How terribly sad. So good to know that the parents are determined that the truth will not be silenced ultimately. Until I saw this, I was not aware that many women had been murdered in the military by their own.
I hope that young woman's family can get the justice that they deserve. The father said she was raped before she died, unfortunately that is all too common of a story. For some reason the amount of rapes during war times is astronomical. I read somewhere that 33% of women in the military have been sexually assaulted.
This is why I've never cared much for the military. Shit like this is more common than the general public realizes. Not necessarily murder, but the rape and misogynist treatment of female soldiers and the sheer amount of coverups and denial that our military engages in is disgusting. Then whenever they get called on it they always have a bunch of higher ups who spout the same "zero-tolerance" bullshit while simultaneously embracing "Boys will be Boys" mentality in regards to rape.
http://www.midtownfilms.com/?page=lv_doc&tab=1 Most shocking, was a CD Dr. Johnson received of photographs taken by Army investigators of his daughter's body as it lay where it had been found, as well as other photographs of her disrobed body taken just prior to the autopsy. These photographs reveal that LaVena, a small woman, barely 5 feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds, had been brutally beaten. The photographs of her disrobed body showed bruises, scratch marks and teeth imprints on the upper part of her torso. The right side of her back as well as her right hand had been burned and there was clear evidence of sexual assault. As the Johnsons explain in our interviews, despite the bruises, scratches, teeth imprints and burns on her body, Lavena was found completely dressed in a burning contractor's tent. There was a blood trail outside the tent. She apparently had been dressed after the attack and her body moved into the tent and set it on fire. What the hell.......what the hell. This is disgraceful.
the military is nothing more than a small-scale representation of the nation at large. to say that you don't care about the military, is to say that you don't care about civilians in the real world. You have more rapists, murderers, domestic abusers, pedophiles and other assorted miscreants walking the street in civies working 9-5, than you do in the armed forces. Denials of just about everything happens everywhere, and that latest Penn State scandal was one of em. doesn't mean that i'm going to walk around hating colleges and college football coaches, because of that. I'm not sticking up for the people that did that..not at all. I'm just curbing that blanket statement before it becomes flagrant ignorance. Bad people exist everywhere.
Fine PettyOfficer. But civilians like myself tend to forget the U.S. military is a culture and civilization unto itself and a LOT of the crazy shit that goes on inside the ranks NEVER sees the light of day in the national media. If a family or enlisted doesn't blow the whistle, certain events are never known by the public. THere's been a gradual lowering of standards for enlistment into the Armed Services. THere used to be a time when not just anyone could get in. Now you hear stories about actual gangbangers who serve in uni, and that kinda blows my mind. It's a bad mix when you have young dudes who already possess violent borderline antisocial tendencies, try to indoctrinate them into the military and teach them how to handle semiautomatic weapons. I think the rate of sexual assaults in the USAS are MUCH higher than they were 30-50 years ago. Soldiers used to be held to higher standard of behavior and accountability than your average John Q Citizen. Bottom line, being a soldier used to mean you weren't like the rest of us, and that's in a good way. To suggest that today's military is no different than society in general when it comes to the amount of criminal or violent behavior within the ranks is a very sad commentary on our troops.
Oh ladies...if only you knew. This sort of thing has been going on for ages. There is also a staggering number of sexual assaults between soldiers that take place in the military and not much is done about that either. Rape in the US military: America's dirty little secret A female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be attacked by a fellow soldier, than killed by enemy fire - Guardian.uk article But regarding murders... Term was coined in Vietnam, but the action itself has been happening for hundreds of years. Aside from that, soldiers have turned on other soldiers on a routine basis historically. Off the top of my head I can think of a few recent cases. - Camp Liberty shooting: U.S. Soldier kills 5 other soldiers - Pvt. Danny Chen: Suicide due to constant racial abuse from other soldiers. 8 charged. - PFC Barry Winchell: [/B]Killed by another soldier for being gay and beating him up in a fair fight because of it. - Spc. Neftaly Platero: Killed two other soldiers over an argument in Iraq. Just a few cases. These reactions of surprise that a soldier would harm another soldier remind me of some of my friends who are shocked that a police officer could be corrupt or even murderous. It's the package we're sold of the benevolent comradery and loyalty of those serving that sometimes puts them above reproach. That they are all protectors and law abiding. It just isn't reality. Ask yourself this, if a group of soldiers can callous wipe out a village of unarmed civilian men, women and children (see: My Lai Massacre)...what's to stop anyone else from ending up on the menu? I wish more people were better educated on the dangers and stresses of the military before joining. Especially women. A sick mind is a sick mind. Uniform means nothing to that. Don't be naive and think it turns a regular flawed individual into a saint. - Daft
I'm in no way attempting to defend the Army's actions in covering up this heinous crime or the military's covering up of any of the other vicious acts of cowardice and crimes against humanity... Every single incident that has occurred, or will occur was/is preventable... and even in the aftermath of such atrocities, responsible individuals and groups needed to use their position, power, and authority to prevent such utterly vile acts from happening again... Unfortunately, the military is a microcosm of American society in general. Whatever ails us socially in our neighborhoods, is probably magnified in the military... pettyofficerj was totally correct in his post: the military is nothing more than a small-scale representation of the nation at large. to say that you don't care about the military, is to say that you don't care about civilians in the real world. You have more rapists, murderers, domestic abusers, pedophiles and other assorted miscreants walking the street in civies working 9-5, than you do in the armed forces. Denials of just about everything happens everywhere, and that latest Penn State scandal was one of em. doesn't mean that i'm going to walk around hating colleges and college football coaches, because of that. The slick advertising hawking all of the great benefits, opportunities, and patriotic "rewards" we're bombarded with never mention the "dark side", the tragedies, the mistakes, and cover-ups... Have we forgotten that Pat Tillman, a former star with the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL was killed by "friendly fire" and the incident covered up? How many of us have said to ourselves upon hearing news of senseless shootings, that shooter needs to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan? At least 100,000 judges across the nation have given many hard core criminals the option of joining the military to avoid jail time and to assist that effort, expunged criminal records... The military is still commercially "sold" as the perfect opportunity if not the only opportunity for youth who cannot otherwise afford a college education to get one while serving their country... But send strangers in suits/business attire into rural Tennessee or inner-city anywhere (not picking on anybody here) to get the scoop on character and background, and the code of silence prevails in most cases... Like those judges, citizens who knew more, clam up... Good-bye, Good Riddance? And just as psychos, gangs, and hate groups inhabit our neighborhoods, they have increasingly become the core of our military... That's not something new... just something that never manages to make headlines... There is also another side of this "Hydra" that consistently escapes detection and is seldom held accountable... From the top down, every person who has sworn an oath... From the Commander-In-Chief (Our POTUS) to the lowly lieutenant... to a Congress and let's not forget all of those defense contractors who make billions of tax payer dollars... In most cases, these "leaders" are only concerned with their personal ambitions, careers or the bottom line.... "As long as it doesn't happen on my watch" was the reactionary in-brief from spineless bastards, who when confronted with breaches of discipline, chose to make "them" go away rather than deal with them, or in the case of contractors, had employees sign contracts with clauses exempting the contractor from known deficiencies, problems, or faults and forbidding the victim(s) from bringing charges... In war zones and anywhere outside the US, our constitution and the laws governing our citizens become transparent, meaningless, and in most cases, unenforced if they exist.... Military law falls into the hands of leadership... Those generals, admirals, colonels, and aspiring wanna-be's to those ranks... There is a lot of finger pointing to go around and while it is, perhaps, oversimplification of a larger problem... It really comes down to the bottom line... For the military, bad publicity is bad for business... for military leadership, "problems" of any kind are bad for careers... for our government, admitting that we have wrinkles in our armor is bad for the bottom line.... Lot's of blame to go around...
There's still a military code of conduct. It makes no sense the current number of sexual assaults against female soldiers. That wasn't the military 30-40 years ago. Yeah it happened, but not in the percentages we see today. On a domestic U.S. military base, there should be zero tolerance for this shit, I don't care if it gets out to the general media or not. IMO the military puts up with more shit today from malcontents than ever before. Bring the fucking draft back. Everyone who wants to be in the military shouldn't be allowed to join. Have it be a genuine representation of American society, not the way it is now.
I'm with you. Basically people are saying the military is a society without laws. We treat prisoners of war better than our own military personnel? At least there are rules to protect their rights. I hope Lavena's friends and family keep on it and expose it for our government to have to deal with the problem.
A society without laws.........which is why you have the Universal Code of Military Justice, a Judge Advocate General, General Orders, Rules of Engagement, and other sorts. Well damn, for a society without laws, they sure as hell spend a lot of time creating and implementing codes and orders and no, we don't treat POWs better, not by a long shot. You've heard of guantanamo bay before, right? bottom line is the military as a society, is no different than the society at large. There are groups within the civilian world that are 'lawless' just like groups in the military. You people need a serious reality check.