Saturday, September 08, 2007

Rodney Johnson remembered

Another Houston soldier has died in Iraq.

Insurgents killed 20-year-old Rodney Johnson Tuesday in Baghdad.

He was on foot patrol when his unit came under grenade attack, according to the military.

Everyone in his family say they're proud of him, but admitted they have mixed emotions about the war.

“I know that everybody's saying that he died for his country but it was actually for nothing. What did he do? What did he prove? I mean, what is the outcome of this?” said Johnson’s grandmother Pearle Boone. "This is senseless. They need to come home. How many more people do we have to lose? It makes no sense."

"He was a soldier first, but he was a family man. He has a wife (and) she's eight-months pregnant and they have a beautiful little daughter and that we're going to miss him,” said Johnson’s aunt Yolanda Baker. “We know what he did what he did for his country and we love him for that.”

In fact, Johnson was supposed to come home in three weeks for the birth of their second baby.

“I just feel Bush needs to take his children his two girls let them fight over there, put them on the front line like my grandson was,” said Boone.

Johnson is the 64th military member from the Houston area to die in Iraq.

He was following in the footsteps of his father who also served in the military and is now a Houston police officer.

From KHOU 11

Related Link:
Rodney J. Johnson dies 'of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit'