How far have women really come?

       As a college student you hear so much about life after graduation.  You worry about whether or not you will obtain a job, but most of all how you will pay off the student loans you owe.  This has crossed my mind numerous times and because I am the type of person who likes to be prepared for what my future upholds.  A solution that I came up with is to join either the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army, etc. In my head my plan was ideal.  Serve my four years and then come out and let the government pay for me to earn my degree.  I would be gaining experience too! Everything seemed so perfect.

        Tonight I came across a video that struck a nerve. PFC Lavena Johnson was pronounced dead in July of 2005.  The military declared it as a suicide but according to a story published by David Zucchino in the LA Times,"There was no suicide note, no recovered bullet and no significant gunshot residue on her hands. But the Army cited fellow soldiers' reports that she was depressed and has spoken of killing herself."  What raised eyebrows is when her father requested a disc that contained close up photos of the body and other material regarding the autopsy and they denied him.  As a father he became suspicious and knew he had to look deeper into the situation.  Once he filed a Freedom of Information Act request it was released to him and what he found was horrible.  The LA Times says,

    "Johnson maintains that his daughter was raped and killed, and that her death scene was staged to make it appear as if she shot herself.  He accuses the Army of covering up for a killer or killers to conceal a soldier-on-soldier slaying, explaining that military personnel would have had unrestricted access to the area where his daughter died and therefore would not have attracted undue attention. If Lavena's death were investigated as a homicide, Johnson added, it would raise questions about base security and discourage women from enlisting." 

        With something like this occurring and with so much conflicting evidence you would think that this case would be jumped upon. But it wasn't.  According to militarycorruption.com, "An Army spokesperson, LTC Anne Edgecomb, arrogantly sniffed that the Johnson case "has been thoroughly investigated by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and is considered CLOSED.""  How are we as women supposed to feel?  We go into the Army with the thought process that we are doing something good for our country and if anything we will be free from a horrific violence such as rape.  That is just the last place you would think that something like that would occur.  Where are we really safe? Obviously not under our government!

        PFC Lavena Johnsons parents were not the only ones who encountered such a problem.  The LA times says, 

  "Of the 115 female service member deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, 16 have been ruled suicides.Overall, 205 of the 4,868 military deaths in those wars through Jan. 31 were ruled suicides. The 128 reported Army suicides in 2008 were the most in one year since the Pentagon began keeping track of suicides in 1980."

I know one thing is for sure. This is definitely giving me second thoughts about what I want to do with my future! Check out the video I viewed below.