Searching for POWs in Chaotic Iraq

April 11, 2003 -- When Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch was rescued, Claude Johnson took it as a positive sign. But now that Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen, he's disturbed that his POW daughter, Spc. Shoshana Johnson, has not been found.

"Its kind of stressful not knowing — not having any information about what's going on — but we deal with it," Johnson said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

"Not knowing not hearing from them, it just keeps the stress up," Johnson said.

As U.S. troops rolled into the heart of Baghdad Wednesday, Johnson hoped they would find his daughter and other POWs from her unit, the the 507th Maintenance Company out of Fort Bliss, Texas.

Johnson, 30, who is the mother of a 2-year-old girl, and four other members of her unit were ambushed and taken as POWs on March 23. They were shown on Iraqi TV shortly after they were captured, but there has been no word of their whereabouts or their condition in more than two weeks. Lynch, who was separated from Johnson and the rest of the group, was rescued from a hospital in Iraq on April 1.

Johnson said he's having trouble finding out who is in charge of information gathering on the POWs and he's not sure where he can turn for help.

"You feel like you're closer to end of the war — but yet with the slow elimination of the regime — there's nobody to talk to," Johnson said. "Nobody, even the Red Cross, can say 'OK I'm going to this guy, and see him and talk to him about releasing the prisoners,'" he said.

Pentagon officials said Thursday they believe the POWs are still alive and being held by what's left of Saddam's regime. On Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers asked their captors to treat them well and to let the Red Cross visit them.

Complicated Search, Bloody Discovery

Meanwhile, the collapse of Saddam's regime has complicated the search for American POWs.

With so many Iraqi troops killed and communications cut off, it's more difficult for soldiers to pin down Iraqis who know where the POWs are.

In their search this week of a Baghdad military prison, Marines discovered bloody American uniforms.

Jeff Zaun, who was a POW in the 1991 war, said the uniforms should not discourage families of the POWs.

"It's not necessarily something sinister," said Zaun, now ofCherry Hill, N.J. "When I got to Rasheed the first thing they did was have me remove my flight suit and they gave me the POW pajamas, took away my shoelaces. It was standard," he said.

Shoshana's father, a police dispatcher who spent 20 years in the Army, has remained at home with his two other daughters since the war began. His wife Eunice continues to work at a store on base at Fort Bliss.

Claude Johnson learned of Shoshana's capture when he spotted her on a Spanish-language channel he was watching with his granddaughter. The channel was broadcasting Iraqi TV.

Johnson said he was happy to see her on TV, because at least he could tell that she was alive after she was taken prisoner.

Johnson says he prays his daughter, an Army cook who hopes to open a bakery someday, will return home and see all of her dreams come true.

"She's an outgoing person, she likes to cook — we enjoy her cooking," he said. "Pray, hope and wait — that's all I can do."