Saving Pvt. Lynch a big hit in W.Va.

NY Daily News ^ | 04-02-03 | KERRY BURKE and MAKI BECKER

[veronica]

Jessica Lynch, shown in September 2000 photo, was rescued from Iraqi captors yesterday.

Firecrackers popped and horns honked in West Virginia last night as news of Pfc. Jessica Lynch's rescue spread through the tiny town of Palestine. The 19-year-old Army supply clerk who disappeared — and was feared dead — after her maintenance crew was ambushed March 23 in central Iraq was rescued by U.S. Special Forces, Central Command announced last night.

"Oh, mercy! It's been like a big weight has been lifted," Lynch's grandmother Wanema told the Daily News.

"We got the word last Sunday she was captured, and we've been waiting ever since. Waiting, hoping and praying," she said. "We have to thank the Lord for miracles, and he certainly gave us one tonight."

Lynch's father, Greg, was so overcome last night he could barely speak.

"We're just glad it happened," he told a local TV station.

"I'm just so excited," said her mother, Dee. "I'm just speechless."

Nearly every tree in this poor town of 900 people was wrapped with a yellow ribbon in hopes that the dollfaced young woman a month shy of her 20th birthday would return home safely.

"They ran out of yellow ribbons," said another relieved relative, Rheta Lynch.

Costly wrong turn

Five members of Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company out of Fort Bliss, Tex., were believed to have been captured after taking a wrong turn near Nassiriya.

Two are confirmed dead. Besides Lynch, the fate of seven others from the unit remain a mystery.

U.S. Special Operations forces swooped in and rescued Lynch at Saddam Hospital in Nassiriya after a Marine was handed a note in English that said a woman POW was in the hospital, MSNBC reported.

"She's still alive. She's in room [XXX]," the note read, according to MSNBC.

Capt. Jay La Rossa, spokesman for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, told Reuters that Lynch had two broken legs and one broken arm, but was in good condition. Early reports that Lynch also suffered at least one gunshot wound could not be confirmed.

La Rossa said Special Forces also found the bodies of two U.S. soldiers.

Iraqi TV has displayed five POWs from the 507th, along with the bodies of several dead soldiers. Sources told The Washington Post that no other POWs were at the hospital at the time.

But yesterday, Lynch's safe return offered a glimmer of hope to the families of other soldiers listed as captured or missing in action.

"I'm happy that she's been rescued," said Claude Johnson, father of Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson, 30, a cook who was shown on Iraqi TV in enemy hands. "I'm keeping my line open for information about my daughter."

[veronica]

Starring Janeane Garofalo or Susan Sarandon...

As Saddam's stooge....

[joesnuffy]

They went in to rescue everyone..she was the only one left alive
The real battle for Private Lynch has only just begun
What the Iraqis did to her..will probably never come out...perhaps it shouldnt...no young woman should ever have to go through what she did or what she is about to..
What ever she did to stay alive will haunt her forever...she was brutalized..tortured..beyond immagination..then shot
She needs to be in all our prayers..for the rest of her life..her fight to get beyond what happend to her through no fault of her own..with her comrades dead and she alive...
It is going to be a long struggle..
She is just a poor country girl...who sought military service as a way tp earn the opportunity to better herself...
She wanted to be an Elementary School teacher..I pray she is healed and doesnt have to live with the internal torment that is sure to come for very long..
And sees her dreams fufilled..
Women do not belong in combat...its insane to put them there

[Sunshine55]

Does anyone know of an address in Palestine W. VA that cards and letters can be sent to?

[bmwcyle]

They still live in the Kennedy world of stupidity.

[mountaineer]

It's a small enough town that something addressed care of her father, Greg Lynch Sr., Palestine, WV, probably would get there okay.

[Kozak]

Damn. Next time I'll wait for confirmation from a reliable source!

[tacticalogic]

I saw that too. I believe it's the first time I can recall seeing Palestinians on the news that I liked.

[Catspaw]

Just sent cards & letters to Palestine WV 26160, addressed to the Lynch family.

[Sunshine55]

Thanks a bunch!!!

[7thson]

With two broken legs and a broken arm, I think she was tortured. The more I read about this evil regime, the more I am reminded of the Nazi attrocities and those tortured by the Soviets. Those bastards!!!! I wish we could get the guy who did this to her and put him in stocks in the town square for all the world to see!

[Catspaw]

I'm angry, but I'm biding my time.

Remember: revenge is a dish best served cold.

[Momto2]

I didn't hear this repeated but one reporter stated that the note that was passed to the military said , "They have a live female soldier in that hospital and they are torturing her".
Probably chose not to repeat that grusome detail. I am THRILLED that our brave military rescued her - they are all HEROS!! Prayers for the others still out there....

[Catspaw]

You're welcome. I just googled "Palestine West Virginia" for the zip code--and found out it's near where my sister & family lived years ago.

I'm so happy for her family. That's tempered with grief for those who lost their loved ones.

[Protagoras]

What ever she did to stay alive will haunt her forever...she was brutalized..tortured..beyond immagination..then shot

You have no information about the things you cited, they are in your imagination. They might turn out to be true or false, but it doeasn't matter, you imagined it to make your case.

[homeschool mama]

Well said. Thank you.

[homeschool mama]

Thanks.

[homeschool mama]

She has two broken legs and a broken arm. She didn't do that to herself, P. She was tortured.

[Protagoras]

First of all, I never said she wasn't.
Second of all, is that the only way she might have had her bones broken?

The poster had an agenda, it showed.

[AlwaysFree]

I hope that Army Spec. Shoshana Johnson is also found alive and well. Let's never give up hope!

Yellow ribbons everywhere - even in Fieldsboro, NJ!!!!

[mtbopfuyn]

What the Iraqis did to her..will probably never come out...perhaps it shouldnt

Perhaps she should bring it out. Shout it from the roof tops and let France and the world know just what evil monsters Saddam's regime was so the likes of him can never come to power again. Not just her, but any victims who keep quiet continue to be victims and it doesn't help others from becoming victims. The college professors, politicians, peaceniks, and moronic journalists need to have a good dose of reality.