DAMN THIS SHIT SOUNDS LIKE A STORY FROM BACK IN THE SLAVERY DAYS. SAME WITH SOME OF THE OTHER CASES SIMILAR IN THE MILITARY AND NOT IN THE MILITARY. SO IS HIS ONLY PUNISHMENT GOING TO BE RETIREMENT?
Lavena Johnson update!!!
Donald V. Watkins
February 14, 2016
The Murder of Pfc LaVena Johnson – Part 3
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on February 14, 2016,
Updated February 17, 2016
Unmasking a Murderer
On July 19, 2005, Army Private First Class LaVena Johnson died amidst mysterious circumstances. All of the physical and forensic evidence available to military investigators suggested she was murdered. However, these investigators shamelessly chose to disregard this glaring evidence and instead classified Private Johnson’s death as a suicide.
The totality of evidence surrounding Private Johnson’s execution-style death strongly suggests that the person who killed her is former four-star Army General Kevin P. Byrnes. He was third in seniority among the Army’s eleven generals at the time. Byrnes, who was appointed to his command position by President George W. Bush in November 2002, headed the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (1st Cavalry Division), or TRADOC command. In this capacity, Byrnes supervised the recruitment and academic programs at thirty-three Army schools, from basic training to the war colleges.
Private Johnson met General Byrnes in July 2005, just a couple of days before her death. As fate would have it, Private Johnson wrote his name in her personal notepad and told her father about her one-on-one conversation with him. She had no way of knowing at the time that Byrnes: (a) was engaged in an extramarital affair with a civilian female and (b) had been ordered by General Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army’s Chief of Staff, to end the affair. Byrnes, who was married, willfully disobeyed Schoomaker’s order, and instead elected to make his love affair more clandestine. In doing so, Byrnes risked being court-martialed for disobeying Schoomaker’s lawful and direct order.
Extramarital affairs among military generals, while strictly prohibited by the military, are not unusual. Sometimes, these affairs lead to reckless, impulsive, and even criminal conduct as the participants do everything within their power to indulge in the affairs under a cloak of secrecy. The torrid love affair between General David Petreaus and his lover Paula Broadwell is a recent high profile example of this deceitful and reckless conduct.
Like General Petreaus, General Byrnes’ TRADOC command gave him the means and opportunity to practice the deception that accompanied his adultery. Also like Petraeus, Byrnes found ways to evade the Pentagon’s scrutiny of his extramarital affair, particularly after Byrnes was ordered to stop his affair. Like Petraeus, Byrnes’ affair came to light only after an unanticipated event by an uninvolved person caused its exposure. In Byrnes’ case, his encounter with Private Johnson on July 19, 2005, was the triggering event that unraveled his 36-year military career. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in consultation with President Bush, fired Byrnes on August 8, 2005, just three weeks after Private Johnson’s death and a mere three months shy of his scheduled retirement.
During the early morning hours of July 19th, Private Johnson inadvertently encountered General Byrnes engaging in the very romance he had been ordered to stop. She was alone at the time because the Army never assigned Private Johnson a “battle buddy” to accompany her around the base. Private Johnson’s discovery of Byrnes’ continued adultery left him startled, afraid, and desperate. Byrnes snapped and became violent toward Private Johnson, who did not fight back because she was as shocked as he was and because Byrnes was her TRADOC commander.
During his assault on Private Johnson, Byrnes knocked some of her teeth backwards, broke her nose, fractured her neck, and inflicted other serious injuries on her body. Private Johnson was then dragged into a contractor’s tent where Byrnes staged the crime scene to make it look like Private Johnson had committed suicide.
An M16 rifle bearing Serial Number 7095028 was carefully arranged near her body. No M16 bullet was ever located because this weapon was never fired inside the tent. Instead, Byrnes fired one shot from his 9 MM pistol into the top left side of Private Johnson’s head, execution-style. Byrnes then lit a fire in the tent before leaving the scene.
Private Johnson’s fingerprints were not on the M16 found at the scene. There was no gunpowder residue on her hands. Inexplicably, the military did not test the M16 for traces of Private Johnson’s DNA. This M16 was not the one assigned to Private Johnson. Her M16 bore Serial Number 7097069 and was the only M16 ever issued to Private Johnson.
It was virtually impossible for Private Johnson, with a fractured neck and standing only 5’1”, to have had enough mobility left in her battered body to commit suicide by sticking a 40-inch M16 rifle into her mouth and pulling the trigger. Furthermore, the top and back areas of Private Johnson’s head were still intact after she was shot.
Yet, the military stands by its discredited “suicide” theory.
The military tightly controlled access to the investigative files in this case and stonewalled the release of these files to the Johnson family. What is more, the military thought the truth surrounding Private Johnson’s murder would be buried with her body.
In a rare disciplinary act against a four-star general, the Army announced on August 9, 2005, that it had relieved General Byrnes of his command for unspecified "personal conduct." Pentagon sources leaked off-the-record information to the media that Byrnes was fired for disobeying General Schoomaker’s order to stop his extramarital affair.
On August 10, 2005, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington published a story that focused on Secretary Rumfeld’s firing of General Byrnes. Huffington wrote:
“ [T]he Byrnes firing is stunning…. In modern times, no four-star general has ever been relieved of duty for disciplinary reasons; prior to this incident Byrnes had a spotless military record; he has been separated from his wife since May 2004; the allegations do not involve anyone under his command or connected to the DoD; and he was already set to retire in November…. Something doesn’t add up. Would the Army really can a four-star General with 36 years of service, three months shy of his retirement, because he screwed someone other than his wife… in the middle of a war? …. [T]here has to be more – much more—to this story than is being told."
Arianna Huffington was right. There was far more to General Byrnes’ firing than what the military disclosed to the public. The Pentagon knew that Byrnes had murdered Private Johnson. Instead of court-martialing Byrnes for disobeying Schoomaker’s lawful order and for the murder of Private Johnson, President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld opted to kick Byrnes out of the Army three months early.
The cover-up of Private Johnson’s murder was successful for more than a decade because she was a young female Army private - a “nobody” in the world of Bush, Rumsfeld, and the Pentagon’s top brass. In contrast, Kevin Byrnes was a powerful four-star general who counted Bush, Rumsfeld and fellow military generals like David Petraeus among his circle of influential Washington friends.
Byrnes now lives a comfortable life in Huntsville, Alabama, where he works as a top executive for Raytheon, a major defense contractor. Even though Byrnes was booted out of the military, the Pentagon afforded him the courtesy of publicly spinning his firing in a way that focused only on his extramarital affair. In doing so, the Pentagon, with the blessing of Bush and Rumsfeld, effectively awarded Byrnes an undisclosed de facto pardon for the murder of Private Johnson.
Now, we know what really happened to Private Johnson, why it happened, and who is responsible for her murder. She met her death on a military base in Balad, Iraq, some 6,620 miles from her hometown of Florissant, Missouri. Private Johnson was a great soldier. She volunteered to put her life on the line in Iraq to protect America from its foreign enemies. This is the highest form of loyalty any soldier can give to his/her country. Private Johnson did not deserve to die this way - alone, unprotected, and betrayed by her country.
Justice for Private Johnson has been delayed for more than ten years, but it can no longer be denied. From her grave, she spoke the truth. In the end, the truth has prevailed.