I'm Still Standing: From Captive U.S. Soldier to Free Citizen--My Journey Home Shoshana Johnson with M.L. Doyle
CellyBlue's June Book Review
There is always a First. The First African American Female Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison. The First African American Female Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, The First African American Female Vice President, Kamala Harris. The First African American Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Jackson-Brown.
An then there is U.S. Army Specalist Shoshana Johnson, the First African-American Female Prisoner Of War in U.S. military history. Shoshana Johnson made history on March 23, 2003 when as a U.S. Army cook attached to the 507th Maintenance Company, a unit of mechanics and technicians in Iraq, while traveling with her convoy, were ambushed after taking a wrong turn in the city of An Nasiriyah. During an intense firefight and after several machine guns had jammed and with no other viable options available, Johnson’s unit surrendered.
Johnson received bullet wounds in her ankles that rendered her barely able to walk. Eleven soldiers were killed and seven soldiers taken and held as POWs in various cities in Iraq. Including Private First Class Jessica Lynch, and Private First Class Lori Piestewa. Piestewa the First Native American Female Prison Of War died of her wounds soon afterward. Jessica Lynch, was taken to a different location and was rescued days later. I am sure those of us who lived through this time knew who Pvt. Lynch was but not many had heard of Specialist Johnson.
There was a vehicle - a civilian vehicle that pulls in front of us, I think it was a dump truck or tow truck or something. And we ended up going to the side of the road, and I jumped out the vehicle. Here comes Sgt. Riley. Hernandez comes flying out the vehicle, and we go underneath the vehicle to take cover and return fire. I think it was not even a minute underneath the vehicle, I get shot, both my legs, then Hernandez gets hit in the arm. Sgt. Riley says his weapon is jammed. And I hand him mine. And I remember I gave it to him flap down, which is totally wrong. It gets dirt in the mechanism. And of course, it wouldn't fire after that. Next, you know, Sgt. Riley says, you know, we're going to have to surrender. - Shoshana Johnson
From 507th Maintenance Company, it was me, Joseph Hudson, James Riley, Patrick Miller, and Edgar Hernandez. We were captured immediately and taken and separated. When they went back to check the vehicles, they found Jessica alive and took her to the hospital in Nasiriyah. - Shoshana Johnson
The POWs were soon on their way to Baghdad. Their captors paraded them through a series of towns along the 200-plus mile journey. Enraged by the American invasion, mobs of locals surrounded the truck, shaking it from side to side and screaming what Johnson assumed were obscenities and death threats in Arabic. At different points, men spit on Johnson and reached in and slapped her across the face. She knew that, given half a chance, the mob would have torn her limb from limb.
Shoshana Johnson is a second-generation U.S. Army veteran, a native of Panama. She was 5 years old when she emigrated along with her family to the United States. She is the eldest child of retired Army Sergeant First Class Claude Johnson and his wife Eunice. In 1991, Johnson was in the JROTC program at Andress High School. Although she did not plan a career in the military, she wanted to attend culinary school, so she joined the Army to save money for tuition. She joined the US Army in September 1998 after dropping out of University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
While not entirely sure why she, a cook for the Army, was being deployed to Iraq, Johnson became the first black woman POW in U.S. history. The story she tells creates a vivid picture in the reader’s mind detailing what it was like to be a POW, what conditions she had to endure and how she was rescued.
Several Iraqis, such as the doctors who treated Johnson’s bullet wounds, are portrayed quite sympathetically. “I will do my best to care for you,” the author quotes one as saying. “We must show the world our humanity.” Indeed, Johnson and her fellow prisoners were mostly treated humanely by their captors, who provided them with food, clothing and medical attention. Still, Johnson brings across the brutal stress of being a POW and how it haunted her long afterward.
In her book, Johnson describes one night in her prison cell.
“Fierce battles raged around us the entire day and night. I cowered on that thin mattress worried that at any moment one of the bombs would find our building. The entire structure shook and rattled all night long.” Being the only woman in the group, Johnson was constantly separated from the men, forcing her to endure much of the nightmare alone.
The last section of the book, after she and her fellow POWs are returned to the United States, is perhaps the most unexpected.
Marines were tipped off on the location of their fellow soldiers, and 22 days after their capture, Johnson and the six other POWs were rescued. “I looked around at the young faces of the Marines and was overwhelmed by their bravery,” she writes about her rescue. - Shoshana Johnson
Toward the end of her memoir, Johnson says she doesn't remember being raped, but that she also can't remember large portions of that first day. She sometimes wonders if her subconscious blocked out a sexual assault, because it took her years to be intimate with a man again, and to this day is still not entirely comfortable with it. She does remember that under the guise of searching her, one of the guards grabbed her breast and squeezed. Hard. Another guard half joked, half threatened to find her a "nice" Iraqi husband.
Johnson became a minor celebrity after her return, but she found that some in the military resented that she was being hailed as a hero. Some even felt that her unit had ineptly lost their way in An Nasiriyah and had thus deserved to be captured. Johnson debunks such accusations while still relating their sting.
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Those who were take as Prisoners of War (POW’s)
Spc. Edgar Hernandez - Mission, Texas.
Spc. Joseph Hudson - Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Spc. Shoshana Johnson - El Paso, Texas.
Sgt. James Riley - Pennsauken, New Jersey,
PFC Patrick Miller - Wichita, Kansas,
Pvt. Jessica Lynch - Palestine, West Virginia. Part of same unit but held separately in a different location
On December 12, 2003, Johnson left the U.S. Army on a Temporary Disability Honorable Discharge. Johnson was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War Medal for her service in Iraq and has received numerous awards and recognition for her courage, valor, and service to the United States.
I’m Still Standing is a profound look at endurance, courage and strength. It causes us to remember that when placed in certain situations one never knows what they may do and how they would have the strength to do it.
We must always remember Freedom is never free!
To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe only the truth - Voltaire
CellyBlue - I Do Know This.
Thank you for this powerful account review. I can’t imagine anyone thinking, let alone voicing the idea that anyone “deserved to be captured”. War isn’t awful enough?
Thank you for this very enlightening weekend read and for putting this very important piece of herstory (not history) in your Stack!