Posted on 07/22/2003 1:36:56 AM PDT by ex-Texan
Jessica Lynch Awarded Bronze Star
Lynch Gets Medals Ahead of Homecoming
ELIZABETH, W.Va. - Former POW Jessica Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Washington Monday as she prepares for her homecoming.
Lynch, who returns to the hills of West Virigina Tuesday, also received Prisoner of War medals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The Bronze Star is given for meritorious combat service, a Purple Heart is most often awarded to those wounded in combat, and the POW for being held captive during wartime.
"The Purple Heart ... was not necessarily about being wounded or injured in action initially, but that's what it has come to symbolize," said Lt. Gen. James B. Peake, the Army Surgeon General, in presenting the medals. "It's a special award and not one you choose to get."
Four members of the West Virginia Army National Guard's aviation support unit in Parkersburg were chosen to staff the helicopter that she will ride home in.
"Minus all the hype, this mission is about being able to participate in the homecoming of one of our own," said Chief Warrant Officer Robert McClure, who will co-pilot the Black Hawk helicopter with Chief Warrant Officer Jim McPeak. "It's a real honor."
Lynch, still recuperating from multiple broken bones and other injuries, and her parents are scheduled to fly from the medical center to Elizabeth. The 210-mile trip should last two to three hours, depending on the weather.
Also on both legs of the flight will be Lynch's cousin, Dan Little, a first sergeant in the Parkersburg National Guard unit.
"Jessi trusts him and wanted him to be with her because he's been through most of it with her," said Wyonema Lynch, Lynch's grandmother, noting that Little traveled to Germany when Lynch was recuperating there.
Little, who has spoken twice with Lynch in the past week, said her spirits have been buoyed by her imminent trip home.
"She's a strong, disciplined young lady," Little said. "Her injuries are long healing, and that can be hard if you dwell on it. But she's not allowed that to happen."
With hundreds of news media and others descending on this Wirt County seat of about 1,000 for Lynch's first public comments about her ordeal, area residents have been painting, pruning and preening for weeks.
"We are excited just to see her, just to be able to give her hug. To Jessi, home is in the hills. She has been wanting to get here," her grandmother said.
Regina Ray of Elizabeth said she is glad Lynch is coming home "because there is no place like home to recover."
American flags and yellow bows line the route Lynch's military motorcade will take from Elizabeth to her home in Palestine, a community of about 300 residents some five miles away.
Lynch is scheduled to make a brief statement in Elizabeth before riding in a Ford Mustang convertible in the motorcade.
Lynch's convoy was ambushed near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah after it made a wrong turn. Eleven soldiers from the convoy were killed and Lynch, a supply clerk, was severely injured.
U.S. forces recovered Lynch at a Nasiriyah hospital April 1. Five other 507th Maintenance Company soldiers who were captured and held apart from Lynch were freed April 13.
The influx of hundreds of visitors, including many journalists here to report Lynch's first public words since her March wounding, capture and rescue in Iraq, is bringing needed cash to Wirt County, which has West Virginia's highest unemployment rate - 15.1 percent.
The economic benefits dampen the annoyance many residents feel at the intense media interest in Lynch.
"They're anxious to see you come, and they'll be anxious to see you leave," said Keith Burdette, Gov. Bob Wise's legislative liaison and the county's former state senator.
Also on the flight will be the crew chief, Sgt. 1st Class Vernon Cosner of Washington, and flight medic, Sgt. Paula Tucker of Morgantown.
We need these questions answered for the sake of making sound military policy. Female recruits need to have full disclosure about their conditions of employment, not a fairy tale.
UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS: THE MYSTERY OF PFC. LYNCH: What We Need to Know About “Bloody Sunday”
This is not just a military issue, but a political one. If we don't pressure the President to cleanse himslef of this Clinton slime then he'll just let the same Clinton military advisers who made this policy continue it.
I could care less if Kobe Bryant's victim was raped, but Pfc. Lynch's rape has much greater political implications.
Another lie.
She has been sequestered from the public and was likely ordered to keep quiet to save the administration from their richly deserved humiliation.
I can understand the Purple Heart, maybe even a POW medal, but the Bronze Star? It's a publicity stunt, and it cheapens the value of the medal, and mocks the people that actually deserve it.
Welcome to the new, politically correct, kinder, gentler Armed Forces.
I can't think of anyone who joined the military for the medals. I certainly didn't. The mature service members will recognize that they are all small pieces of the puzzle and that they do their duty to the best of their ability each day, asking nothing in return except to get out alive. Some do, some don't--that's life.
I completely agree. After reading about the treatment of POWs in WWII and Korea (Notably 'Ghost Soldiers', concerning the Bataan death march survivors, and various books on North Korean prison camps) I'd have to say that soldiers are far better off having an idea what they're getting into.
Not every soldier has the opportunity to go to SERE school, or even do worthwile unit level training. They can at least be mentally aware and prepared for what awaits them should they become captured. Not being prepared causes people to break under the pressure far sooner than they could hold out.
There is nothing to be gained by avoiding the issue. Soldiers should know what they're up against, always. If female soldiers have different challenges to face than male ones, those should be well identified.
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