teeth and a “busted lip” that had to be reconstructed by the funeral home, though these were not mentioned in the Army autopsy.
* A dislocated shoulder, though this apparently wasn’t mentioned in the Army autopsy either.
* Severe bruising on her body, ditto.
* The absence of psychological indicators of suicidal thoughts; indeed, testimony that LaVena was happy and healthy prior to her death.
* Indications, via residue tests, that LaVena may not even have handled the weapon that killed her.
* A blood trail outside the tent where Lavena’s body was found.
* Indications that someone attempted to set LaVena’s body on fire.
The Johnson family and their supporters have been petitioning the Army to re-open its investigation, but so far the Army is distinctly uninterested in doing so. “Suicide,” says the Army. Open-and-shut case.
Uh huh.
Dr. John Johnson believes that his daughter’s murder (and surely that’s what it was) occurred in connection with a sexual assault. Either LaVena was raped and murdered in one attack, or she was raped and then later murdered in retribution for reporting it.
Here’s Dr. Johnson talking about his daughter:
What Dr. Johnson doesn’t say in that clip is why he thinks sexual assault was involved, so I’ll tell you why: because our female soldiers in Iraq are getting abused and raped in astounding numbers.
Sexual assault in the military isn’t new: studies of female veterans from Vietnam to the first Gulf War found that 30% had been raped and 90% sexually harassed. And every indication is that it’s even worse in Iraq. Women make up a bigger percentage of our forces over there than they have in any previous war; something like 1 out of 7 American soldiers in Iraq is female. These women are right there in combat alongside the guys, riding in the tanks, doing the searches, facing the same dangers. But the shared risks don’t mean that the male soldiers are inspired to treat their female comrades as comrades. “Meat” is more like it:
Spc. Mickiela Montoya, 21, who was in Iraq with the National Guard in 2005, took to carrying a knife with her at all times. “The knife wasn’t for the Iraqis,” she told me. “It was for the guys on my own side.”
“There are only three kinds of female the men let you be in the military: a bitch, a ho or a dyke,” said Montoya, the soldier who carried a knife for protection. “This guy out there, he told me he thinks the military sends women over to give the guys eye candy to keep them sane. He said in Vietnam they had prostitutes to keep them from going crazy, but they don’t have those in Iraq. So they have women soldiers instead.”
In the current Iraq war, which Pickett spent refueling and driving trucks over the bomb-ridden roads, she was one of 19 women in a 160-troop unit. She said the men imported cases of porn, and talked such filth at the women all the time that she became worn down by it. “We shouldn’t have to think every day, ‘How am I going to go out there and deal with being harassed?’” she said. “We should just have to think about going out and doing our job.”
Women soldiers in Iraq are in so much danger from rape by their own male colleagues that they are routinely instructed never to go the latrines or showers without a female buddy (or several). And it’s not just the so-called bad apples who commit these crimes. Commanding officers, team leaders, sergeants, lowly GIs — they all get in on the rape action. The obstacles to even reporting these assaults are so high that the vast majority of perpetrators get off scot free. Meanwhile the victims — those who have the courage to report what happened to them — are routinely ostracized and penalized for being “traitors.”
Given all that, it’s no surprise that the Army isn’t even remotely interested in justice for LaVena Johnson.
Well, screw that.
Here’s the petition you can sign demanding that the Army re-open the case. And here’s the website devoted to the case, where you can find a list of suggested further actions. And here, once again, is the post at Shakespeare’s Sister, which is how I learned about the story.
*****
One more thing here, which I’m putting below the fold, as it were, so as not to get my rant poo all over the LaVena Johnson story and thus distract readers from their God-given duty to go sign the fucking petition. And that’s this: every time somebody suggests that all the raping of our female soldiers in Iraq is the result of the stress of combat and the way war turns people into predators, I wanna get up out of this blog and whack that somebody upside the head. ‘Cause dig it: our male soldiers aren’t assaulting each other, aren’t expressing their angst by attacking each other, are they? And our female soldiers aren’t assaulting male soldiers, aren’t ganging up to attack male soldiers. The stress of combat applies to everybody over there, but the rape violence is unidirectional and specific in its target: male soldiers assaulting female soldiers. And that’s because hatred of women, violence towards women, is interwoven into the fucking DNA of Western machismo and Western military culture. Women are the “other,” they are the despicable thing, the non-masculine thing, the thing to be used and abused, conquered and destroyed. I’m not a veteran but I grew up on military bases, and there is no more misogynistic culture on earth.
And that’s why, to be honest, whenever I hear the usual pablum about “supporting our brave men and women in uniform,” etc., I do a little virtual puke. I respect the women over there and some of the men, but I know damn well that a large percentage of the male soldiers in our military are pure grade-A asshats.
18 Responses to “Does this sound like a suicide to you?”
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Ollie says:
Great post!
I read an amazing analysis of how the military and misogyny go hand in hand because the enemy is often “otherized” by ascribing feminine characteristics to them. Alas, I cannot remember where I found it - I’ll have to do some searching.
This would also explain why rates of domestic abuse and violence against women seem to be higher on military bases than in the civilian population (something else I need to hunt down - I really need to start an inventory of these studies!).
August 21st, 2007 at 6:34 pm EST -
Violet says:
I did a post a long time ago on this topic (The Global War on Women) and I really recommend one particular article I linked to: Why the War is Sexist: Wars enlist patriarchal relations to carry out their operations. The author of that piece pulls together the whole picture, including the higher levels of domestic violence on bases.
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flawedplan says:
Signed. I hope the activism makes a difference It’s horrible to think about what happened to this poor woman, and that the investigation resulted in suicide is all part of institutionalized misogyny. They have to close the books to hide the truth of what happens women, because they don’t care, can’t stop it, and assume it’s a risk women take and tough shit. And they keep that attitude secret, from themselves as well, so there’s no way to confront the underlying cause of what goes on and no possibility of changing the conditions. What conditions? There are no particular conditions here, people kill themselves, case closed.
It’s on all right. Justice for Lavena and condolences to her loved ones.
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Darius Smith says:
Would it help to call Reps. and Senators? Maybe ABC, CBS, NBC?
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will says:
great post. It should be investigated more seriously. Thanks for the info on it.
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Timothy Shortell says:
Thanks for linking to the petition. I signed it. I hope the Army investigates. I can’t say I am optimistic though. I am sure that those in charge know where the investigation would lead and that would “undermine troop morale.”
(Some day: a world without governments would be a world without professional soldiers.)
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Ollie says:
Thanks for the link, Violet. Seems I have some reading to do. I read your post (The Global War on Women) as well, and I have to tell you that I love your writing - especially the way you tell off jerks in comments.
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ginmar says:
I have to say, it’s been my experience that sexism tends to be present from the top down. Also, I just tend to associate sexism with the grunts, although of course the higher ups could be sexist, too. This is an example from my own background. A guy who outranked myself and another female soldier boasted to still another soldier—who outranked him—that he’d fucked both of us. That’s sexual harassment. Senior NCO there should have informed the guy he was in violation of the UCMJ. Instead, he teased both of us women about this guy. That’s the way shit gets handled sometimes.
I say sometimes because I had the best commander in the world, but his first sgt. was a cop in real life who believed rape victims asked for it and who disobeyed orders himself.
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Julian says:
The sad truth is that the military not only enforces the selfish, violent mindset that leads to crimes like this, but actively go out of their way to find people like that with their recruiting process. When I was thinking of joining up, the big thing they talked about was how many women I’d have sexual access to. I can’t speak for other people, but I can say this; they lost themselves at least one recruit with that woman-hating, self-indulgent, adolescent b.s.
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Victoria says:
Signed. God, I feel so numb and horrified.
Thanks for doing this, Violet. (I see now Feministing is posting on this too now, good.)
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Robert says:
Nice job, Violate!
After reading your insights, I can’t
begin to tell you how even MORE
disgusted I’ve become with the rank
hypocrisy and criminality that now pass
for honor, duty and patriotism in America
these days.Truly, as an American today I a man without
a country! -
Laurelin says:
Great post, Violet. Thanks for letting us know about this.
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Gayle says:
I signed. Hope I’m not too late.
Thanks, Violet!
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bob c says:
Saying it outloud, GREAT! I think John Lennon said “woman is the …… of the world” To many anyway! Please forgive the vulgarity, but this is a vulgar thing.
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Sis says:
We hear that a lot here too. Support our military. Fuck that. There’s no draft; these men want to play war. They are fully prepared to kill someone, so please, don’t ask me to bow my head when someone kills your son. You were so proud that he was going to go over there fully prepared to kill someone else’s son.
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ginmar says:
That’s bullshit, Sis, and a slap against the woman this post is about, along with all the other women in the military. BEfore Bush II, you could serve a career without firing a shot anywhere but on the shooting range, so fuck you. It wouldn’t kill you to learn something about the military before you spout off about it.
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Mortality says:
Won’t let me sign, cos I’m not from the US :(
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The Ghost of Violet says:
Just pick a state, any state. That’s what the other non-US signers have done.
(Yes, the form should have been designed better.)
