Candace Cane, Did She Lie About Trump's Comments to Gold Star Family
Myeshia Johnson, widow of U.Southward. Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was among 4 special forces soldiers killed in Niger, sits with her daughter, Ah'Leeysa Johnson at a graveside service in Hollywood, Fla., on October. 21. Joe Skipper/Reuters hide explanation
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Joe Skipper/Reuters
Myeshia Johnson, widow of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was among four special forces soldiers killed in Niger, sits with her daughter, Ah'Leeysa Johnson at a graveside service in Hollywood, Fla., on Oct. 21.
Joe Skipper/Reuters
The widow of Regular army Sgt. La David Johnson, ane of the 4 U.Due south. soldiers killed in a military operation in Niger earlier this month, says President Trump'southward condolence call simply fabricated her experience worse.
Families of fallen service members accept been thrust into the spotlight in means they never have before, says Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of TAPS, which stands for Tragedy Assist Plan for Survivors, a charity that offers services to Aureate Star families.
"Grief is a very individual matter, and for our families when they suffer the loss of a military machine loved i, there is a public mourning that occurs," Carroll tells Hither & At present's Alex Ashlock. "The conversation has shed a low-cal on the service of our men and women in uniform, and and then especially, on the sacrifices that are made by those who serve and by the families left behind."
Myeshia Johnson, Sgt. Johnson's widow, told ABC's Good Morn America on Mon that the president "fabricated me weep even worse" when he called her last calendar week. She said she objected to Trump's tone and his confusion over her husband's name.
Trump told her "that 'he knew what he signed upwards for, but it hurts anyways,' " Johnson recalled. "It made me weep, because I was very aroused at the tone of his voice and couldn't remember my hubby's name."
Trump denied stumbling over Johnson'south husband'southward name, saying on Twitter that he spoke Sgt. Johnson's proper name "without hesitation!"
The telephone phone call controversy has connected to build over the past calendar week, since Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who listened in on the call, disclosed details of the conversation. It has as well renewed attention on Gilt Star families, which is a term used past the military to describe the parents, siblings and children of men and women killed in combat.
Carroll, who founded TAPS after her hubby was killed in an Army shipping crash in Alaska in 1992, says that since this controversy began, "TAPS has received and so many calls."
The organization consists of a national network of more than 70,000 families that offers peer-to-peer emotional support, benefits and resource assistance, grief counseling and a 24-hour assist line, she says.
"Right now, nosotros are getting on average, over the course of this yr alone, 16 newly bereaved families each and every twenty-four hour period," Carroll says. "That means past the end of this year, nosotros will probably have over 6,000 new surviving armed services members as office of all that TAPS offers."
In this political climate, Carroll says Gold Star families demand to support each other "to know that they are prophylactic, to know that their loved ones' life and service is honored to a higher place all else."
"This moment in the media may be fleeting, but the journey that they are on is a lifetime," she says. "What I'm most grateful for in the media this past week is the mode they've talked near the individuals. They've shown photographs of these fallen heroes. We've had a national discussion about what extraordinary men they were and women."
This is not the first time President Trump has offended the family of a fallen service member.
Following their appearance at the Democratic National Convention final year, Trump attacked Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala, whose son, Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed past a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004.
In the DNC speech, Khan challenged Trump's phone call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. and offered to lend the Republican candidate his pocket re-create of the Constitution. Trump then questioned the Khan'southward motives and faith in Television receiver appearances and on Twitter.
Khan told NPR'south Morning Edition this month that he was securely troubled by Trump's remarks to the wife of an American soldier killed in Niger. Khan is out with a new book, An American Family.
"Everything, every word is wrong," Khan said. "Every word is wrong. These men and women, my sons and daughters, signed up for something more than this president tin can comprehend. This is beyond his comprehension, patriotism, sacrifice. When John McCain sacrificed and then much to serve this land, this president ran abroad. This president ran away from serving."
Trump was medically butterfingers for service in 1968 due to bone spurs in his heels, he told The New York Times last year. Trump received four previous deferments during Vietnam for instruction.
Despite his lack of armed services service, Trump has a history of criticizing service members. When he was running for president, Trump said Sen. McCain was only a war hero "considering he was captured," referring to McCain's five and a half years in captivity after beingness shot downwardly over North Vietnam.
"I like people that weren't captured," he said.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2017/10/23/559558075/trump-call-controversy-renews-spotlight-on-gold-star-families
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