Drumbeats from Philip Barron tell us that the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee issued a report titled, 'Misleading Information from the Battlefield: The Tillman and Lynch Episodes'. The main subjects of the report are Patrick Tillman (former NFL football player killed by friendly fire) and Jessica Lynch (captured POW). LaVena's case is mentioned in Section IX: Other Cases Brought to the Committee's Attention:
"The Committee’s majority staff was also contacted by the family and friends of Private First Class LaVena Johnson, a weapons supply manager from Florissant, Missouri, who died, family members say, in a suspicious non-combat incident near Balad, Iraq, on July 19, 2005. According to news reports, the Army ruled the death a suicide, and a medical examiner concurred with this finding. But Private Johnson’s family believes Army investigators ignored physical evidence inconsistent with a finding of suicide. They also believe that the Army has additional information about the circumstances of Private Johnson’s death that it has not shared with the family.
While the names of these soldiers are not as well-known as Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, their sacrifices were just as great and their families are just as deserving of the truth."
Now is the time for all villagers to urge further Congressional action.
You do so by contacting both of your US Senators and your member in the House of Respresentatives. You ask them for renewed and transparent investigations into the LaVena Johnson death.
