On July 19, 2005, 19-year-old Private First Class LaVena Johnson, stationed in Iraq, stuck an M-16 rifle in her mouth and pulled the trigger. At least that’s what an Army medical examiner told her family.
The House Armed Services Committee announced Tuesday that the committee is looking into her death but said no decision has been made regarding a formal investigation.
Her father, John, a psychologist and motivational speaker, said, “She had a bullet entrance wound in the left side of her head, but LaVena was right-handed.” The bullet was never found and the young soldier looked as if she had been badly beaten.
Her mother, Linda, who spoke with her on the phone two days before she died, said, “She was her bubbly self. This wasn’t someone thinking of killing herself.”
Her father argues that the death investigation photos indicate that Johnson was “raped and murdered and that her body was dumped in a contractor’s tent and set afire”.
A spokeswoman for the House committee said she does not know when the committee will decide whether to open a formal investigation into Johnson’s death. For more information, visit lavenajohnson.com.
DR. CARSON HONORED
Dr. Benjamin S. Carson Sr. was recently announced as a recipient of this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. He and the other winners will be honored at a White House ceremony on June 19.
Be sure to check out Dr. Carson’s Black History Spotlight.
EX-OFFICIAL SUES NASCAR
Mauricia Grant is suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
Grant, who worked as a technical inspector from January 2005 until her termination, said, “I loved it. It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world. But there was an ongoing daily pattern (of harassment). It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it, it trickled down from the top.”
Grant said she was referred to as “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba” by coworkers, was told she worked on “colored people time”, and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.
Additionally, Grant was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers and graphic and lewd jokes. Two of co-workers allegedly exposed themselves to her.
Her lawsuit lists 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination between January 2005 and October 2007. An excerpt of Grant’s 40-page lawsuit is available on The Smoking Gun.
How can you not believe in karma? What goes around comes around is very serious. If something happened to you and you didn’t deserve it, then it’s just your time to leave this Earth. Sometimes the innocent has to pay for what others have done. One person could be starting mess and the whole town, city, state or country has to pay for it.
only dumb niggaz that wanna get killed joins the army
The military is an entirely different world. If you are not a veteran then you would not and could not understand. I am female and my job was not to carry a gun and shoot anybody. I had a great job that helped me get an even better job once I got out. I loved the military and it can be a great place for women. They just have to pick the right job. You people do know that you have a choice right? I guess thats the problem. Those of you commenting about the military know nothing about it.
@whom ever said black people dont belong in the military please stop. If you live by that philosophy then black people dont belong in America either. If your ass has a job and you pay taxes then you are serving America in one way or the other so why not the military. And the military is not racist. People are racist
This is to the first story, i feel so bad that they arent doing a full on investigation. If it was a white women that was raped, beaten, and murdered they would have already have done a full on investigation. There shouldnt be no ifs and buts it should not matter how she was killed, they should be down there figuring out who murdered a soilder that was down in Iraq serving our country.
MY CONDULENCES GO OUT THE THE FAMILY!!!!!
SORRY TO HEAR WHAT HAPPENED THAT IS A CRYN OUT SHAME!!!
GOD BLESS!
@ JA WHAT!!!!! “The Army is like any other job.” Are you serious!!!! 95% of “any other job” don’t train their employees to kill people. Let’s keep it real, that’s what the military is all about, killing people. That’s not why we are in Iraq, we are not there t”to help those in another country obtain the same rights that we as American take for granted” Remember we was there because they WMD. Then it turns around and it’s about bringing democracy in the country. Who are we to go into another country and tell them what to do? You will never see that happen to the U.S.A.We all why they’re there, it to get control of the oil. They can less about the Iraqi people. Why not help in Darfur where they need help? Look I respect soldiers decisions to enlist, but I don’t support them or any war.
Sorry for the typos, i was typing to fast.
Rest in Peace Lavena Johnson, you were a beautiful young lady taken away to soon. I hope they can find the real truth in this case. I know everyone who played a part in her death is going to get their’s FOR SURE!!!!
Dr. Ben Carson is an amazing person, He should be a role model and hero to everyone.
Mauricia Grant, I hope you get compensated accordingly. Those bastards deserve to pay!! NASCAR….racist?? Of course not, they’re some of the nicest, most open, diverse people in AmeriKKKa!!!!
@61 I’m not calling you stupid but what you said was stupid. No disrespect.
You still didn’t answer my question. If there’s such a thing as karma, then that girl got what she deserve right? How would you explain miscarriages when the mother did everything right? It doesn’t make any logical sense. What about people who do good things and yet can never get a break. Nothing good comes there way. Karma says if you do good things, good will come your way. Explain that to me.
The Johnson case happened in 2005 and we are just now learning of it…that’s a tragedy in itself. Young women are enlisting to serve their country and in return their country does them a terrible “dis”service by not bringing their murderers to justice. Is the military so desperate for enlistees that they will resort to letting murderers go free just so they can keep them in the uniform? This young woman deserves justice and the government has a responsibility to give it to her. If the military refuses to protect women, then women should not join. If the army is really about serving and protecting, then they are failing miserably in their mission.
WHAT????, What the heck are you talking about. What basic training or AIT (Advanced Individual Training) have you ever been in. You must watch the news and base your opinions off of an infantry guy getting killed. They are the ones that are getting killed most of the time. But anyways like I said I was in the army for five years and dont recall 95% of my time talking about killing the enemy. My daily duties were just like any regular job and the only time we did anything was when we went to the “field” and we still didnt just talk about killing. Please have some facts “What???”. The amount of ignorance is making my tummy tickle…..lol!!!
She is so cool.Her father argues that the death investigation photos indicate that Johnson was “raped and murdered and that her body was dumped in a contractor’s tent and set afire”.
Lindsay’s joining on the famous free interracial dating site I n t i m a t e m i n g l e DOTC o m.. ? Is this news true or not? who knows…
Those who keep saying that the military does nothing but “train people to kill” has their stuff all messed up. Not everybody in the military goes through training like that. They go through boot camp training for fitness, and survival purposes. The doctors in the military aren’t trained to kill, the chefs that are in the military aren’t trained to kill, the nuclear engineers, painters, computer techs.. i could go on. Im going to need you selected few to research your information, without using the news, or “he say she say” as a research tool.
Cosigned Judah 100%.
i guess movies are to blame too.
I live here in the stl area, and the paper here said that her nose was smashed in , and she had LYE in her vaginal area
D.LANI THANKS SO MUCH FOR ELABORATING ON MY POINTS….I AM SO OVER THIS CONVERSATION. THE MATTER AT HAND IS THIS POOR SOLDIER WHO WAS KILLED, AND YET TO FIND ANY ANSWERS!
Congrats to Dr. Ben Carson. I am a nurse at Hopkins on a childrens unit and everytime I see him, I am starstruck. I still havent gotten enough courage to speak though…LOL.
That’s rednecks 4 yah. Especially North Carolina. YES CHARLOTTE– NASCAR COUNTRY!! It’s like slavery never ended in that place. This is an everyday thing for dark skinned Blacks in the South. Fact is Nobody gives a damn, Administration, police, law, the Whites have it. She might get a million just so she’ll go away, but $225….Ain’t gon happen, NOT THERE. I mean they just intergrated the scools a few yeas ago LOL
Can we quit trying to play detectives and let the investigators sort out the mess. My condolences to her family. I don’t believe in war, I on the other hand do respect how others feel about it and their decision to be in the military. I think this name calling and this arguing back and forth is ridiculous for this post. Let’s just hope this woman’s family get the justice they deserve and move on.
I’m not surprise about the NASCAR incident. 225 million is ridiculous she isn’t going to receive nothing close to it if any. SMH.
That’s a good look for Dr. Carson
I am a resident of St. Louis, MO; the city that the soldier Lavena Johnson was from, and the local media has done it’s best to keep this story out there, but the MSM (mainstream media) has grossly refused to take notice. I agree that if this was a caucasian young woman with Lavena’s identical character and background that this would have been covered by Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams! Not to worry though, her family is committed to the truth and I applaud there diligence. We here in St. Louis have watched the difference in this story of a local war hero being ignored while another “local” soldier, Pat Tillman, was honored, given a medal of valor posthumously, and then later to be found out that his hero efforts that reported that he charged the enemy to safe his comrades was a lie and that he was killed by his own men. This story made 60 Minutes. I believe that any movement starts from the ground up (also Obama’s message), and that is is up to “us” to urge our local and national media of why this is not NEWS worthy. Remember, it could have been your sister, cousin, girl or daughter. P.S. This sister had been accepted at a good university upon graduation, but chose the military to help pay her tuition as to not burden her family. This is the thanks that she and her family get for that commitment and decision.
smh @ the military trying to cover up that girl’s death….that sh-t sounds like murder damnit.
@ the woman that worked for nascar….mostly rednecks run that….. I hope she wins big. Smh @ all this racism and sexism in 2008.
they kill people even here in England, i live near the Army Barracks site and you can hear gunshots and some of those have been known to be people being shot by thier own colleagues, i cant say were i live exactly as i would probably get into trouble but we even know eye witnesses. Black peeps do not join the army- spare yourselves.
Now im not an expert on guns or anything, but if your right handed wouldnt the hole be in the left side of your head if you shoot through the mouth, unless you angle your hand to insure that it would go through the right side…?
Anyhow, I definitely wouldnt be suprised if they 1 dont do a full investigation and 2 are trying to cover something up. I just dont agree with black people in the service. I pray daily that my kids NEVER make the decision to join. We’ve served our country long enough oka
And as far as Nascar is concerned, they DEFINITELY need to be blasted on every news station. But again I wouldnt be suprised if the allegation are true, hell i wouldnt be suprised if she didnt get anything for what they put her through…
I live next door to Lavena’s family and we graduated high school together. I know for a fact that Lavena’s dream was to go fight for her country. She always knew that’s what she wanted to do so I can’t imagine her going over there then commiting suicide. When they flew her body back to St. Louis they had done plastic surgery on her. One of her teeth were missing. I’m not saying that they are definitely lying or covering up something but they were very secretive with her family.
#68 You really are digging into me aren’t you? It’s cool though. No disrespect to you either. I don’t think there’s anything logical about karma. But it must be real because everyone has a saying for it whether it’s karma or what goes around comes around or reaping what you sow, but it’s all the same. I’m glad you mentioned people doing good things not getting a break. What do you consider a break? There are a lot of blessings in disguise that people don’t even realize. You may have stopped to help someone out stranded on the highway and in return you avoided a bad accident. If you do something wrong and you know it was wrong, it will come back to haunt you. Maybe not in the same form or fashion but it will come.
Now, if you do everything you were supposed to do and you had a miscarriage, then it was not your time to have a child. Maybe the Lord was not ready for you to have a child as yet. Maybe that child could have grown up and could have done a lot of damage in the world or could have caused you a lot of pain so the Lord says nope not yet. With this soldier, I don’t know her so I can’t say if she was a good or bad person. If you are truly a good person, and something like this happens to you, then you have done what you were put here to do and now the lord is taking you away from this crappy earth to live in peace with him.
My Lord…Please investigate if nothing more than to help this family with closure….if someone is responsible for her death, then they should be bought to justice!
I hope that they get down the bottom of LaVena’s case. That is crazy!
The Nascar suit is sickening! She needs to sue for more.
Just in general, the commentary that I see most most of the black women that were in the armed forces always revolves around a job or money. No integrity or understanding about your people at all but it is what it is.
@Sha Boogie
One thing I always find pervasive amongst blacks that were in the military is how when they come out, they either come out really sober or really obtuse. I thought that the army provided you with money for an education? That can’t be true because you obviously still can’t read properly. I said that I have no respect for anyone in “that uniform”, not “a uniform”, lol. Your conduct is one of the main reasons why. I always respect people in McDonald’s uniforms because that’s where many of you army negroes end up, or like I’ve said already, in a homeless uniform. I know that you don’t believe that you’re there to “just fill a slot”, but you are. There’s no doubt about that and the only thing that the woman’s presence in the army does is cause confusion. The only reason why women are allowed in the army is as an alternative for the male soldiers to engage in sexual relations with as opposed to raping the women of the conquered land. Furthermore it was the offspring of the feminist movement. America is modern day Rome. It’s power and prestige is predicated off of the fear that it’s armies instill in the other nations, and to maintain that power, they need as many people as possible. No peaceful nation would have women in their armies because they wouldn’t need women. This is how one knows that they will bring the draft back because these campaigns in the Middle East have depleted their ranks. That’s when their going to throw women like yourself onto the front lines and make you prove that you love your country.
I can tell by your simple, aimless rhetoric that you don’t even know what’s going on in that land because you speak as if people should take your word for something without providing any insight. The things that I say are based on research, not opinion. You didn’t have to tell me that you don’t know where women belong. I already picked up on that, lol. This is a generation that mistakes confusion with freedom, which is why you have transgender men having children and the like. What’s funny though is that even though you claim to not know where a woman belongs and what she should be doing, I bet that you think you know what a man’s role is don’t you, lol?
There’s still time for you and “JA” to volunteer for duty sis since you’re both so passionate about it. It’s better that negroes like yourselves grab that rifle for master because me and mine certainly will not. Someone’s legs have to be blown off by those roadside bombs fighting a war with no purpose, and I’d much rather it be negroes like yourselves than a black person with sense. You’re both far more qualified. Black people with sense will be needed to fight the real war. This is why it’s hilarious to me when people say that they support the troops but not the war. That’s like saying that you support the bullets but not the gun. It’s uncanny how many of these armed forces commercials I see that are blatantly geared towards the recruitment of blacks and hispanics, specifically black men. It’s obvious that the want to use our people as cannon fodder.
And another thing #68, good people die everyday. That doesn’t mean that they deserved it and that it was karma, it was just their fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it. But for whomever beat that girl and killed her, and for whomever tried to cover it up, like my boyfriend says, FIREBURN PON DEM!
Damn Judah, who are you and where do you come from? Lol… No seriously
Thats so sad of a story, especially for the parents of the soldier. If it appeared was suicide which I greatly disregard, it sad that the reason that the soldiers are even in Iraq is all par tof Bush’s scheme.
http://triplerdeezee.blogspot.com/
@91
I’m from The Bronx, NY.
wow judah…i’m speechless. very good intense read. Love your comment.
@kia you said: ” Now, if you do everything you were supposed to do and you had a miscarriage, then it was not your time to have a child. Maybe the Lord was not ready for you to have a child as yet. Maybe that child could have grown up and could have done a lot of damage in the world or could have caused you a lot of pain so the Lord says nope not yet.”
Okay I don’t believe God has nothing to do with miscarriages nor do I believe in destiny. Now if God was the cause of miscarriages, then explain why Hitler, Stalin, Osama Bin Laden, Idi Amin, and countless others were born? We make our decisions and we choose either to do good things or bad things. There’s countless of bad mothers out here who don’t raise their children right and their children becomes a meance to society. If God controls pregancies, then why do he feel that they are ready to be mothers and not those who will be great mothers and raise good children are not ready? Some in fact never have the children they so desperately want. Why then, would God withheld the joy they would have from being a parent? That isn’t loving.God is love right?
you said: ” You may have stopped to help someone out stranded on the highway and in return you avoided a bad accident.”
That’s not karma, that’s just being at the right place at the right time.
I know good people die, I had a family member who died that was a good person.
What does :FIREBURN PON DEM! means? LOL!!!! I’ve been scracthing my head trying to figure that out. LOL!!!
I have to end this with saying it’s good to know that I can come on here and talk to someone who won’t act ignorant and do all the name-calling that is a pervelent on this blog.
@Judah Your comment about America being the new Rome is the truth. If y’all don’t believe it, then where do you think things like senators,congress, taxes (etc) come from? Rome! Our so called “Founding Fore- Fathers” (or whatever they call them LOL!!!) didn’t come up with nothing new or groundbreaking. History is subject we all should be more interested in. Nice post Judah.
Every.post.that.Judah.comments.on.I.follow.through….the.brother.knows.so.much!!!
However,although.knowledge.is.power,it.can.also.be.dangerous…..careful.bro.
@47 sorry for your loss!
It’s really a shame what happened with the young lady, furthermore I don’t remember seeing her story on the news, running the story over and over and over again! Don’t mean to make it a race thing but that’s what it seems to be, because I’d bet my last dollar that if Miss Johnson was white, we would still be hearing about the case.
Congrats to the Dr. for the award!
Hope all turns out well for Ms. Grant.
I’m so sorry to hear about the tragedy of Ms. LaVena Johnson. My prayers go out to her family.
My only question about the nascar situation is why did she wait so long to take action??????
Very sad about LaVena Johnson. I hope her family gets the answers and closure they deserve soon. They’ve waited far too long already.
Dr. Benjamin Carson continues to excel and shine. Congratulations.
How sad that Mauricia Grant had to endure this kind of harassment by her employers and coworkers. I’ve never been to a NASCAR event, (I don’t really get it. Cars just going around and around a track and sometimes crashing doesn’t excite me) but judging by the people who love it, I have to say I’m not surprised.. But a corporation of this size should have never let it get to this point. You have to do provide sexual harassment training, not because it’s not stuff that any adult with sense DOESN’T know but so when people violate, you have grounds to fire. Then everyone knows where the line is. Unfortunately, the fact that it was so pervasive suggests racism and sexism is part of the culture there.
Judah I must say eloquently spoken. Let’s lift up these blinders we have on and see America for what America really is.
I’m really sorry to here that something like that happened to Lavena Johnson. I’m glad her family is fighting for justice and the truth.
#94, Still going at me I see. Well, I never said God controlled all pregnancies or miscarriages. I said that maybe God had other plans for the woman. Just because she had a miscarriage the first time doesn’t mean that she can’t try again. And if she just can’t have kids at all, there’s always adoption. She can bring joy into some orphan especially if she really wanted kids. God does not withhold joy, people do.
I understand that you don’t believe in destiny but some of us do. When it’s your time to go, then it’s just your time to go.
As for the bad people being born, then there’s a reason for them as well. People make there own choices as to whether they want to walk a good path or a bad one. Those bad people may have inspired others to become great people. Just because a bad mother raises a bad child, does that mean they will remain that way? Also, I never said stopping to help someone and avoiding an accident was karma. That was my explanation of good things happening to good people. A blessing in disguise. My explanation of karma is you will get what’s coming to you if you do something bad knowing you were wrong. That’s it.
What does Fireburn mean? Well I said that’s something my boyfriend says. What does it mean? It’s the same as saying hell will be hot for some people.
I’ve had a family member die as well. Great person. They also inspired another family member to study medicine to find better advancements on their condition.
I’ll end in saying that we just don’t have the same beliefs and that’s perfectly fine. I’m just explaining what I know and what I’ve seen. I’ve seen karma and I’ve seen things happen for people who walk the right path. I’m to old for name-calling but I don’t know everything either.
My high from Ben Carson’s achievement just went down, after reading that 40 page complaint by ex. nascar worker Mauricia Grant, that shit just depressed me. It makes all my faith and hope dissapear. I hope she gets every bit of that 225 million, and uses it to piss on all those mother f*****. Anyways moving away from that, to all you people that thinks women shouldn’t be in the military, Your not comprehinding the point. Her parents are trying to prove she didn’t kill herself. whether or not she should be in the military should not take away from the fact that she had may been raped and murdered, a crime is still a crime, that doesn’t give a someone the okay to rape and kill, just because they believe she shouldn’t be in the military, DUH!
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