CHARLOTTE, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — Another Veterans Day goes by for Shoshana Johnson, yet the scars of war still live deep inside of her.
The U.S. Army’s first Black female prisoner of war still wonders why she is still standing and alive today.
“I question why I’m still here considering that things could have been so different,” said the El Paso, Texas, native.
Johnson was recently invited to Charlotte to speak to fellow former service members with the group Impact100 Global Veterans.
It was there that the Iraq War veteran told her story of fear, torture and even hope.
Over two decades ago, in the early days of the war in Iraq, the world watched on television the recorded images of a scared 30-year-old mother and Army cook as she was interrogated by Iraqi insurgents.
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On March 23, 2003, during an early convoy to Baghdad, Johnson’s unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, somehow made a wrong turn into An Nasiriyah. They quickly came under enemy attack.