Phone Call to Myeshia Johnson from a Former Navy Spouse's Perspective.

The picture of Ms. Johnson kissing the casket containing her husband, Army SGT La David Johnson has to be one of the most heart breaking pictures I've seen in a long time.

If you haven't heard the controversy about the phone call President Trump made to Ms. Johnson while she was on the way to the airstrip at Dover Air Force base to pick up her husband, you've been pleasantly living in a cave.

Here is the video of her interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, yesterday morning, October, 23, 20017.




My first statement regarding the entire controversy is the following, whether you are a President Trump fan or not, this young woman, wife, and mother lost the love of her life, her children's father, and so much more. So, try and remember that when you make comments for or against the phone call. Since the internet saves everything, this brave man's children may possibly see what we are all saying years from now and make his death painful all over again.

Secondly, if you have no military affiliation please stay quiet, or at least temper your response. I say this because unless you have experienced your spouse or parent in a war zone you have no idea the panic that grabs a hold of your heart when you see two men in dress uniform walking around your base housing area. You might say "well it's a military housing area of course there will be guys in uniform." Yes, that is mostly true, however there is a difference, somehow you just know their presence is of the serious nature.

When I was sixteen, at my sweet sixteen birthday party no less, my dad came to me to ask if I minded if he left to go tell a spouse of one of his students that he had died. I of course minded, I was sixteen, yet at the young age of sixteen, I knew what he needed to do was more important than my party.

As a wife, in 1990 when my ex-husband left for Desert Shield, Desert Storm which turned into the Gulf War, he was on board the USS Acadia AD-42, a destroyer tender. This ship was a supply, and repair ship, non-combative.
In layman's terms the ship could've been blown out of the water, literally, by a bomb overhead or a missile in the water. Those nine months were the longest ones of my life. Longer than any of my three pregnancies.
In 1999 when he transferred to a Battalion he was on the ground in Somalia, I was in California raising our three daughters, and I prayed second by second that he would come home safe and sound. He did, every time. He only got injured once, and that was an accident driving in a convoy coming home from field exercise. Pretty minor compared to what could have happened in 20 years of service.


All military members, and their families, know that whatever happens on a battlefield, in country, and at home, is part of the job, and complaining about it doesn't make it any easier or better. In fact it can make it worse.
Which is why President Trump's comment to Myeshia Johnson did just that. In listening to her interview she tells George Stephanopoulos that she wanted to see her husband's body, proof that he was in there, especially since it took two days for his body to be recovered.

Take a second, close your eyes and picture the scene. You're in a limo on your way to the airstrip where your husband's casket waits to be picked up. You've asked if you can see your husband's body and the answer has been no, and you have no clue as to why. Your phone rings, it is the President of the United States, as a military spouse you know that this is important, you answer your phone and then the President says "He knew what he signed up for." Let that scene sit for a minute. Would you feel encouraged, and valued, or discouraged and marginalized?

Here is my answer, I would at first feel pretty valued that the President took time, and thought my husband was enough of an asset to our country to make the phone call, and not delegate it down. The value would end the moment the sentence "He knew what he signed up for." left his lips.



I wasn't on the phone when the call happened, and I want to believe that President Trump didn't mean to sound so heartless. My problem is that instead of calling back and apologizing if his comment had the hint of being painful, he took to Twitter to defend his position.