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A Tale of Two Soldiers
By Christine Phillip, BET.com Staff Writer

Posted October 24, 2003 -- Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson, the African American
women who was held prisoner of war in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, was looking
forward to a quiet discharge from the Army in a few days.

Battle scarred and weary, she has said not a word as her fellow POW comrade
in arms Jessica Lynch cashes in with book and movie deals and a celebrity
status in the media.

But it is the Army that is forcing Johnson to break her peace.

A few days ago, military brass informed her that she would receive a 30
percent disability benefit for her injuries. Lynch, who is White, was
discharged in August and will receive an 80 percent disability benefit.

The difference amounts to $600 or $700 a month in payments, and that is
causing Johnson and her family to speak out. The are so troubled by what
they see as a "double standard," that they have enlisted Rev. Jesse Jackson
to help make their case to the news media.

Jackson, who plans to plead Johnson's cause with the White House, the
Pentagon and members of Congress, says the payment smacks a double standard
and racism.

"Here's a case of two women, same [unit], same war; everything about their
service commitment and their risk is equal. . . . Yet there's an enormous
contrast between how the military has handled these two cases," Jackson told
The Washington Post.

Johnson's father, Claude Johnson, himself an Army veteran, says that while
neither he nor his family begrudge Lynch her celebrity or disability
payments, he believes that his daughter should get her due, and it is more
than a 30 percent disability benefit.

For its part, the Army, in denying charges of double standard, said Friday
that claims are awarded to soldiers according to their injuries.

Johnson, 30, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, was held captive for 22
days, when her unit stumbled into an ambush in southern Iraq last March.
Eleven solders were killed, and six, including Lynch and Johnson, were taken
prisoners.

Johnson was shot in both legs and is still traumatized by her war
experience. In addition to walking with a limp, she suffers from bouts of
depression.

Why do you think Johnson is getting 50 percent less in disability benefits
than Jessica Lynch? Lynch's "fame" or racism or what?

joseph hertzlinger

Weren't you celebrating when a neo-Nazi converted to Islam?

--
http://hertzlinger.blogspot.com

paredon

"Joseph Hertzlinger" <jcyclespersecondlongisland@nine.reticulatedcom.co m>


Islam does not celebrate converts!