The Story of Jessica Lynch What really happened in Nasiriyah.

the Weekly Standard ^ | April 24, 2007 | Richard S. Lowry

[91B]

Whatever else Lowry has to say in this article, the fact that he can talk about the “real heroes” of this action without mention of Patrick Miller does not do much to lend credence to his claims to have studied this battle in great detail.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Maybe you’d prefer if she threw her medals back over the White House fence like Kerry did.

[Tailgunner Joe]

When FReepers said Lynch had no business on the battlefield because we didn’t relish the idea of her being sent into the combat zone for no reason to be raped without firing a shot, we were called traitors. Now the same people who said we were traitors and she was Rambo are calling her a traitor for exposing the truth.

[Lijahsbubbe]

when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary. People like Lori Piestewa and First Sergeant Dowdy, who picked up fellow soldiers in harms way. Or people like Patrick Miller and Sergeant Donald Walters, who actually fought until the very end.”

What took her so long to say anything about this? I don't get her angle

[Lijahsbubbe]

who the "they" were in her written testimony (ie: they mislead), she said it was the media. She also said she didn't believe there was any larger conspiracy beyond the media.

Why is she testifying before Congress then, if this was a media concoction. By appearing in this manner, it gives the impression that the government is responsible for it.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the ping.

[berstbubble]

“Waxman claimed the rescue was delayed so that the rescue could be filmed. Is there any evidence of that, or is he slandering the troops?”
___________________

Heard this on local talk radio today as well (stastion that carries Glenn BEck and Rush). No source, so they may be parroting Waxman.

[Portcall24]

But more important that Lori Ann didn’t have to go at all but went simply to be close and protect her friend, Jessica.

[mtntop3]

>>Pat brother is a radical leftist .
He rants regularly on left wing websites .
His parents have found a home there too.
Its sad and bizarre.<<

I recall a brother speaking at the Memorial Service for Pat Tillman, holding a Guinness in one hand while he slobberingly rattled on. The parents were a bit in the same vein.

It was bad form. But it was overlooked because, after all, it was California.

[mtntop3]

This “hearing” was nothing more than a planned denigration of the U. S. military as part of the Democrat’s ongoing campaign against Bush, Republicans and all conservatives.

The U. S. military has always been anathema to Democrats and their leftist bedfellows.

The present, and traitorous, denigration of the military is to slander the military leadership, thereby countering all positive statements on Iraq by our military.

Ergo Pelosi’s initial refusal to even go to hear Gen. Petraeus’s report.

[highlander_UW]

Heard this on local talk radio today as well (stastion that carries Glenn BEck and Rush). No source, so they may be parroting Waxman.

Isn't that typical...one person slanders our troops and then the rest repeat it as if it's fact.

[Piquaboy]

Of Idiots~!

[RichardLowry]

Hello all,

I was heartened to see such a lively discussion about my Weekly Standard op-ed piece. I decided to weigh into the discussion and answer a few comments.

First, Kaslin, Thanks for posting my article and thanks again for your kind words.

highlander_UW:

Jessica’s rescue involved hundreds of troops and it took several days to assemble the force and coordinate their efforts. Once the plan was developed, they actually conducted a dry run at Talil Air Base, south of Nasiriyah. Then, the rescue force needed to stage for the operation.

I doubt seriously that this op was delayed for lack of a cameraman. Those assets are embedded in the SF units and this type of op is routinely filmed (do you remember the night-vision film of the 82nd Airborne raid at the begining of the war in Afghanistan?).

All that being said: I have no evidence one way or the other on whether the op was delayed for lack of a cameraman.
One thing is sure, if they had gone a day earlier, there would have been a fight at the hospital.

RG Spinich:

Jessica was brought to the Tykar Military Hospital be Saddam Fedayeen, not the Iraqi Army.

Kerretarded

I wrote Marines in the Garden of Eden to tell the stories of brave soldiers, sailors and Marines, from Private Patrick Miller to Hospital Corpsman Luis Fonseca, Lance Corporal Donald Cline, Sergeant Donald Walters, Lieutenant James Reid, Captain Eric Garcia and Major Bill Peeples.

Miller probably saved Jessica and Shoshana Johnson’s life when he fought nearly to his last bullet. Fonseca threw his body over wounded Marines he was treating to protect them from mortar shrapnel. Cline died helping his fellow wounded Marines. Walters was left behind enemy lines, captured and murdered. Reid was seriously wounded three times in the battle and continued to fight.

Eric Garcia flew his CH-46 medevac helicopter into one of the hottest fire zones in the center of Nasiriyah to evacuate wounded Marines. Then he returned two more times to evacuate more Marines, still under fire. At least three of the Marines he evacuated would have died had it not been for his courage and dedication to duty. Eric was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions.

Major Bill Peeples was a tank company commander. He charged forward in the early morning to rescue ten of the beleagured soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company. Later that day, he responded to a call for assistance with a platoon of tanks (4) and won the raging battle at the Euphrates River Bridge. Then, he proceeded with his tank and his wingman to drive through Ambush Alley to relieve a Marine Company that was close to being overrun. Peeples’ and his wingman turned the battle north of the Saddam Canal with their two tanks.

Major Peeples was not done yet. He returned to Ambush Alley in his tank (with no additional support). He stopped his tank in front of a building in which a squad of Marines were stranded. He jumped from the safety of his M1, under continuous fire, and helped load wounded on to his tank. Then he drove the wounded to safety. Major Peeples was awarded a Silver Star, I personally believe he should have received the Medal of Honor.

Each of these men, and so many more that I cannot list them here, acted in the highest traditions of the U.S. Military during the battle for An Nasiriyah. I told their stories. I am proud to have had the opportunity to document their courage and committment.

ZULU:

Captain Troy King was the 507th Company commander. For several years he was relagated to training. The last I heard (at least a year ago) he was still a Captain and was preparing to return to Iraq. I tried to interview him for my book and he declined.

So, I will never really know his motivation. I believe he was just trying to catch up with the rest of his unit, so once he hit open road, he hauled ass. I don’t have a clue as to why he thought it would be okay to pass a Marine mechanized infantry battalion. They were riding in AMTRACs which look nothing like anything the Army has. He had to know he was going ahead of a combat unit. They had M1 tanks and tracks. I called it a thousand meter metal dragon.

The Marine battalion commander surmised that they followed his battalion through the cloverleaf and when the Marines pulled off the road, King just kept going. Only Captain King knows the answer to that question. Its sorta like why were Pat Tillman’s comrades shooting at him?

[Mo1]

.

[RichardLowry]

I spent three years of my life researching and writing about the battle for An Nasiriyah. I read every after-action report. I visited the Marine Corps History archieves. I personally interviewed nearly one-hundred soldiers, sailors and Marines who were involved in the battle. That included four of the survivors of the 507th Maintenance Company ambush, three embedded reporters, the Commanding General of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Colonels and Lance Corporals alike. I interviewed several members of Jessica’s rescue.

What, Sir, are your credentials?

[KS Flyover]

Ping to post #113.

[highlander_UW]

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to respond to some of the posts regarding your op-ed piece.

Secondly, your response that there is no evidence that there was any delay of private Lynch's rescue to wait for a film crew confirms my suspicion that Waxman was slandering the troops extemporaneously. I'll refrain from commenting further as to my opinion of Waxman as I don't use that sort of language.

[Desparado]

From the first hand interviews and descriptions that I have read about Pat, it sounds like he was so intent on getting into a firefight, he ran off half cocked up into the ravine where there was a wild firefight/ambush going on. It was almost dark and they couldn’t see well enough to identify who he was and one of the men returned fire thinking he was part of the ambush team. It was unfortunate what happened but not something you should get a silver star for. I saw this happen in Viet Nam several times where some one would run into the line of fire trying to get into the action and get shot either by NVA or our own guys. The Army probably didn’t want to tell this to his parents so they tried to cover and make it sound more heroric. That’s my take as a 2 tour twice wounded combat veteran on the Viet Nam War.

[Eagle of Liberty]

KS,

Thanks for the ping!

Richard,

Thanks for the reply! Your initial article was amazing. The additional info you listed on each individual specifically in post #113 touched my soul. These are the brave Americans that “Senator” Reid continues to denigrate. I placed his title in quotations because, IMO, he is not a Senator of this great country. He has violated his oath.

[fontman]

Politics During Wartime By MICHAEL DELONG Tampa, Fla. AS the deputy commander at United States Central Command from 2001 to 2003, I represented the military in dealing with politicians regarding the capture and rescue of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch in Iraq, and thus I can speak with authority about what really happened after her maintenance convoy got lost near Nasiriya in 2003 and she was taken prisoner. I feel compelled to respond to accusations that have been made in recent days by several politicians. The initial reports from the field regarding Private Lynch stated that she had gone down fighting, had emptied her weapon and that her actions were heroic. Based on these reports, politicians from her home state, West Virginia, wanted the military to award her the Medal of Honor. Their request rose up the ladder until finally it reached me. But initial combat reports are often wrong. Time must always be taken to thoroughly investigate all claims. In the case of Private Lynch, additional time was needed, since she was suffering from combat shock and loss of memory; facts, therefore, had to be gathered from other sources. The military simply didn’t know at that point whether her actions merited a medal. This is why, when the request landed on my desk, I told the politicians that we’d need to wait. I made it clear that no one would be awarded anything until all of the evidence was reviewed. The politicians did not like this. They called repeatedly, through their Congressional liaison, and pressured us to recommend her for the medal, even before all the evidence had been analyzed. I would not relent and we had many heated discussions. The politicians repeatedly said that a medal would be good for women in the military; I responded that the paramount issue was finding out what had really happened. As it turned out, after a careful review of the facts, the military concluded that the initial reports were incorrect. Ballistic tests on Private Lynch’s weapon demonstrated that she had never fired; she had merely been a passenger in a vehicle that went astray, came under fire and crashed. Private Lynch was badly hurt, and in her condition, she could not fight back. Her actions were understandable and justifiable, but they could not be labeled heroic. (It’s important to make clear, too, that Private Lynch has never claimed to be a hero. As she told Congress earlier this week, the “story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting” was not true.) Accusations that the military played up Private Lynch’s rescue for its own publicity purposes are also false. As someone who witnessed the operation from the planning to the execution, I can tell you it was one of the most spectacularly executed rescues I’ve seen in my 36-year career. Our receiving word of Private Lynch’s rescue — and subsequently, news of the rescue of the other prisoners — was a high point of the war for all of us at CentCom. None of us were in it for the publicity: we did it to save a comrade. Period. We never ordered the operation filmed — the troops who executed it decided to film it on their own. Ultimately, it was good that they did, not for publicity purposes, but because that film can now be used to train soldiers. A nation needs heroes. Hero-making in itself is not a bad thing. But hero-making without grounds is. In the case of Ms. Lynch, overzealous politicians and a frenzied press distorted facts. For these politicians to step forward now and accuse the military of capitalizing on the Jessica Lynch story is utter hypocrisy. Michael DeLong, a retired Marine lieutenant general, is the author, with Noah Lukeman, of “A General Speaks Out: The Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”