WASHINGTON - August 4, 2008 -
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Private LaVena Lynn Johnson killed
herself on July 19, 2005, eight days before her twentieth birthday. Exactly how
did she end her life? She punched herself in the face hard enough to blacken
her eyes, break her nose, and knock her front teeth loose. She douched with an
acid solution after mutilating her genital area. She poured a combustible
liquid on herself and set it afire. She then shot herself in the head. Despite
this massive self-inflicted trauma, she somehow managed to drag her then fully
clothed body into the tent of a KBR contractor, leaving a trail of blood along
the way, and finally set the tent ablaze in a failed attempt to cover up her
crimes against herself.
If this story sounds plausible to you, you may have missed your calling as an officer in the U.S. Army, because Army officers, speaking with a straight face, would have you believe that such a thing is not only possible, but actually happened.
In reality, LaVena Johnson was raped, beaten, and murdered by someone on a military base in Balad, Iraq, and the Army doesn’t want you to know about it. Army officers most especially didn’t want her parents to know about it, so they concocted the suicide story, informing them that their daughter had shot herself in the head in her barracks.
When LaVena’s body was returned to her parents, however, her father, Dr. John Johnson, immediately noticed that her nose was broken and her lip was torn. He was surprised to discover that her gloves were glued to her hands (as it turns out, to hide burns). As a former military man himself, he also recognized that the exit wound from the bullet could not possibly have come from the weapon the military claimed LaVena used to kill herself. He knew then that the Army was lying to him, that his daughter had been murdered. He made these discoveries three years ago. Today, the Army is still lying to him, and to us.
LaVena Johnson enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating from a Missouri high school because she believed it was right to serve her country. She loved America, was very patriotic, and she thought joining the military was the best way to express that patriotism. Although her mother had assumed that her daughter, a violinist and honor student, would go straight to college, LaVena had made other plans. After her death, her company commander described her as having been "clearly happy" during her time in the Service. She enjoyed her job, took pride in it, and cared about the U.S. Army.