Johnson -- the daughter of a Persian Gulf War veteran and mother of a 2-year-old girl -- has always had "an angel following her around" and "always manages to get out of stuff, " her sister Nikki Johnson said Monday.

CNN: Families hoping for POWs' safety, speedy return

Nevertheless, during the Gulf war in 1991 the American air force found that its 2, 000lb (about a tonne) bunker-busters were incapable of piercing some Iraqi bunkers.

ECONOMIST: Bunker-busting

Raytheon is the prime contractor for the PAC-2 Patriot system--much improved since its dismal accuracy in the Gulf war of 1991--and supplies an estimated 50% to 65% of the newer PAC-3 system.

FORBES: Ready, Aim, Fire

August 2005 statistics in the Current Population Survey (CPS) put out by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that the unemployment rate for U.S. Armed Forces veterans was 3.9%, with 3.4 million Gulf War-era veterans (post 1990) in the labor force whose jobless rate was 5.2%.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Military service benefits civilian life

The unemployment rate of disabled veterans from the Gulf War era was 5.4 percent, essentially the same as the rate for nondisabled veterans (5.2 percent).

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Military service benefits civilian life