Three women soldiers were part of that ill-fated unit, Army Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, Pfc. Jessica Lynch and Johnson. Reportedly, Piestewa died from injuries she sustained when the vehicle she was driving crashed during the ambush. Piestewa was the first Native American woman ever killed in combat. Last month, Native Americans successfully lobbied to have a mountain in Arizona named Piestewa Peak, although many Arizonians insist on retaining the old, racially offensive name, "Squaw Mountain," and the federal registry has yet to recognize the change.

Johnson was shot twice and endured weeks of harsh captivity. She was one of those paraded before Iraqi cameras, with films shown around the world. Her face, wan with fear, was burned into the memories of people everywhere.


Question. Why does Lynch getting medals on NATIONAL TV with pics plastered all over the media for surviving a car crash that she can't even remember, and kept in a hospitial bed during her whole "capture", and then brought home to a hero's welcome while Johnson was actually shot and taken prisoner is given the bum treatment by the White House and the Pentagon? Why? Because she's...

W-H-I-T-E.

There's no propaganda value in pushing a story about a black American woman P.O.W. when you have a pretty white blonde one to splash across the screen for Middle America. What? You don't believe it was propaganda? Then how do you explain the early stories the Pentagon put out on Lynch and how she fired weapons and fought off her attackers and she herself was shot and even STABBED in battle? All of which has proven to be untrue.




... She (Johnson) virtually disappeared after her return to the United States.

In contrast, Lynch has been hailed as a hero. The 20-year-old supply clerk apparently was held separate from the others. Then, on April 1, after 10 days in captivity, Lynch was rescued by a covert Special Forces Unit. And an early press account, apparently relying on Pentagon sources, claimed Lynch had been wounded after an incredible feat of heroism, emptying her M-16 into Iraqi soldiers even after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds.

"She was fighting to the death," one unnamed official told the Washington Post. "She did not want to be taken alive." "Lynch continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her," claimed the Post on April 3, in a report that now has been largely discredited.

The Pentagon now acknowledges that, unlike Johnson, Lynch was never shot and probably never fired her weapon.

Still, it is Lynch, described as "waif-like" and "blonde" from a small town in Palestine, W. Va., who has become a national hero. The New York Times reports that media outlets from CBS to MTV are bidding for her story, and that her family is wading through several million-dollar deals for books, documentaries and made-for-TV movies. The Lynch family, reported the Times, is expected to sign with an agent in the near future.

All of this in spite of the reports that Lynch more closely resembled a "patient of war" rescued from a hospital full of hospital personnel, most of whom were treating Lynch for injuries sustained when her vehicle crashed into another vehicle while fleeing Iraqi forces. Lynch was not suffering from bullet or stab wounds. She never fired her gun.

Three weeks after Lynch's rescue, Johnson emerged with her fellow soldiers, hobbling to the rescue helicopter, suffering from bullet wounds in her ankles. Rumors of her bravery never surfaced. Declarations of how she fought off her attackers were never reported. Tales of her bravery were never told. There were no documentaries with smiling former schoolteachers and friends with stories of her ambitious youth. Just as during her weeks of captivity, Johnson seemed to have disappeared...


"I don't think anything should be taken from Jessica Lynch," Milney said. "I just wish they'd show more attention to Shoshana."


Shoshana Johnson Shies From Heroine Honors


NAACP honors wounded GI Shoshana Johnson

Associated Press
Posted July 17 2003, 1:49 PM EDT

MIAMI BEACH -- Spc. Shoshana Johnson, a former Army prisoner of war in Iraq, was honored at the NAACP's annual armed services and veteran's affairs awards dinner.

Johnson, who wore her full-dress uniform and a blue walking cast on her right leg, said she plans to make a full recovery from her injuries received after she was shot in both ankles during a March 23 ambush on her unit near Nasiriyah.

``That doesn't stop me,'' said Johnson, referring to her injury. ``I'm still a soldier. I've been back to work and everything like that, and I expect to make a full recovery.''...




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