Re: Ex-POW Still Struggling with Celebrity

Date: March 25, 2004

"Former POW in Iraq still struggling with celebrity

NEW YORK - Former Iraq prisoner of war Shoshana Johnson says she continues to struggle with the reality of being a celebrity almost a year since she and six other members of her Fort Bliss unit were captured.

Johnson, 31, of El Paso was a cook for the 507th Maintenance Company when it was ambushed March 23, 2003. She was shot in both ankles and captured with five other soldiers, including then Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Nine soldiers died in the attack.

Lynch was rescued April 1; the others were rescued April 13 after 22 days in captivity.

Speaking from El Paso with CBS' "The Early Show," the former Army specialist said she had no idea that a nation's attention was riveted to her fate and those of her comrades. That made the shock of recognition all the starker when they were freed.

"Lots of times, I liken it to the fact that I was in a coma and basically woke up and the whole world was looking at me while I was asleep, and I didn't know this was going on," she said. "It's difficult to have people call you by your name down the street and you never met them, and they ask you how your daughter is doing."

She said "sometimes it's just hard adjusting to the fact that I no longer have that anonymity." Her daughter, Janelle, is now 3.

Johnson said her ankles have healed sufficiently that she can wear shoes with heels, although they can ache in cold weather.

She said it is hard to describe her emotions a year after her ordeal.

"I feel, of course, sad at the fact that I lost nine close people to me - people that I lived with basically for a month in Kuwait," she said. "I'm so elated that I do have my life and all my limbs. I am very blessed, I am very lucky. But I also think of the children who are missing their parents right now."

©2004 by The Associated Press
©KATU TV Portland, OR "