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SHOSHANA JOHNSON, AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK FEMALE PRISONER OF
WAR, SAYS MANY VETERANS HAVE TROUBLE ACCESSING THE HEALTH AND DISABILITY
BENEFITS THEY DESERVE WAEL PASO, Texas, Sept. 21, 2006 – Shoshana Johnson never has any trouble accessing her veterans’ health and disability benefits. But given her high profile as the nation’s first black female prisoner of war, Johnson knows the Department of Veterans Affairs is careful to ensure that she has no difficulties obtaining the medical attention she needs. Spc. Johnson, 33, an Army cook from the 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas, was captured in Iraq with five other soldiers in March of 2003. She was shot in both legs and spent 22 days in captivity until she was rescued by U.S. Marines. “I’ll never be what I was,” she said, adding that she is currently on disability and receives acupuncture therapy once a week. But Johnson is well aware of the fact that many veterans have difficulty obtaining their health and disability benefits, a point she plans to discuss during her presentation to veterans attending the National Symposium for the Needs of Young Veterans. The unprecedented Oct. 18-21 event, which will be held at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency O’Hare, will bring together veterans, active duty military, families, government, business and education leaders and others serving veterans for the specific purpose of soliciting their best ideas to improve and refine our nation’s system of veterans’ benefits. Attendees will convene in 55 work groups, each of which will recommend solutions that address a specific problem involving the existing veterans’ benefit system as well as the unique challenges today’s veterans face. AMVETS will then use the recommendations to form the basis of a detailed action plan to improve the nation’s veterans benefit system. “I know that most of the time it is struggle for veterans to obtain their health and disability benefits,” said Johnson, adding that it took her own father three years to convince the VA to provide him with compensation for two herniated discs after he invested 20 years of his life in the U.S. Army. Johnson, who emigrated to the U.S. from Panama when she was five, spent five years with the U.S. Army, though her family members have served in every branch of the military with the exception of the U.S. Coast Guard. And while Johnson appreciates the fact that the government has to be careful to prevent people from improperly using the veterans benefit system, she also believes that reforms are needed to make it easier for veterans to obtain the benefits they rightly deserve. Congress also needs to take action, she said, to ensure that there is sufficient funding to care for the medical needs of soldiers returning from duty in the war on terror. “There’s over 130,000 deployed in Iraq,” she said. “All of them will be coming home eventually, and we’ve got to figure out the best way to help them out after they’ve helped the whole nation out.” Johnson also speculated that some young veterans may face some unconscious discrimination from screeners who aren’t accustomed to seeing young people with serious illnesses or medical conditions. As a result, she said, young veterans in particular will need to fight for the benefits they believe they deserve. “It only takes one bad apple to make it a little bit harder for everybody else who deserves these benefits,” she said. “You have to have patience and keep fighting for what you believe is yours.” Johnson is scheduled to participate in an Oct. 20 symposium panel discussion. To obtain registration information, please visit the symposium’s Web site at www.veteransnationalsymposium.org. |
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