Posted on 11/06/2003 7:29:27 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Army private Jessica Lynch, the badly injured U.S. prisoner of war who was rescued from a hospital during the Iraq war, said in her first interview that she is not the Rambo-style hero she has been portrayed as by American media and the military. Lynch, 20, told ABC network reporter Diane Sawyer in an interview to be aired on "Primetime" next Tuesday, the same day as her authorized biography is published, that she never fired a shot when ambushed. "My weapon did jam and I did not shoot, not a round, nothing. I don't look at myself as a hero. My heroes are Lori (Private Lori Piestewa, who died in the ambush of Lynch's convoy), the soldiers that are over there, the soldiers that were in the car beside me, the ones that came and rescued me," she said. Lynch is still recovering from injuries to her spine, and cannot walk without crutches. She has no feeling in her left foot and has other medical problems. Lynch, who became a symbol of U.S. heroism during the early stages of the war on Iraq, insisted, "I am just a survivor." In an advance, partial copy of the ABC interview, Lynch said she was hurt that other people had "made up stories" about her fiercely fighting her Iraqi captors. "I'm not about to take credit for something that I didn't do... It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about. Only I would have been able to know that because the other four people on my vehicle aren't here to tell that story." 'PRAYING ON MY KNEES' Lynch, a supply clerk who was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War medal, received an honorable military discharge from the Army in August due to her injuries, allowing her to sign the $1 million book deal. U.S. commandos filmed their rescue of Lynch from the Iraqi hospital on April 1, nine days after she was captured at the onset of the war. An early media report quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying she "fought to the death" before being captured and suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The Army later concluded she was hurt when her Humvee crashed into another vehicle in the convoy after being hit by a grenade. Sawyer asked Lynch if she went down "like, somebody said, Rambo?" "No, I went down praying on my knees," she replied. Lynch said she was thankful to the soldiers who rescued her but said she was troubled by the way the incident was portrayed by the military. "It does (bother me) that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff ... yeah, it's wrong ... I don't know why they filmed it, or why they say the things they, you know." The full details of her story have yet to come out since Lynch said she suffered a loss of memory after her capture. ABC said that in the interview she discussed for the first time a report she was sexually assaulted during her captivity, saying that she did not remember such an incident but adding, "even just the thinking about that, that's too painful." According to Sawyer, the book "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," cites a medical record as indicating that Lynch was raped. The young private was captured by Iraqis on March 23 near Nassiriya. Eleven other U.S. soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the incident.
Have you found any link to the news of her bad-mouthing the military about her capture? I've looked and looked on FR and can't find a thing.
No, but they should be field stripped and oiled at least once per day, esp. in that sandy enviornment. They also should be in condition 1.
What if it interferes with getting to that last Patriot battery and then a missile strike kills 50?
Finally! :^) Believe it or not, I had several Lynch bashers attack me furiously a few months ago when I said it was obvious our POWs were tortured and likely she was.
I wonder what their schedule was for that day.
Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined, and that further information will emerge as Lynch is debriefed. Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they said, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed. Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation.
That's exactly how I remember hearing it. The military never said it happened that way, and repeatedly cautioned that they couldn't verify stories of her fighting. The source was an intercept of an Iraqi radio signals about someone fighting back, possibly a female, and some chuckleheads jumped to the conclusion it was Lynch. That's the classic situation of getting confusing reports from a battlefield or firefight, and no grounds to claim a conspiracy or some campaign of disinformation.
As for the reports of her getting abused in the hospital, that information again was attributed to that Iraqi lawyer who claimed to have helped her. It's entirely possible that he lied about that, but that's not the military's fault since they identified him as the source of the info.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.