July 27, 1985 – July 17, 2005
Sisters: Let us never, ever forget the story of LaVena Lynn Johnson and her torture, rape, and murder by fellow male soldiers during the Iraq War in 2005. Her story is what opened up my world to what we now know to be, “Military Sexual Trauma" or in my own words, "Men and Boys' Violence Against Women and Girls (MABVAWAG). The documentary, “The Silent Truth: Crimes Against Women in the Military” about women targeted and victimized by men in the military came out in 2010. The documentary, “The Invisible War” on the same subject matter came out in 2012.
I was deep in my Women's Liberation organizing work starting around 2009/2010 and uplifting these stories to anyone who would listen. As expected, it was almost all women who seemed to be concerned, who gathered in calls-to-action. However, after an increasing number of such stories arising, many women struggled to keep on organizing—overwhelmed by the grief of knowing. The men who showed up always disappeared first. Our groups got smaller over time, our ability to make change wrought with male roadblocks, and stories like LeVena's slowly disappeared from the headlines, and even from our own thoughts.
Each day there is a new woman or girl violated, and we kept moving forward trying to keep up with all the male violators. It becomes impossible to hold vigil for each victim, but when we lose our memory of them, we also lose ourselves. I met military women, and would be reminded of these cases, which would lead to conversations about the current state of the United States military.
In no time, these women would disclose to me how they were targeted by their male "comrades", but never reported because they knew it would only destroy their own careers and there would never be any justice. They too, knew the story of LaVena Lynn Johnson, and the many other female military members who suffered attacks, so they made the careful, calculated decision to self-preserve in the name of survival. We often wonder why victims-survivors don't report. Well, this is why.
It is now 2026. I read this article, one of many over the years, about how LaVena Lynn Johnson’s family have been fighting for the truth about her rape and murder to be named by our government. The same government that's itching to go into new wars. I shake inside knowing that with the current state of Males’ Anti-Female Violence, our sisters in the military are in more danger than ever.
I implore you to research LaVena Lynn Johnson’s story, if you don’t know about it. The details are so gruesome, that there is no trigger warning that can prepare you (and I don't give trigger warnings). To know that the male-manufactured legal system wrote her rape and murder off as “unverifiable” and as “suicide” tells us everything we need to know about the government we have always had in the United States. To know that the truth that has emerged is only because LeVena's father and other family members personally paid for private investigations.
If it were not for her family, their persistence, and their resilience, her story wouldn't even make it to any headline. There are no “good ol’ days”, or any form of “great” that we used to be. This country is born out of genocide, enslavement, and mass torturing, raping, and murdering of our sisters from the Americas and Africa. Just like all the other manmade "civilizations" around the world.
What happened to our sister LaVena Lynn Johnson is a direct outcome of Males’ Anti-Female Violence carried out since Male Parasitism first took hold of our existence.
So remember her name, her story, and make sure everyone you meet knows of LaVena Lynn Johnson, and her family that is still fighting for her justice.
