Jennifer and Lee

I was watching Investigation Discovery (ID) one night in 2018 when Forbidden Dying for Love came on the television. I was what you would consider an #IDAddict and I regularly watched the new programming from 9-11 p.m. every night. I also tweeted with other #IDAddicts while the show was live. On this particular night, Love is a Battlefield was featured. And as it would turn out, it was a show about military crime so it immediately caught my attention and I hung on every last word. This particular show was an episode about Kamisha Block. She was a U.S. Army soldier who was murdered by her supervisor in her chain of command in Iraq in 2007. I was very familiar with the situation as I had researched every woman who died via non combat death overseas and it was documented on my website. This situation is exactly what I was afraid of when I was serving. I did not want to be sent overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere with the offenders I encountered or the toxic military leadership I worked for.

As I was watching the show and learning more from the family, I would come to realize that the same information the Block family shared with the public I had heard from other families as well. It was the same patterns of cover-up. The military tells them one thing. The family requests documents and more information based on suspicions and then they learn the information provided to them not only doesn’t add up but it in fact contradicts itself. This only makes one want to dig even harder and the more you dig, the harder they shut you down, until they wear you out and you go away. Not one family including Pat Tillman’s family has ever been able to hold the military accountable for the lies and cover-up of non combat deaths. You see, Kamisha Block’s case is similar to Pat Tillman’s case. Kamisha’s family was told she died by friendly fire. Pat Tillman’s family was told he died in combat when in fact he died by friendly fire.

The family of professional football player turned soldier Pat Tillman sets out to explore and uncover the real story behind their son’s death in April 2004 when he was serving in Afghanistan. Tillman, killed not by the Taliban as had first been reported, but instead by friendly fire, left a million-dollar career to serve the United States. But, while searching for the truth, his family uncovers more than the real story — they expose a shocking propagandistic military cover-up. -The Tillman Story (2010)

And there are others that I learned about while doing research on non combat deaths in the military. But until you hear from the families of those who died by non combat death while serving in the military, you can’t begin to imagine what happened to them. All we know is what the military, the corrupt media, and the family tell us… and I think this is wrong. As Americans, we have a right to know how and why someone died while serving. It’s one thing to die in combat like we signed up for; it’s another thing to die by another service member’s hand or your own hand while serving. As a researcher, I cannot help but wonder what happened to make this person die. How did they die? Did they die by suicide? Were they pushed to suicide? I wanted more information and guess what? I couldn’t find it. I would have to piece together what happened over the years to learn more information about individual cases. And then a couple days after the ID show aired, Kamisha Block’s sister Shonta contacted me on Facebook.

Shonta found me and I was waiting for her but she didn’t know it. I wasn’t expecting to hear from Shonta but I just knew when she contacted me that this is what God wanted for Shonta, her family, Kamisha and military justice. My story helped to demonstrate what happens when you are stranded on a military base here in the United States. But Kamisha’s story showed how what happens in the United States follows you overseas. You see, I learned about Fort Hood via the research of non combat deaths of women. Quite a few women who died overseas of non combat deaths were connected to Fort Hood. So I decided to start researching Fort Hood in the United States to see what things looked like on this base. And OMG. This base was out of control. You cannot make up the dysfunctional history at this base. They have had mass shootings galore, murder, multiple “suicides” per month for years, unsolved murder cases, unsolved missing cases, and all kinds of suspicious deaths labeled suicide. This base was a hot mess. And it was no surprise that a service member died at the hands of another service member in a place like Iraq where there are no rules, laws or oversight if the chain of command hides sh*t.

Shonta Block’s family has been fighting for justice for Kamisha since 2007. The worst part is they learned Kamisha was murdered while at the funeral home. They realized they had been lied to and they have been on a mission for justice ever since. After this show aired, I realized this family wasn’t done and this fight wasn’t over. Kamisha’s mom handed over the reigns to Shonta and now Shonta was looking for justice for her sister. You see they may know who murdered Kamisha in Iraq but this could have been prevented, the chain of command tried to hide the crimes, and no one has been held accountable for the lies, and the way they have treated the Block family. What I have witnessed is inhumane and no family should have to figure out how to get justice for their loved one only to learn there is no justice. The military controls the narrative and they don’t answer to anyone. For example, if they tell you it’s a suicide, it’s a suicide and they won’t budge no matter how much evidence you produce.

I researched military crime for so long that I recognize modus operandi of both criminals and those in the chain of command who hide their crimes. I studied every case I could get my hands on which is not easy. You can’t simply google stuff and find what you need. You have to piece things together based on what the family has shared, if the family has fought for the service member and what information they have shared to help you pull it all together. If the family doesn’t come forward, we have zero information about the death of a service member. I used nuggets of information to find my next piece of information to help me pull things together. You have to have a name to work with. At the time, the DoD had a website (deleted after Vanessa Guillen was murdered) that listed all the deaths overseas. It was easier to research deaths overseas than it was the non combat deaths here in the United States. At least during declarations of war, the DoD was forced to list everyone who died. They didn’t tell us what the non combat death was at the time of the press release but at least I had a name I could chase down. We would learn that 75% of deaths were non combat deaths and 93% of the non combat deaths occurred in the United States.

I’ve supported Shonta and her quest for justice for her sister for years… and the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense have run her in circles. The story keeps changing, the paperwork requested comes back redacted and almost completely blacked out, and everyone keeps pushing her off to the next person. She has proven the DoD Inspector General process does not work. They reopened the case, referred it back to the Army again to investigate themselves, and closed the case again (article deleted). There is nowhere else to turn. She has contacted every congressional member she can think of and keeps getting referred back to her congressional representatives in Texas. If they don’t have the courage to take on the Army, the case goes nowhere and she has to wait until they get voted out or retire. This is not justice. Every family should have one place they can call to learn more about the death of a service member. And they should be supported, not gaslit and driven to depression because no one will help.

No one is above the law and there should be at least one agency that investigates the “authorities.”

What really gets me is the fact that no one was held accountable for sending Paul Norris to Iraq to murder Kamisha Block. The family has shared that she wasn’t in a committed relationship with Norris. She met him and went out with him a couple times and it was bad from the get go. He was abusive, controlling, and forcing himself on her at work and in life. She had to get a restraining order against him at Fort Hood. What did Fort Hood leadership do? They sent Paul Norris to Iraq where Kamisha was and put him in charge of her while they were there. They not only ignored the protection order but they put her in harm’s way. This guy was trying to force a relationship on Kamisha and she wanted nothing to do with him. She knew that no one was going to protect her in Iraq. And that’s where I come in. Why isn’t anyone in the military talking about how we could have saved Kamisha’s life? So what I am understanding is that if the chain of command fails us and it leads to our death, no big deal. Next. I don’t think so.

Army leadership contributed to the murder of Kamisha Block and they need to be held accountable for a preventable death. We also learned that if the chain of command fails a service member, we need a back up plan. I was a victim of an offender in the chain of command and the chain of command had his back even after he was forced to retire. They were willing to push me to suicide for the sake of him. Why are military leaders not being held accountable for not protecting us? Do you really think I wanted to deploy anywhere with these shady mother f*ckers? Why won’t the military let us out of a contract if they are not going to protect us? The military and veteran advocates have got it all wrong. They think reporting to a Judge Advocate General and having them make a decision about a case is the priority? How about making people’s f*cking lives the priority! So if there is no evidence, f*ck you, too bad, you just have to continue working with and for the offenders. So what if they murder us or push us to suicide because we are trapped. I will make it my life’s mission to find a way to get an innocent service member out of their contract with these toxic, unempathetic leaders.

The patterns are clear. The military is hiding murder… and crime and mental health issues are precipitating “suicides.” Or is it murder? How would we know if the death occurs overseas or on a federal base and there are no witnesses (who will talk anyways). The military so conveniently writes of these deaths as “suicide” and victim blames the individual by default. But what we find out when we dive into cases is that toxic military leadership was involved and the non combat death of a service member could have been prevented if they gave a f*ck but that doesn’t appear to be the case. These deaths are more likely “murder by suicide.” So what if not all of us are meant to be in the military. Why should we die because it didn’t work out? These are young men and women who should not lose their life because they are held captive in a system where no one cares. Let them out of the contract! A “choose life policy” will help a service member escape this toxic environment and live the life they were meant to live. No 18 year old kid should be dying by “suicide” or murder while quite literally trapped in the U.S. military.

The research is clear. If military leadership does not help the individual, no one can, not even the parents. Military leadership doesn’t appear to care how we die, whether in combat or by non combat death. It’s just another form and funeral to them. And in the case of non combat death, the “problem” took care of itself and they can keep moving forward with the missions and wars they need to help build their “stellar” careers. Meanwhile the public affairs office will utilize the JAGs to create a narrative to help keep the family and media at bay to protect the military and the institution’s reputation. The media is sloppy too. They only cover the most heinous of crimes and usually default to whatever the military’s narrative is no matter how ridiculous they both look. They value the “authorities” more than they do the thousands of Gold Star Families trying to hold the military to account for a senseless death whether it was murder, suicide or a medical mystery type death. No one can get justice in the military currently no matter what they tell the public. And Kamisha Block, LaVena Johnson and Pat Tillman’s cases prove it.

Ninety-four women in the military have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom. ‘The Silent Truth’ tells the story of one of these women, Pfc. LaVena Johnson, who was found dead on Balad Air Base in Iraq. The Army claimed she shot herself with her own M-16 rifle, but forensic evidence, obtained by the family brings the Army’s findings into question. The Army refuses to re-open LaVena’s case, leaving the family in limbo. -The Silent Truth Documentary (2014)