The Pain Myeshia Johnson Must be Going Through
The military assigns services members as Casualty Assistance Officers and Casualty Notification Officers. These roles serve to provide the initial notification of a service members combat related death and to assist the family left behind with all arrangements and benefit reception in the event a service member pays the ultimate price.
The loss of La David Johnson is extremely sad and his life cannot be replaced by anyone’s words of condolence. The Casualty Notification Officer had a very tough job breaking that terrible news to his wife and the Casualty Assistance Officer had the privilege of helping her through the entire process.
I have gone through such training and can say, without a doubt, that I hoped that I never had to perform those duties. The uncertainty of what to say or do after going through the scripted narrative of notification was enough to make everyone who went through the training stomach turn into knots. Fortunately, I never had to put my training to use.
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No amount of training can prepare anyone for that. President Trump took a huge leap in calling the wife of La David JOhnson to offer his condolences. Why Representative Frederica Wilson was there during that call is questionable. But that call was a private matter between the Commander and Chief and the wife of a service member who gave his all.
There was nothing in this world that would have made her feel better about losing her husband. There are no words that could reverse that loss. And there is absolutely zero excuse for dragging an honorable service member and his family into the political limelight to further anyone’s agenda.
This means that Rep. Wilson was wrong. She was wrong in taking that conversation and publicizing it and politicizing it. She was wrong in continuing to goat people into the conversation. Finally, she was wrong in using her constituency for her own personal gain.
President Trump was wrong as well. He was wrong in playing along with her games. He was wrong in letting her get the better of him and dragging him down to her immature level. He was wrong in not being the leader and letting her spit off at the mouth while he maintained the sanctity of a personal conversation between himself and a widow.
No one seemed to do anything right and the person who suffered the most was a widow who was already suffering and then forced to endure much more than she ever signed on for.
