AV aunt rejoices over POW rescue

By WILLIAM P. WARFORD
Valley Press Staff Writer

The celebration, the sheer joy, at the Amantine home and at her work place in Los Angeles, came with the news that her niece, Shoshana Johnson, was free after being held for 22 days as a prisoner of war in Iraq.

Army Specialist Johnson, assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company in Texas, was rescued by the Marines near the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit on Sunday. Marines burst in the door of the place where the prisoners were held and shouted, "If you're an American, stand up!" All seven stood up, including Shoshana, despite having been shot twice in the ankles.

"I talked to her mom briefly Sunday night and she said that Shoshana was OK but she'd been shot twice. They were going to have to do emergency surgery because she had an infection. She said the Iraqis had given them blankets to sleep on but the floor was cold."

The news of Shoshana's rescue was the height of joy for Amantine and her six sisters, who are originally from Panama and now scattered from New York to Florida to Texas and California. The 23rd of March, though, was the depths of despair. That was the awful weekend when, after a rousing start, Operation Iraqi Freedom, took a sharp turn for the worse. Everything seemed to go wrong that weekend - friendly fire incidents, helicopter crashes, the soldier who killed his own comrades in a grenade attack, the ambushes and the captured American soldiers.

That day, al-Jazeera network showed the dead Americans from the 507th who had been executed. Then came the frightened faces of American prisoners, and the news that one was an African-American woman named Shoshana Johnson. "That was the worst. She looked so scared," Amantine said. "I was so sad I cried for two days. I know she had joined because she wanted to be a cook. And I thought, 'She's not supposed to be on the front lines.' "

Amantine went to work every day at SBC Yellow Pages in Los Angeles where she is an assistant supervisor, because it was better than sitting around home and doing nothing. She and her family started a prayer chain, with everyone saying the rosary at exactly the same time. "My sister in New York would say it at 12 o'clock, I'd say it at 9, and my sister in Texas at 10."

As the Iraqi regime rapidly collapsed and the news headlines switched from gloomy to euphoric, it was a tense time for the POW families who awaited word. Amantine made plans to go to Texas to be with her sister, and had been scheduled to leave last night. She was happy to postpone those plans until Soshana comes home.

Amantine believes all those family prayers added up to a powerful plea. "I think it worked. I think people should do more praying because this shows what can happen."

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, they first learned that their prayers may have been answered. "My husband (Fernando) and I were watching TV at 3:30 on Sunday morning when they first said six POWs had been rescued," Amantine said. "And we thought there was supposed to be seven. Which one isn't with them?"

But the reports were quickly corrected; there were seven. And soon after that the TV reports said "including an African-American woman" and that was the clincher. "That's when the phone calls started."

On Sunday, Palm Sunday, Amantine went to the 9:30 Mass at Sacred Heart Church, where she sings in the choir. She barely made it to the choir loft stairs before several people were hugging her. During the day, neighbors she'd never even met dropped by to offer the family congratulations.

Now Amantine's son, Army Staff Sgt. Andre Amantine, stationed in Germany, is anxious to visit his cousin when she arrives there from Kuwait.

"We are so blessed to have so many people coming home," Joanne Amantine said.

William P. Warford's column appears every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Contact him at (661) 267-4166; P.O. Box 4050, Palmdale, CA, 93590-4050; William.Warford@avpress.com.