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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 --
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Dont you dare take a shot at a whole religion based upon one person's anger of his son being killed at war.
Jason
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Scourge of the Master Debaters
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I don't think that's what he was trying to say here. He's trying to say that one man, a reverend of all people, should be the first to forgive. Instead, he's calling for retribution because of what appears to be an unfortunate series of mistakes that were made. He even admits that he doesn't understand the whole situation, yet he's quick to say that someone (he doesn't know who) should be punished.
As a Christian myself, I would have to agree. I've always been taught by my church that headhunting and scapegoating is very wrong, and are there ever the Bible verses to back that up! And its possible that in this case there's really no one person to blame. That does happen from time to time, but Reverend doesn't seem to see it that way.
EDIT: The other thing I noticed in the story is that the Reverend says that his son didn't join the Army to go to war. I'm sorry, but that's just ignorant. The point of joining the armed forces should be to serve and protect your country, even if it means dying. Too many people think of it as a career where the GI bill pays your tuition, then you get to work for a while and retire early with a nice pension. I know some people who were actually trying to get their daughter out of the military because they didn't think she might actually have to go to war. They thought she would put in her four years and get her tuition paid for and that would be it. 
Last edited by hetfield; 07/11/03 02:38 PM.
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Yeah, Christians are suppose to forgive. But at the same time, I haven't lost anyone close to me (i.e. my wife or parents) because of someone else's mistake. So, yes, I would say I could forgive that person but at the same time I would probably want whoever did it to be held accountable. And just because Christians are suppose to forgive, doesn't mean they can't get angry over something. I don't remember him saying anywhere in the article that he wasn't going to forgive the people that caused this catastrophe. Just remember that Christians are humans too and that they also make mistakes. Maybe the reverend didn't think about things before he said it.
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Originally posted by hetfield:
I don't think that's what he was trying to say here. He's trying to say that one man, a reverend of all people, should be the first to forgive. Instead, he's calling for retribution because of what appears to be an unfortunate series of mistakes that were made. He even admits that he doesn't understand the whole situation, yet he's quick to say that someone (he doesn't know who) should be punished.
As a Christian myself, I would have to agree. I've always been taught by my church that headhunting and scapegoating is very wrong, and are there ever the Bible verses to back that up! And its possible that in this case there's really no one person to blame. That does happen from time to time, but Reverend doesn't seem to see it that way.
EDIT: The other thing I noticed in the story is that the Reverend says that his son didn't join the Army to go to war. I'm sorry, but that's just ignorant. The point of joining the armed forces should be to serve and protect your country, even if it means dying. Too many people think of it as a career where the GI bill pays your tuition, then you get to work for a while and retire early with a nice pension. I know some people who were actually trying to get their daughter out of the military because they didn't think she might actually have to go to war. They thought she would put in her four years and get her tuition paid for and that would be it.
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Considering his profession, what a poor way for that man to get his 15 minutes. Kind of like Bill Buckner.
-- 1999 SVT #220 --
In retrospect, it was all downhill from here. RIP, CEG.
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Be furious.
It involves you.
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That's a pretty lame shot at Christians. He said that someone needs to be held accountable, someone made a mistake and that there was someone to blame. That's it. He should forgive but it doesn't say that he's holding resentment in his heart, it sounds more like anger and confusion because he's upset over losing his son. Apparently you wouldn't get angry and want accountability for peoples' actions if your child was killed. Oh but wait, it doesn't matter because there's no one looking at your life with a magnifying glass waiting for you to slip up so they can call you out on it, because you're not a Christian. 
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Your ghetto pass has been revoked. You're no longer an honorary brother.
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First, I don't think the Reverend is saying he didn't expect his son to go to war. However he is expressing his view that he thought his son joined the Army for some other reason, GI bill, training, some extra spending cash from reserve duty. This is going to be a longer than usual post so get comfy or tune out now  We all know that there are essentially three parts to the Army. There is the Regular Army (RA), these are the guys that are in uniform every day. The is the Army Reserve (USAR), most of these guys were sold on one weekend a month and two weeks a year by their recruiter. Finally there is the Army National Guard (ANG). Basically the same as the Army Reserve, but Guard units are sponsored by their home state. Most combat arms soldiers are RA, so the infantry grunts, artillery, combat aviation, and armor for example are largely RA. There are some USAR and ANG units that are combart arms units as well. However, USAR and ANG soldiers typically pick up what are called Combat Support (CS) and Combat Service Support (CSS) functions. This would be your truck drivers, maintenance personel, signal units (communications), cooks and truckdrivers just to name a few more. So it's likely our young truckdriver in the story was a USAR or ANG soldier expecting to do his 12 weekends and 2 week tour and cash checks, get GI bill. I don't think you can say the Reverend had the same expectations. Maybe, but all were adults and had the chance to ask questions of someone other than the recruiter before signing up. But even if the Rev. initially expected it to be that way, its pretty clear he wasn't blaming the war on what happened. He is blaming the chain of command. This is a touchy issue, on one hand we want the Rev to fit in our box of what we expect out of him, stereotypically. On the other hand, you do need to examine what happened. Did a person in a leadership position make a fatal mistake? If so why? If they made a mistake that got people killed, wouldn't it be best to take that person out of the leadership position? You don't want that leader to get more people killed, do you? Of course, the person may learn from it, but do you want to take that chance with your son or daughter? When I trained to be a young officer in college (I took an ROTC scholarship, my #1 objective was education, if war came along, I'd do my duty) we were trained to be decisive. Leaders had to make decisions and then we were critiqued on the quality of that decision. The training we got was to teach you to recognize situations so we could make the right decision. In some respects, there was a lot of emphasis on decision/leadership ability first, as I believe they had to find quick thinking people and then teach them how to quickly make the right decision. Unfortunately, you never truly know if a leader will make the right decisions until you put him in charge. I'm pretty certain peacetime decision making is much easier than making the right decision in the fog of war. So I don't see the mere questioning of what happened by the Rev here as being un-Christian. Perhaps he isn't going about it the right way. But then again, you and I didn't lose a son like he did. So I think those who call for Christians to be forgiving, must also forgive the Reverand for such an expression of grief. Especially if we don't have the opportunity to speak with him personally and hear all of his words, and not just those that are quoted in some news article. Thanks for reading along this far, TB
"Seems like our society is more interested in turning each successive generation into cookie-cutter wankers than anything else." -- Jato 8/24/2004
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Originally posted by hetfield:
I don't think that's what he was trying to say here. He's trying to say that one man, a reverend of all people, should be the first to forgive. Instead, he's calling for retribution because of what appears to be an unfortunate series of mistakes that were made. He even admits that he doesn't understand the whole situation, yet he's quick to say that someone (he doesn't know who) should be punished.
As a Christian myself, I would have to agree. I've always been taught by my church that headhunting and scapegoating is very wrong, and are there ever the Bible verses to back that up! And its possible that in this case there's really no one person to blame. That does happen from time to time, but Reverend doesn't seem to see it that way.
EDIT: The other thing I noticed in the story is that the Reverend says that his son didn't join the Army to go to war. I'm sorry, but that's just ignorant. The point of joining the armed forces should be to serve and protect your country, even if it means dying. Too many people think of it as a career where the GI bill pays your tuition, then you get to work for a while and retire early with a nice pension. I know some people who were actually trying to get their daughter out of the military because they didn't think she might actually have to go to war. They thought she would put in her four years and get her tuition paid for and that would be it.
Yes but the reverend is also a man. he makes mistakes and he acts upon his first instincts. "Someone is to blame for my son's death" Any one of us would act this way if our sibling or family member was killed, its just that in this case with the political position he is in, it gets news coverage.
Jason
00 Audi S4, 2.7 Bi-turbo quattro
01 S10 Xtreme, 4.3l
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I don't believe this subject has anything to do with Religion at all... It's WAR, casualties happen. When you join the military, that is the risk you take and you KNOW that when joining. I am sorry that he lost his son, but the only persons fault that he died is the enemy, the Iraqi's.
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