Shoshana Johnson, the former POW shot in the ankles by Iraqis after her convoy was ambushed, is making speaking rounds on college campuses and appearing on TV. Under the banner of Black History Month she provides a fresh and down-to-earth role model as a strong, independent woman, though she is quick to call her rescuers the real heroes. Her struggle to get a disability pension comparable to the one Pfc. Jessica Lynch got was politicized by her family and Rev. Jesse Jackson as racial discrimination. Johnson has since denied that she thinks race was an issue, has no animosity toward Lynch, and said that “it’s routine to have to fight the military for benefits.” She spoke Wednesday at a Long Island community college where she said:

“You dream of being the first black woman president, of being the first black woman billionaire, but the first black woman POW — that’s a title they could have kept.”