Former POW Jessica Lynch Recalls Her Captivity in Iraq

Her protests led the military to instead give Johnson a temporary disability rating that she had to renew every year for three years, once flying to a military medical board hearing in Fort Lewis, Wash., at her own expense, with a pro bono lawyer. "It's something a lot of soldiers have to go through, especially the lowest private who's barely getting by," says Johnson, who was later granted permanent disability. "I tell them, don't give up, but it's so frustrating for them." Today, Johnson, 35, says she receives excellent psychiatric care. "The last thing the va or the military wants," she jokes, "is for Shoshana Johnson to go crazy." She looks forward to the time each summer that she and members of her unit reunite at a POW center in Florida for medical tests—the military tracks the health of its POWs over the years to gauge the effects of captivity—and just as important, she says, meet their new spouses and significant others. For her part, Johnson says, she loves spending time with her daughter at their home in El Paso, Texas, and she is still looking for love. "There aren't many dudes," she says, "that can handle dating the POW."