Not sure whether to be furious or laugh...

Quote:

Pfc. Howard Johnson Jr. of Mobile was never trained to assault a city.

But that's what he and fellow members of the Army's 507th Maintenance Company found themselves doing after a navigational error led the unit into an Iraqi stronghold, according to Johnson's father, who was recently briefed by the military about his son's death.

On March 23, Johnson, driving a supply truck the size of an 18-wheeler, and the rest of his convoy accidentally rolled into Nasiriyah, in the southeastern part of the country. Instead of delivering supplies to the 3rd Infantry Division, as they had planned to do, the convoy came under attack.

Johnson and 10 of his comrades died in the ambush. Pfc. Jessica Lynch and five others were taken as prisoners of war. Johnson was Alabama's first casualty in the Iraqi war.

The military, in a 15-page report, said fatigue, bad communications and other difficulties arising in "the fog of war" all factored into the incident.

But the Rev. Howard Johnson Sr. on Wednesday disagreed: "The war didn't do this. The military did this."

He said someone needs to be held accountable for his 21-year-old son's death.

"After being briefed and after knowing the danger of the mission and knowing that if you go into the enemy's bedroom, you're going to be destroyed, someone made a mistake," Johnson Sr. said. "I think some one has to be to blame -- the person who gave the order."

Rev. Johnson, pastor at Truevine Baptist Church, said Fort Rucker officials visited his home last month, spending three hours explaining the report and additional information gathered in the investigation that followed the ambush.

"They missed a left turn. They never should have gone into Nasiriyah," Rev. Johnson said. "They could hear the others' voices on their radios, but they couldn't communicate back. They were out of range. I don't understand why they didn't have high-powered radios, but then there's so much I don't understand."

He said it wasn't until the unit reached the Euphrates River that the soldiers realized they had gone the wrong way. One truck ran out of gas, and it took 45 minutes to refuel, he said. The soldiers then turned around and were shot at from behind.

"My son's truck was hit, and so was he," Rev. Johnson said, adding that his son, who was shot in the legs, then lost control of the truck, and it crashed.

Marines later found the bodies of Johnson and his passenger, Spc. Jamall Addison of Roswell, Ga., which remained in the truck after Iraqi soldiers tried, but were unable, to remove them, Rev Johnson said.

If the Iraqis had been successful, Rev. Johnson said, his son's body likely would have been taken away with the prisoners of war. Instead, Johnson and Addison were the first identified casualties of the attack.

On April 1, special operations soldiers rescued 19-year-old Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. The bodies of the remaining nine soldiers were discovered there.

The five other prisoners of war were released later.

Rev. Johnson said the investigation and report show that his son was a hero.

"He could have chosen to pull that truck around and flee, or to pull over and surrender, but he didn't. He followed his training to the T," Johnson Sr. said. "It makes me feel real proud of him, real proud. He didn't go into the Army to go to war, but when it was thrust upon him, he didn't run from it."

Johnson, who was stationed at Fort Bliss, received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart posthumously for his actions.


-- 1999 SVT #220 -- In retrospect, it was all downhill from here. RIP, CEG.