Posted on 05/06/2006 1:48:16 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Three years after her capture and dramatic nighttime rescue in the early days of the Iraq war made her an instant celebrity, Jessica Lynch yearns for the ordinary.
She's just finished her first year at West Virginia University, where she's become an anonymous college student on a campus of thousands.
"I think people recognize who I am; they just don't make it obvious," Lynch, 23, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
"That's good for me because it gives me the opportunity to blend in and not stick out and really experience the college life just like they are."
Lynch, who joined the Army at 18 to see the world and earn money for college, attends WVU on a state scholarship. She grew up wanting to be a kindergarten teacher, but abandoned that idea after taking one education class.
"I haven't really found my direction of where I'm headed right now with everything I've been through," she said.
She changed her major to journalism because of her experience with the media and spends Wednesdays working at the campus radio station. Still, she's not sure if journalism is in her future.
"I enjoy broadcasting and I know I want to do something with children," she said. "I'd really like to start a kids TV program here in West Virginia. Something for kids who are in the hospital or have cancer."
Lynch's 507th Army Maintenance Company convoy was in Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003, when it took a wrong turn and was attacked. Eleven American soldiers were killed and six were captured, including Lynch.
The former supply clerk suffered extensive injuries when her Humvee crashed during the firefight. Her videotaped rescue from Saddam Hospital by U.S. special forces nine days later transformed the soft-spoken woman into a hero.
She still has no feeling in her left leg and has to wear a brace to support her foot because of nerve damage. And Lynch says she still can't remember the events that filled the two hours after her convoy was hit.
"Right now, I have sort of this image of what could have happened," she said. "If I actually knew and it came back, I probably would have nightmares for the rest of my life."
Though she was once engaged to former Army Sgt. Ruben Contreras, she now has a new boyfriend in Parkersburg. She protects details about her private life, saying only she met him through family.
Lynch spends most of the week on campus, but often leaves town on weekends to visit her boyfriend or her parents.
"I want people to remember me as being a soldier who went over there and did my job fighting for our country, our freedom. Nothing special. ... I'm just a country girl at heart."
Well, she's just an ignorant girl then. Maybe college will help her.
What bothers me is that we have some real heroes in this war, some people who should be highlighted. The media always picks the most undeserving.
Oh, well.
Those who talk the most...do the least...
It was actually higher than that. For regular army, it was around 67%. It was much lower for Ranger and Airborne forces but still over 30%. Marines, IIRC, were around 40% early in the war and it rose to over 50% as more and more poorly trained replacements (the "three week wonders") entered the ranks.
As a veteran, the only embarrassment I feel is for you. Taking cheap shots at Jessica Lynch is easy. What a big man you are.
Read posting 37 and 39.
That girl should have never been sent there. WOMEN SHOULD NOT BE IN COMBAT.
Thank you.
Yeah, no woman in the military either...
"As a veteran, the only embarrassment I feel is for you. Taking cheap shots at Jessica Lynch is easy. What a big man you are."
These aren't cheap shots,
"Why You've Heard of Jessica Lynch,
Not Zan Hornbuckle
As Sentiment About War Evolves,
Victims Grab Attention, Not Fighters
By JONATHAN EIG
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
When American troops were attacked on April 7 on a road to Baghdad, a battle broke out at a dot on the map Army commanders called "Objective Curly." Eighty U.S. soldiers, expecting little resistance, were met by 300 well-armed Iraqi and Syrian fighters. Grenades and bullets flew for eight hours.
The U.S. counterattack killed an estimated 200 enemy fighters, according to the commanding officer who oversaw the battle. The American team had never trained or fought together, but all its men got out alive. The team was headed by Capt. Harry Alexander Hornbuckle, a 29-year-old staff officer who had never been in combat before. He was later awarded the Bronze Star, with a V for valor, for his efforts that day.
Capt. Hornbuckle's name has never appeared in a newspaper or on television. He has received no book deals, no movie offers, no trips to Disneyland. In September, when he went to see his parents in Tifton, Ga., his mother called the local Holiday Inn and asked the manager to put her son's name -- he goes by Zan -- on the hotel marquee. That has been his most public recognition so far.
He is one of several soldiers who rose to extraordinary heights on the battlefield in Iraq, received honors from the military and returned home to anonymity. Instead, the best-known soldier of the Iraq War is Jessica Lynch, who suffered broken bones and other injuries when her maintenance convoy was attacked. She was rescued from an Iraqi hospital a week later.
The rescue and initial reports -- later discredited -- that the 19-year-old had survived bullet and stab wounds and continued fighting helped make her a celebrity. Stores in her hometown of Palestine, W.Va., sold T-shirts with her name on them. Volunteers planted a new garden in front of her house. Alfred A. Knopf, the publishing house, signed her to a $1 million book deal. "Saving Jessica Lynch," a TV movie about her plight, was broadcast Sunday."
I don't respect her as a soldier, I don't know why that is so shocking to some people.
I believe this glorification of her is wrong, and I would like to see her bronze star reevaluated.
Amen, and my hubby is AF active duty too. Thanks for your service and taking great care of our men and women!
You can blame the Pentagon, who at the time, thought the Jessica Lynch PR campaign was good for the war effort on the home front.
Who you going to replace them with?
Just get rid of the military...solved....
I would choose 100% male. Women don't belong in the Marines.
The reality is that when women were brought in, the military knew they couldn't pass the standards, so it was necessary to find out what they could do, then make that the standard for women.
That kind of proves my point when I said that Lynch's limited capabilites should have been recognized. She was put in a situation she was totally unprepared for.
Was she like that before the incident or did the attention make her that way?
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