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By Christine Phillip, BET.com Staff Writer -Posted October 24, 2003 --

Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson, the African American woman 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. They 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 soldiers 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.

So I ask that you forward this email on to all and inform others of this latest racial attack. Forget about the destroying of stamps, forget about Kobe, forget about Michael Jordan getting fired and fight for the rights of this strong Black Woman!!!

D Sharp
Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal, P.C.
St. Louis, MO 63105
Phone 314-727-2266
Fax 314-727-2101

Yuh see dis kinda ting does make me rel vex! The woman was good enough to fight in the war but she's not good enough to be properly, and equally compensated...some things just never change!

This is sickening to me : how can someone figure out degrees of being affected by war. I had a high school freind who's father fought in Vietnam came out without a scratch yet he has nightmares and he drinks. You don't to be shot or be a POW to have nightmares or suffer depression or any effects of war. Vets should get equal compensation period.

Only in America.

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

I couldn't have said it better.......dat's why i was never too keen on joining the services......i doan think i'll ever be keen.

I just can´t believe it!

Me fight for this country, HAAHHAA!!
That is y everytime they call meh mother does tell dem ah living trinidad:p