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Rescued U.S. soldier put up fierce fight - Wash Post
Reuters | 4/03/03

Posted on 04/03/2003 3:03:29 AM PST by kattracks

Rescued U.S. soldier put up fierce fight - Wash Post

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - Rescued U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch shot several Iraqi soldiers prior to her capture, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

The 19-year-old Private First Class continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her, one official told the newspaper.

"She was fighting to the death," the official was quoted as saying. "She did not want to be taken alive."

Lynch arrived in Germany early on Thursday for treatment at an American military hospital. She was held as a prisoner of war by Iraq for more than a week until U.S. special forces freed her on Tuesday.

Lynch, who has two broken legs and one broken arm, was with a U.S. Army maintenance convoy ambushed by Iraqi forces on March 23 in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.

One official said Lynch was stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the newspaper said.

U.S. defense officials said they were aware of the report, but could not immediately confirm the details of Lynch's capture.

Officials told the newspaper that the precise sequence of events was still being determined and further information would emerge as Lynch is debriefed.

The report said the information about Lynch's ordeal was based on battlefield intelligence which officials said came from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in whose reliability has yet to be assessed.

Lynch, from Palestine, West Virginia, arrived at the U.S. Ramstein air base in southwestern Germany early on Thursday aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane.

The special forces also recovered the bodies of two U.S. soldiers in the raid at the Saddam Hospital north of the Euphrates river which runs through Nassiriya.

Lynch was one of 15 soldiers listed missing, captured or killed when a 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company convoy made a wrong turn and came under attack from Iraqi tanks and fighters.

Five of the captives, but not Lynch, were shown on Iraqi television as well as the bloodied bodies of up to eight men, prompting President George W. Bush to warn that anybody mistreating U.S. prisoners would be punished as "war criminals.

04/03/03 05:57 ET


TOPICS: News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 507th; ftbliss; injuries; iraqifreedom; jessicalynch; lynch; pfclynch; pow; pows; wva
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To: metesky
General Franks is forwarding the information to you now. Check your Freepmail for a message from "Tommy".

That's fine. But I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how to verify anything that comes to me via the FreeRepublic mail system. Help me out here.

61 posted on 04/03/2003 5:54:06 AM PST by William Terrell (People can exist without government but government can't exist without people.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Banned for what?

Being a jerk is a crime now?

Slippery slope...slippery slope

/warning

62 posted on 04/03/2003 6:05:36 AM PST by DCPatriot
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To: Poohbah; Chancellor Palpatine; dighton
Agreed. Quite frankly, from what appears to be emerging, the Silver Star is a minimum. Quite frankly, it would be hard to blame a 19-year old female supply clerk for quietly giving up - instead, it looks like she took down a fair number of the cowards who attacked her unit.

DSC, probably. Maybe even a higher decoration.
63 posted on 04/03/2003 6:06:56 AM PST by hchutch ("But tonight we get EVEN!" - Ice-T)
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To: William Terrell
Look William, you've been around this popcorn stand even longer than I. If the powers that be haven't given you a decoder ring yet then I certainly can't help you.
;O)
64 posted on 04/03/2003 6:10:39 AM PST by metesky (My retirement fund is holding steady @ $.05 a can)
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To: metesky
On further checking, there is an account named "tommy" but it has been banned. General Franks was banned from FR? Why would you say something like this? Wouldn't such lack of veracity degrade your position on this matter?

But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Still waiting. Still need tips on verification of a freepmail.

65 posted on 04/03/2003 6:11:18 AM PST by William Terrell (People can exist without government but government can't exist without people.)
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To: William Terrell
Click
66 posted on 04/03/2003 6:12:46 AM PST by metesky (My retirement fund is holding steady @ $.05 a can)
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To: metesky
Bump for communications from "tommy". Will post them on this thread as soon as received.

67 posted on 04/03/2003 6:14:09 AM PST by William Terrell (People can exist without government but government can't exist without people.)
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To: William Terrell
You accuse (probably correctly) the Post of having a liberal bias that would want to promote the idea of women in combat:

You know the socialist media are rabid for women in combat; it's a major point in the socialist cause.

And yet, it appears to me that you have an agenda of your own:

This lady should be honored for her support service, in spite of her being placed much too close to the front lines.

I'd like to set the predetermined bias aside, and just see what the actual TRUTH of the story is.

68 posted on 04/03/2003 6:16:03 AM PST by TontoKowalski
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To: owo2
I think you must be an idiot
69 posted on 04/03/2003 6:19:12 AM PST by MassExodus (I don't want to go on the cart ... I feel happy ... happy.)
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To: BluH2o
This girl is a tough little cookie

So is she a soldier or a "little girl," a "tough little cookie?"

She apparently fought bravely and hard to save her life, the same as many nameless other soldiers in Iraq have done. But patronizing her serves to puff up her circumstances beyond all objective measures.

The soldiers who launched a daring raid to save her placed their skins on the line to get it done. Do we say, "those little boys are ferocious little sweethearts"? No, we don't even know--or care--who they are. Why? Because this is considered routine for men. Yet your comment reflects an enduring wisdom, which is this: no matter how well PFC Lynch fought, no matter how bravely she endured torture, her response and circustances are unique to her and should not be allowed to make the argument that women in general should be in combat.

One should never forget that the liberal press hates this war and all the men associated with it. PFC Lynch is front-page positive news for the liberal press this morning not because she apparently shot a bunch of Iraqis (there are thousands of men who have done and are doing the same thing, and they get scant coverage let alone positive coverage) but because she is a woman and that fact sets the liberals' feminazi glands a' salivating.

Unfortunately, PFC Lynch will now become the centerpiece of a renewed feminazi strategy to place women in front-line combat positions. And many FReepers will have cheered that deadly and counterproductive result home.

I believe PFC Lynch should be honored for her amazing personal bravery and grit--as should the soldiers who rescued her. A Bronze Star, minimum. It's an inspirational, patriotic, heart-warming story for the ages. What I regret is the larger political weapon liberals are fashioning her story into with the able emotion-driven assistance of conservatives who ought to know better.

70 posted on 04/03/2003 6:19:35 AM PST by Kevin Curry
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To: kattracks
Rescued U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch shot several Iraqi soldiers prior to her capture, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition...

On a lighter note, I read somewhere about the Marines (I think) rules for gunfighting. One of them went something along these lines:

You may be killed with your own weapon. But the enemy should have to beat you to death with it, because you will have already expended all you ammo.

71 posted on 04/03/2003 6:24:20 AM PST by TontoKowalski
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To: TontoKowalski
I'd like to set the predetermined bias aside, and just see what the actual TRUTH of the story is.

I would, too.

I'd say I most certainly do have an agenda. I simply want women out of danger and harm's way. I want to release the country from expensive and unworkable socialist policies. I want a final end to all taint of socialism at the federal and state levels, and women in harm's way as policy is one of the important, if not the most important, cause of that system.

72 posted on 04/03/2003 6:26:04 AM PST by William Terrell (People can exist without government but government can't exist without people.)
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Comment #73 Removed by Moderator

To: DCPatriot
"Slippery slope...slippery slope.."

Sky is falling...Sky is falling. :)

No need for the mild panic. The putz was insulting, abusive, and disruptive. All that in 2 posts. He/she/it should have been banned and I see no problem with it.

Weep not for the moron, DCPatriot. No loss with banning such a troll, no "slippery slope", no reason NOT to ban the slime.

74 posted on 04/03/2003 6:28:52 AM PST by Republicanus_Tyrannus
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To: William Terrell
Imus had a reporter on this morning who said that this story had been around since before her capture, so it didn't emerge since she was rescued. But he also cautioned that they do not know all the details. My guess is that it at least has a basis in truth and the details are yet to emerge.
75 posted on 04/03/2003 6:28:57 AM PST by twigs
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To: Poohbah
Are Iraqi hackers joining FR these days? Sickening
76 posted on 04/03/2003 6:35:14 AM PST by the-ironically-named-proverbs2 (what is good?)
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To: William Terrell
Man.

You must have a tough time dealing with humorous remarks at parties.


The comment was obviously in jest, as a response to your unwillingness to believe any word at all in the Wash Post.

It was made to make fun of your unreasonable demand to personally review the intel on this op.

See? That's ridiculous.

And since your stand was so absurd, someone responded in kind.
You know, "Ho ho ho! If you require classified data, well, I'll just get General Franks to email you it, because you're so important! Yes you are! Yes you are! And you're so precious! Yes you are! Yes you are!"

See? That's what is known as SARCASM.

I can tell you must have skimmed the responses, otherwise you would have seen this - as everyone else has. Ah well.

A lot of us find ourselves responding to jokes as if they were serious - so you're not alone in your embarrassment.
77 posted on 04/03/2003 6:36:11 AM PST by Republicanus_Tyrannus
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To: The Ghost of Richard Nixon
I hope the President decorates her.

If so, may he also decorate the men who rescued her, and all her dead fellow-soldiers whose stories of bravery and heroism have been left untold and ignored.

78 posted on 04/03/2003 6:37:28 AM PST by Kevin Curry
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To: Kevin Curry
What I regret is the larger political weapon liberals are fashioning her story into with the able emotion-driven assistance of conservatives who ought to know better.

A trifle premature to make the arguement liberals will use this to push their "women at the pointy end of the spear" agenda. We are talking the Bush administration, not the touchy feely Clinton "ah feel your pain" era. The Bush administration will put no pressure on the military to advance the feminist liberal agenda ... guaranteed.

79 posted on 04/03/2003 6:39:24 AM PST by BluH2o
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To: The Ghost of Richard Nixon
Betya haven't heard the last of this American heroine.

I bet you're right. I bet she'll be the guest of honor at receptions hosted by Hillary, Boxer, Feinstein, Pelosi, and Kennedy inside of two months.

80 posted on 04/03/2003 6:40:14 AM PST by Kevin Curry
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