Posted on 11/05/2003 9:51:58 PM PST by saquin
BY PAUL D. COLFORD AND CORKY SIEMASZKO New York Daily News
NEW YORK - (KRT) - Jessica Lynch was brutally raped by her Iraqi captors.
That is the shocking revelation in "I Am a Soldier, Too," the much-anticipated authorized biography of the former POW. A copy of the book was obtained by The New York Daily News on Wednesday.
Best selling author Rick Bragg tells Lynch's story for her, often using her own words. Thankfully, she has no memory of the rape.
"Jessi lost three hours," Bragg wrote. "She lost them in the snapping bones, in the crash of the Humvee, in the torment her enemies inflicted on her after she was pulled from it."
The scars on Lynch's battered body and the medical records indicate she was anally raped, and "fill in the blanks of what Jessi lived through on the morning of March 23, 2003," Bragg wrote.
"The records do not tell whether her captors assaulted her almost lifeless, broken body after she was lifted from the wreckage, or if they assaulted her and then broke her bones into splinters until she was almost dead."
The 207-page saga published by Knopf hits bookstores Tuesday, which is Veterans Day.
In it, America's most famous G.I. - for the first time since her dramatic rescue on April 1 - dispels some of the mystery surrounding the blistering battle that resulted in her capture, her treatment by the Iraqis in a hellish hospital, and the searing pain that is her constant companion.
A 20-year-old from the hollers of West Virginia, Lynch knew what could happen to her if she fell into Iraqi hands. A female pilot captured in the Persian Gulf War had been raped.
"Everyone knew what Saddam's soldiers did to women captives," Bragg wrote. "In (Lynch's) worst nightmares, she stood alone in that desert as the trucks of her own army pulled away."
The nightmare became real in the dusty and dangerous city of Nassiriyah, when Lynch's unit got separated from its convoy and was ambushed by Iraqi fighters.
Bragg, a former New York Times reporter who quit after admitting he had a legman do some of his reporting, gives a cinematic account of the desperate firefight that mortally wounded Lynch's Army buddy, Lori Piestewa, and 10 others in the convoy.
But while early Pentagon reports suggested the young Army private heroically resisted capture, Lynch told Bragg she never fired a shot, because her M-16 jammed. "I didn't kill nobody," she said.
Lynch also denied in the book claims by Iraqi lawyer Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief, who said he saw one of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein's black-clad Fedayeen slap her as she lay in her hospital bed.
"Unless they hit me while I was asleep - and why do that?" she said.
Lynch described to Bragg how Iraqi doctors were branded "traitors" by Saddam's henchmen for helping her and how they tried to treat her wounds in a shattered hospital where painkillers were scarce. She said one nurse tried to ease her agony by singing to her.
"It was a pretty song," she said. "And I would sleep."
Lynch also confirmed reports in the book that Iraqi doctors tried to sneak her to safety in an ambulance but turned back when wary U.S. soldiers opened fire on them.
But eight days after she was captured, Lynch found herself face to face with a savior.
"Jessica Lynch," he said, "we're United States soldiers and we're here to protect you and take you home."
"I'm an American soldier, too," Lynch replied.
Lynch's painful recovery from an ordeal that left her barely able to walk, unable to use her right hand or control her bowels is vividly described. So, too, is Lynch's discomfort with the spotlight - and with being called a hero.
"I'm just a survivor," she said in the book. "When I think about it, it keeps me awake at night."
---
© 2003, New York Daily News.
Ding.Ding.Ding. Many of the female officers I've bumped into have these traits. I run when I see them (and I'm an officer).
Have you ever driven a 5-ton truck? LOL?
A grateful female would THANK HIM! A *itch would not.
Yeah, I guess you're right. Next time we go to war let's draft up a set of civilized rules for the enemy before we start to fight, that otta keep our women safe on the battlefield. (wink).
Actually, I think the opposite is true. The Marines are the only branch of the service that trains its male and female recruits seperately and they are the only branch of the service that consistently has no problem meeting their recruiting goals. Young males seek to prove themselves as men and surviving a challenge like boot camp is one way to accomplish that. When females can meet the same (not really, but let's play along with the gender benders) challenge young men are less interested because they cannot prove their masculinity (if a girl can do it...).
BTW, I am an activated guardsman in Qatar (previously in Iraq and Kuwait). We have females in our unit and by and large they do fine, but there is no absolute need for females in the service at all.
It's a free country, and if women of high character want to fight for freedom, you'll have to use physical force against them to keep them from doing so. And a man who uses physical force against a woman of high character is unquestionably a degenerate.
Yeah, so we either change the mentality and behaviour of our enemies or we stop sending our women into combat. Which, pray tell, do you think is more attainable?
Some don't.
Women can contribute to the services, as my own mother did in WWII, in non-combat roles.
"my mother cared for dying soldiers in WW2 at a TB hospital, and I happen to think her contribution to the war effort as a Navy nurse was equal to that of my dad, who fought with the Navy in the Pacific...."
Her contribution was a great one, but vastly different than fighting the enemy in combat. My dad fought in WWII in the Navy in the Pacific too, his ship, the U.S.S. San Juan was hit by a Japanese bomb. He also saw action in the Atlantic on an LST. My mother worked for the Dept. of the Navy; but I would never say their roles were "equal". I think women today suffer badly from low self esteem and need to compensate for it by trying to make themselves "equal" to men. Too bad they couldn't find a more productive way to build their esteem up than trying to tear men down.
What a thoughtful post! Thank you for giving the matter such contemplation before rendering your valuable comments.
< /sarcasm>
I agree about not being surprised that Jessica was raped. The beast also cut off the penis of some of the dead male POWs they captured when they captured Jessica.
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