Posted on 11/07/2003 7:31:52 AM PST by presidio9
Jessica Lynch has angrily accused the Pentagon of using her for propaganda. The 20-year-old private, portrayed as a female Rambo after she was captured by Iraqis during a blazing gun battle, then freed by American troops, told ABC there was no reason for her rescue from an Iraqi hospital to be filmed.
"They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff," Lynch said in an interview with Diane Sawyer that airs Tuesday, Veterans Day.
"Yeah, it's wrong," Lynch said. "I don't know why they filmed it, or why they say the things" they said.
That footage of U.S. commandos wheeling a grimacing Lynch to a waiting chopper was among the most dramatic of the war - and helped cement her image as a female warrior.
But Lynch said the true heroes were the soldiers who saved her.
"They're the ones that came in to rescue me," she said. "I'm so thankful that they did what they did; they risked their lives. ... They are my heroes."
She also disputed the Pentagon's early version of her capture by Iraqis, which suggested she had heroically defended herself - going down only after firing all her ammo.
Lynch says her M-16 jammed and she never got off a shot.
"My weapon did jam and I did not shoot, not a round, nothing," she said simply.
There was no immediate response from the Pentagon, which awarded Lynch a Purple Heart for her injuries.
ABC released excerpts of Lynch's first television interview yesterday after the Daily News obtained a copy of Lynch's authorized biography and revealed its most shocking secret - that she was raped by her Iraqi captors.
She has no memory of the rape. The book says there was a three-hour gap after her capture, a blank in her mind, during which she was assaulted.
"Even just the thinking about that, that's too painful," she told Sawyer.
Lynch said she was awakened from her stupor by searing pain.
"I seriously thought I was going to be paralyzed for the rest of my life," she told ABC.
The young soldier said at first she did not trust her Iraqi doctors - and tried to stifle her screams.
Trapped in her bed, Lynch said, she tried to tame her terror by thinking about her family, her fiancé, Sgt. Ruben Contreras, and her G.I. buddy Lori Piestewa.
After she was rescued, she learned Piestewa was dead.
In her book, "I Am a Soldier, Too," author Rick Bragg says the scars on Lynch's body and medical records indicate she was anally raped, and tells the reader to "fill in the blanks of what Jessi lived through on the morning of March 23, 2003."
Lynch says her unit was sent into battle armed only with M-16s - no grenades or anti-tank weapons - and in lumbering trucks that could not keep up with the convoy barreling toward Baghdad.
When the trucks in her unit tried to catch up, radio contact with the main convoy was lost - and so were they.
She was filled with foreboding.
"Jessi's fear of being left behind was beginning to come true," Bragg wrote.
MUST.... BLACK OUT.... HORRIFYING.... MENTAL IMAGE....
Both.
" Not that I expect 0% accidents during a war, but there were some definate errors made in planning out a (relatively) untrained maintenance group driving around in a hostile area for so long."
There should have been at least a sarg who could read a map and compass. I don't know the details of the story-haven't followed it. As far as planning goes it doesn't amount to much. They got lost. They should have immediately reoriented when they determined they were out of radio contact, or hadn't reached their objective yet. Maybe they did reorient and sarg led them futher astray.
PFC Lynch wasn't responsible for the overall screwup. She does have a sarg for a fiance(husband?) and lots of military friends. She should at least speak w/o trashing, or allowing the military to be trashed by such leftist enemies. IOWs, even though she's ~20, she should think first before opening her mouth.
The military liked this story. They let it stand.
You must not have seen post #114.
I spent 22 years in the military and carried an M-16 for nine years, so I'm not exactly a novice. I've seen people under stress forget to pull the charging handle, fire all the rounds without realizing they pulled the trigger, eject the magazine without realizing it, etc. Although a weapon can misfeed when the charging handle is initially released, it is rare. I never experienced it and have fired tens of thousands of rounds through the M-16. When this happens it should be relatively easy to clear if the person has the minimum training. I think that people are falsly blaming the M-16 when the problem was either very poor maintenance or lack of training.
I didn't say they were blaming the gun, I said there are some people that have a lot of experience with it that said they can indeed jam before firing in dusty conditions. Saying it can happen and saying it did happen are two different things.
Exactly right. I think, in her panic, she either forgot to take off the safety or never had a round chambered in the first place.
I don't think she really knows who is using who here. It seems she was out of it for the whole time her story was being told and there were people saying that maybe the "Rambo" story was not exactly true. She and her family need to go back over all the propaganda from all sides before they start the movie. Now that she is well, she can tell her story but it seems important parts are still missing. It is quite possible that the wreak that caused her legs and back to be broken also damaged her weapon. We'll most likely never know unless she can face the memories and then tell her story and have it told countless times on TV. She did enlist in the Army but not for this kind of parade. The media are the ones who made this a circus.
Every person whether under fire or in the rescue attempt is a brave individual. But the story under their bravery is trumped to a point and the military is complicit.
Perfect.
I would like that too. I remember the big announcement....didn't it come at like 4am? What was the date? There ought to be excerpts at least.
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