Posted on 04/02/2003 4:18:04 AM PST by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
RETRANSMITTED TO CORRECT DATE OF AMBUSH TO MARCH 23, NOT MARCH 24 ** Jessica Lynch, 19, seen in this undated photo, one of several soldiers who went missing after their supply convoy was ambushed in southern Iraq , March 24, 2003 was rescued, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday, April 1, 2003. Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., worked as a supply clerk with the Army's 507th Maintenance Co. (AP Photo/Family Handout)
CAMP AS SALIYAH, Qatar - Eleven bodies at least some of them believed to be Americans were found with prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch when she was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
Lynch, a 19-year-old Army supply clerk, was captured by the Iraqis on March 23 after her maintenance unit made a wrong turn and was ambushed in the Euphrates River city of Nasiriyah. As many as 12 other members of her unit were feared captured; five of them are officially listed as POWs.
Acting on an intelligence tip about Lynch's whereabouts, U.S. special operations forces slipped behind enemy lines and seized Lynch from the hospital under cover of darkness Tuesday.
Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said that during the rescue operation, 11 bodies were recovered in and around the hospital.
"We have reason to believe some of them were Americans," Thorp said.
He said the military has not confirmed whether they were members of Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company.
"We don't yet know the identity of those people," Thorp said. "And forensics will determine that."
Until Tuesday, Lynch had been listed as missing in action, and her family did not know whether she was dead or alive.
Thorp said Lynch was being treated for her injuries at an American military facility Wednesday. He said he had no details on her condition or the nature of her injuries.
Thorp would not confirm reports that troops used a battlefield diversion to slip into the hospital.
The 507th was attacked during some of the earliest fighting in Nasiriyah, where Fedayeen loyalists and other hardcore Iraqi fighters are said to have dressed as civilians and ambushed Americans.
Not long after the ambush, five of Lynch's comrades showed up in a video shown on Iraqi television being asked questions by their captors.
The video also showed bodies, apparently of U.S. soldiers, which led Pentagon officials to accuse Iraq of executing some of its POWs. Officials believe the video was made in the Nasiriyah area.
Lynch, an aspiring teacher from Palestine, W.Va., joined the Army to get an education, her family said. She left a farming community with an unemployment rate of 15 percent, one of the highest levels in West Virginia.
She was following in the footsteps of her older brother Gregory, a National Guardsman based at Fort Bragg, N.C. Jessica Lynch enlisted through the Army's delayed-entry program before graduating from high school.
"You would not believe the joys, cries, bawling, hugging, screaming, carrying on," Lynch's cousin Pam Nicolais said after the rescue. "You just have to be here."
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., called the rescue a miracle.
"God watched over Jessica and her family," Rockefeller said through a spokesman in Washington. "All of West Virginia is rejoicing. This is an amazing tribute to the skill and courage of our military."
Tuesday, April 1, 2003
She has two broken legs, a broken arm and at least one gunshot wound, but American POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch couldn't be happier, having been rescued by "very brave coalition forces" from her Iraqi captors yesterday.
Pfc. Jessica Lynch shown in Sept. 2000 family photo |
"People are parading through town in their cars beeping horns. It's wonderful," Linda Davies, Lynch's kindergarten teacher in West Virginia told the Charleston Gazette.
Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson, tight-lipped so as not to tip the military's hand to possible upcoming rescue operations of other POWs, told Fox News Lynch "was rescued by some very brave coalition forces. We're ecstatic about this success, but we've got a lot more work to do."
Wilkinson added: "America doesn't leave its heroes behind."
What CENTCOM calls the "daring" and highly secret special operations rescue mission was planned after intelligence was developed that led to the knowledge of where Lynch was being held captive, reportedly a hospital. Army Rangers and Navy SEALs jointly carried out the operation.
NBC News reports a resident of Nasiriyah who spoke English approached correspondent Kerry Sanders yesterday and told him: "There's a woman in the Saddam Hospital who's an American soldier. Please make sure the people in charge know that she's being tortured."
Lynch reportedly has two broken legs and one broken arm, and is also being treated for a number of wounds, including at least one gunshot wound.
Defense officials later announced that other bodies some believed to be U.S. servicemen were recovered from the site from which Lynch was rescued.
Capt. Jay La Rossa, spokesman for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said special forces found the bodies of two U.S. soldiers and eight Iraqis.
When CENTCOM first acknowledged the rescue operation, the explanation was short and antiseptic: "Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq. The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area. More details will be released as soon as possible," said Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks.
Jessica Lynch |
Meanwhile, Fox News' Rita Cosby, who had interviewed Lynch's family earlier but held off filing her report until cleared by the military, reported that the rescued 19-year-old's family was "elated" to hear the news. Cosby talked to Lynch's father, Greg Lynch, shortly after he received the call informing him of the rescue.
"You would not believe the joys, cries, bawling, hugging, screaming, carrying on," said Lynch's cousin, Pam Nicolais, according to an Associated Press report about the rescue. "You just have to be here."
The rescue was a miracle, says West Virginian Sen. Jay Rockefeller. "God watched over Jessica and her family," Rockefeller told AP. "All of West Virginia is rejoicing. This is an amazing tribute to the skill and courage of our military."
Lynch, of Palestine, W.Va., was listed as missing after her unit, the 507th Maintenance Co., was ambushed March 23 near Nasiriyah. She is believed to have been driving a five-ton truck as part of the convoy. Eleven other U.S. soldiers from the 507th are missing, including another woman, Lori Piestewa, 22, who has not been heard of since the ambush. The incident occurred after the military unit made a wrong turn during early fighting in the invasion of Iraq. Five other members of her unit were later shown on Iraqi television answering questions from their Iraqi captors.
According to KFOX-TV, Lynch dreams of being an elementary school teacher and saw the military as her way to get an education.
"That smile is all you ever see," the TV station quotes Glenda Nelson, a close family friend, as saying. "No matter what she always had a smile on her face and loved kids."
The Pentagon has listed seven Americans as captured by Iraq since the outbreak of the war.
To date, 15 other Americans are formally listed as missing, including two Army Apache helicopter pilots captured March 24 when their helicopter went down.
The woman soldier taken prisoner in Iraq had tearfully begged to go home before she was rescued by US special forces.
American Private Jessica Lynch, 19, kept asking about her boyfriend and family, an Iraqi pharmacist who treated her in hospital said.
"She kept saying she wanted to go home", the pharmacist added.
The teenager and 11 other US soldiers were taken prisoner by Iraqi troops when their convoy was ambushed on March 23.
US media reports said she was found with two broken legs, a broken arm and gunshot wounds when she was rescued in a raid by US special forces on the Saddam Hussein Hospital near Nasiriyah.
Reports from Iraq said 11 bodies were found during the rescue mission. Two were believed to be Americans.
US officials have not confirmed if they were from Private Lynch's unit.
The pharmacist who treated Private Lynch at the hospital told Sky News reporter Ross Appleyard that Private Lynch had often been seen crying.
She asked about her family and kept asking when the war would finish, the pharmacist added.
He said that no soldiers had visited her and she had been treated well.
She was regarded as a patient and not as a prisoner of war, the pharmacist added.
He said Private Lynch was "very healthy" and had been treated for an injury to her leg only.
Private Lynch, of Palestine, West Virginia, was rescued in a night-time raid on the hospital by America's elite units - Delta Force, US Rangers and Navy Seals.
Her relieved father Greg said: "We're proud of you Jessie - keep up the good spirits and you will be home soon. We all love you."
Appleyard saw the decoy mission which signalled the start of the rescue, which he described as "remarkable".
The Ba'ath Party headquarters and the building housing Saddam Hussein's loyal Fedayeen fighters were attacked in a diversionary strike, he said.
While the gunfight raged, special forces troops went in and rescued Private Lynch from a building believed to be called the Saddam Hussein Hospital.
Appleyard said: "Flares lit up the sky and we heard a great deal of gunfire and explosions.
"There was a huge gunfight - but it was all a diversionary tactic so special forces could go in and rescue Private Lynch."
The soldier from the 507th Maintenance Company will now be examined by medics.
Private Lynch's unit was ambushed near Nasiriyah after making a wrong turn during early fighting in the invasion of Iraq.
Five other members of her unit were later shown on Iraqi television answering questions from their Iraqi captors.
The rescue was announced by Brigadier General Vincent Brooks at a news conference in Central Command headquarters in Qatar.
In a brief statement, he said: "Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a US Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq. The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."
Fifteen other Americans are formally listed as missing. The other POWs include two Army Apache helicopter pilots captured March 24 after their helicopter went down.
Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson said: "We also have others, other POWs we are just as worried about. This is good news today but we need a lot more good news.
"America doesn't leave its heroes behind," Wilkinson added. "Never has. Never will."
Last Updated: 15:45 UK, Wednesday April 02, 2003
But, but, but... According to the feminists, she should be happy that she got to go into combat! Think about the opportunities!
Quote:
The pharmacist who treated Private Lynch at the hospital told Sky News reporter Ross Appleyard that Private Lynch had often been seen crying. She asked about her family and kept asking when the war would finish, the pharmacist added.
(Yeah, that was irony. Thank God that she got rescued alive. Let's just hope that this will teach the feminists a lesson about their "women in combat"-policies - though I very much doubt it...)
Let me shoot you in one leg and treat you for it, and then break your other leg and both arms and not treat them for ten days. While I am at it I will isolate you from all other POWs so that you are totally alone. Whether you cry out loud or in your head, you will be crying somewhere.
SO9
I'm not sure what to make of your post.
Quote:
Let me shoot you in one leg and treat you for it, and then break your other leg and both arms and not treat them for ten days. While I am at it I will isolate you from all other POWs so that you are totally alone. Whether you cry out loud or in your head, you will be crying somewhere.
Did you think I was criticizing the fact that she had been crying a lot? Good heavens, no. She certainly had plenty to cry for.
My point was that the feminists (NOW, DACOWITS and others) have been doing all they can to get women into combat. I'm just not so sure that all military women would be happy for the "right" to be killed in combat alongside the men.
Owl_Eagle
Guns Before Butter.
Lots of people, not just feminists have been trying to get women who want to go into combat and can meet the same standards as men to have the right to do so.
Many women in the military don't belong there at all. They would never meet honest, non afirmative action standards. Most women in the military are not suitable for combat, but then neither are most men. Very few men and even fewer women have what it takes to belong at the tip of the spear.
So9
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.