by Philip Barron on September 4, 2008 · 3 comments
The parents of PFC LaVena Johnson, John and Linda Johnson, are scheduled to be interviewed on The Jim Bohannon Show on Monday night, September 8, during the 11 pm hour. Also scheduled, during the second half of the hour, is Coz Carson of US Talk Network, who interviewed John and Linda in August. Carson will speak about media coverage on LaVena’s story, particularly the role of alternative media outlets.
(Note: Coz Carson will return to LaVena’s story on US Talk Network with an interview of LaVena’s uncle, Joseph Johnson, at 2 pm Eastern on Friday, September 5. Carson plans to host someone connected with this story each week.)
The Jim Bohannon Show is aired weeknights over the Westwood One radio network. Bohannon, a Vietnam veteran, is also the host of the weekday America in the Morning and the Sunday program America This Week.
by Philip Barron on September 3, 2008 · 4 comments
You are doubtless familiar with the marketing slogan first announced by the United States Army in 2006: “There’s strong, and then there’s Army Strong.”
In its battle to win the hearts and minds of recruiting-age Americans, the Army is replacing its main ad slogan — “An Army of One” — with one it hopes will pack more punch: “Army Strong.”
The new approach, the fruit of a $200 million-a-year contract with a major advertising agency, was announced Monday by Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey. He said “Army Strong” will be the centerpiece of a multimedia ad campaign to be launched Nov. 9, timed to coincide with Veterans Day weekend.
Army Strong stands for a big idea. It speaks to the truth about the U.S. Army – that Soldiers develop mental, emotional and physical strength forged through shared values, teamwork, experience and training… that by making the decision to join the Army, an individual is choosing to recognize potential strength within him or herself and develop it further… that an individual Soldier is choosing to take charge of his or her future and career… that Soldiers actively choose to make a difference in their lives, their families, their communities and for their nation.
It is a big idea, echoed in television, radio, and online advertising, including the GoArmy.com website. The focus here is on the personal development of the individual soldier and the fostering of a very special kind of strength – that only the Army can provide – to aid in that development. Buried here, however, is the question: Strength for what?
An army is a collective, and its value lies in its collective force. Any soldier will acknowledge the crucial importance of teamwork, the blending of strengths in a common task. One of the most crucial common goals is support for fellow troops: taking care of the man – or woman – at your side, and leaving no soldier behind. “Army Strong” should mean that much if it means anything at all – and, again, it is hard to imagine that any soldier would find fault with that.
When the Army fails to take care of one soldier, then the Army’s strength has failed.
I began blogging about LaVena Johnson and launched the original petition to the two Armed Services Committees because of the Army’s blunt dismissal of the concerns of LaVena’s family over the investigation of her death. The service’s bureaucratic refusal to answer the Johnsons’ questions about how LaVena died and how Army investigators arrived at their conclusion of suicide was evidence of a failure to care about family – one military family in particular and by extension everyone in what former Secretary Harvey called “the Army family.”
In the absence of this fundamental support from upper echelons, it is up to each individual soldier on the ground – the men and women who served with LaVena – to provide the last act of caring possible now, to step forward and speak on her behalf. That would be an act of strength.
Though I am a civilian – I have never served in the military – I want very much to believe in an Army that cares for its own and fosters individual strength for noble common purpose. But when I see or hear those “Army Strong” advertisements, all I can think of is LaVena.
by Philip Barron on September 2, 2008 · 2 comments
LaVena’s father, Dr. John H. Johnson, has submitted a profile of LaVena in order to provide a little more background on the kind of person she was as a daughter, a student, and a soldier. This essay has been posted on this website’s About page.
The one-page color handout on LaVena Johnson so kindly created by Kriss Avery of the Gateway Green Alliance in St. Louis has been updated to reflect the current petition to Rep. Henry Waxman and the House Oversight Committee which he chairs. The link has been updated in previously published entries mentioning the handout. The document is available for anyone who wants to help spread the word about LaVena and the effort to prompt a new investigation of her death in Iraq. Thank you!
Sharing the city of Denver with the Democratic National Convention this week is a gathering of activists, delegates and elected leaders from across the country, sponsored by The Progressive Democrats of America and The Nation. Progressive Central – the Central Presbyterian Church at 1660 Sherman Street – has already been the site of great conversation about progressive issues, with more scheduled over the coming days. Monday saw PDA panel discussions on “Healthcare NOT Warfare”; that afternoon, the “NOT Warfare” discussion featured Ann Wright – retired United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department; and a representative from Iraq Veterans Against the War – talking about the sexual abuse of women soldiers. As regular readers of this site know, Col. Wright has been an invaluable ally of the parents of PFC LaVena Johnson in their fight to have the case of their daughter’s death in Iraq reopened. A video of Col. Wright’s portion of the discussion is available:
Also on the “NOT Warfare” panel were Rep. Lynn Woolsey, Co-chair CPC and PDA Advisory Board member; Norman Solomon, author of Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State; and Kathleen Snyder, Gold Star Mom.
In a July 31 story by Z. Byron Wolf, ABC News notes the murder of pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach and the wider story of sexual assault against women in the U.S. military. The news report, drawing on testimony given before he Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs – a panel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – is titled “Sex Assaults Against Women in Military ‘Epidemic’”:
Mary Lauterbach, the mother of murdered pregnant Marine Maria Lauterbach, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the military must change the way it deals with sexual assault to avoid more tragedies like her own.
“I believe Maria would be alive today if the Marine system had been different,” her mother told a panel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which held a hearing Thursday on sexual assault and rape in the military.
There were no representatives from the Marines at the hearing, and the head of the Pentagon office tasked with responding to the problem of sexual assault in the military was ordered by her superiors not to testify despite a subpoena from the committee.
The refusal of the Department of Defense to allow subpoenaed witness Dr. Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, has been noted by activist and retired Army Col. Ann Wright writing for Truthdig, by Christy Hardin Smith of Firedoglake, and elsewhere. More from ABC:
Lawmakers could not ask [Whitley] to address the issue of sexual assault and what steps have been taken because Deputy Defense Undersecretary Michael Dominguez had barred Whitley from testifying, despite a Congressional subpoena.
Dominguez told the lawmakers he knew everything about the program and didn’t need Whitley’s input to answer their questions.
Dominguez was given a bipartisan dressing down on this point by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the Oversight Committee. “I don’t know who you think elected you to defy the congress of the United States,” he said.
Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., the ranking member, said he will support Waxman’s pledge to hold Whitley and Dominguez in contempt. They dismissed Dominguez without taking his testimony.
As the family of PFC LaVena Johnson continues to press Congress and the Army to investigate the possibility that LaVena died in connection with a sexual assault, the refusal of the military to address these crimes against women will come in for even greater criticism.
As stated before, it should be noted that the chairman of the subcommittee
