Posted on 07/27/2003 2:19:40 PM PDT by protest1
The real hero behind the 'bravery' of Private Jessica By Julian Coman (Filed: 27/07/2003)
America's most famous woman soldier owes her fame to a case of mistaken identity, reports Julian Coman in Washington
As she watched Private Jessica Lynch's emotional homecoming on television last week, Arlene Walters struggled to suppress her growing anger.
For millions of Americans, Pte Lynch's first faltering steps in her home town of Elizabeth, West Virginia, were a moment of high emotion, a happy ending to one of the darkest incidents of the Iraq war.
For Mrs Walters, however, the standing ovation and praise lavished on the young woman soldier, who was captured by Iraqi forces and later freed in a dramatic American raid, served only to highlight the contrasting treatment of her dead son, who fought in the same unit.
It was, fellow soldiers have told her, Sgt Donald Walters who performed many of the heroics attributed to Pte Lynch in the fanfare of publicity designed to lift the nation's morale, and Sgt Walters who was killed after mounting a lone stand against the Iraqis who ambushed their convoy of maintenance vehicles near Nasiriyah.
Yet few, if any, of the Americans watching Pte Lynch's homecoming last week have even heard her son's name. "The military tell us that everyone who was in her unit was a hero," Mrs Walters told The Telegraph. "In fact they have singled out Jessica Lynch as the hero, and they are not giving the recognition to my son that he deserves.
"The fighter that they thought was Jessica Lynch was Donald. When he was found he had two stab wounds in the abdomen, and he'd been shot once in the right leg and twice in the back. And he'd emptied his rounds of ammunition. Just like they said Jessica had done at first."
Sgt Walters, a 33-year-old military cook from Oregon, blond and slim but not a photogenic female warrior, had been serving with the ill-fated 507th Maintenance Unit, in which Jessica Lynch was a supply clerk.
In the days following the elaborately staged rescue of Pte Lynch from her hospital ward on April 1, a blizzard of American media reports told how the soldier had exhausted all her ammunition before capture, in an isolated and brave "fight to the death".
They suggested that it was only after a prolonged battle, in which she was shot and stabbed, that she was eventually taken prisoner. In all, 11 soldiers were killed and six captured. It subsequently emerged, however, that the young soldier's rifle had jammed and her injuries were caused by her lorry colliding with another vehicle as the convoy came under attack.
Last week, with no fanfare, the US Army released a detailed report into the incident which makes it clear that a lone American fighter did, indeed, hold out against the Iraqis - but that the soldier was not Pte Lynch. It says that following the ambush, Sgt Walters may have been left behind, hiding beside a disabled tractor-trailer, as Iraqi troops closed in. The report confirms that he died of wounds identical to those first attributed to Pte Lynch.
"There is some information to suggest that a US soldier, that could have been Walters, fought his way south of Highway 16 towards a canal and was killed in action. Sgt Walters was in fact killed at some point during this portion of the attack. The circumstances of his death cannot be conclusively determined."
Fellow soldiers who witnessed the ambush have been less guarded. "One told me that if I read reports about a brave female soldier fighting, those reports were actually about Don," said Mrs Walters.
"The information about what had happened had been taken by the military from intercepted Iraqi signals, and the gender had gotten mixed up. He was certain that the early reports had mixed up Jessica and Don."
Mrs Walters and her husband are now struggling to persuade the US military to acknowledge fully their son's bravery. Sgt Walters has been posthumously awarded the bronze medal, but his relatives argue that higher honours are deserved. The army says the investigation into the incident is now closed.
"I just can't imagine him being left out there in the desert alone," said Mrs Walters, who is still haunted by images of her son's lone stand.
"I'm not trying to take anything away from Jessica. We just want Don to get the credit he is entitled to for his bravery."
She has her own theories about the Army's reluctance to give him due credit. "Perhaps the army don't want to admit to the fact that he was left behind in the desert to fight alone," she said. "It isn't a good news story."
That's a question for whiners and complainers. I don't care how she ranks on a list of all-time greatest war heros. Her rescue is a good story and more power to her.
I don't doubt for one second that she hasn't asked herself this same question. I see her as a puppet at this juncture.
I hope she isn't worrying about it. If her family is God-revering and humble as they look to be, I think she can accept her notoriety with dignity and not worry about those who use her for their anti-women issues and those who use her for her pro-women issues, whatever they might be.
Now if she had saved her fellow soldiers by some gallant and heroic action duly noted, then she would be worthy of the admiration and commendations now bestowed.
No, she would've been awarded a Silver Star or better. She earned the Bronze Star. It's in keeping with the way they've been awarded the last few decades.
What I see is a little hometown girl being spun as a near martyr for political gain.
You're seeing things. It's mostly a good story. CWOJackson proves that because while he agrees with you guys that women shouldn't be near a combat zone, he isn't jealous of her nor is he using her to promote his no-women-in-the-combat-zone point of view. It's just too bad that others don't have the integrity to leave Jessica alone over this issue.
Sure, I'm leaning toward believing that Jessica was in that hospital and that was her uniform, given her size, but I could be wrong. Maybe the battery was used for something else like lights like you said but it's still kinda weird, I'd think a hospital would have a more sophisticated emergency lighting system than that. Or it could be that Jessica was taken on her bed from the hospital where she was found to this other "hospital" and this hospital was just a torture area instead of a real hospital, and that could be why they need lights. We'll see. I'm sure not going to claim that this battery had nothing to do with torture as you have done.
There are great stories of Amazon warriors. Plus I guess in Britain, there were great female warriors (archers, I believe, they would masticise one breast so they could shoot their bow). Maybe that was their secret. :^)
Maybe an American hospital--but a hospital in Saddam's Iraq? While at war? Not hard to understand at all.
Most of Iraq still does not have 24 hour electrical service.
But that just can't be! Everyone knows that the best way to use electric current to torture is the hand-crank kind! /sarcasm lol
Anyone who goes there and looks at my posts will see that I went out of my way to make it clear that I did not blame Private Lynch for any of this.
It gets a little old having to defend myself from these stupid smears. (SIGH.)
Understandable, but not likely, I think. Unless as I said, this was more of an unsophisticated torture area than a hospital.
I have to say one thing about this whole Private Lynch thing really touches a nerve. Most folks who spent any real time in uniform question the practicality of having women in combat (or in uniform at all), most know the medals and awards system is pretty much screwed and most have seen people get awards that they never earned. And just about every one of them also know that Private First Class Lynch probably just wishes everyone would leave her alone. What rankles my butt is that her Bronze Star, about the lowest award you can give a person that has been in combat or a POW, wouldn't get her a cup of coffee outside of her home town. And you have a bunch of arm chair commandos screaming about it like it's some kind of personal insult to them.
To begin with none of those folks have been in a combat zone recently. If most of them went through an ordeal even remotely like hers they would be calling lawyers and screaming lawsuit. Offer them a small piece of metal on a colored ribbon as payment, in full, for their ordeal and see how they would respond.
Granted, the value of the Bronze Star has become devalued WITHIN the services, which is unfortunate. These armchair commandos devalue it worse.
Reminds me of Cincinnati (second time that place has come up on this thread). Home of Jonas Saulk who saved the lives of millions of children. But Cincinnati wouldn't name a street in his honor since he was still alive...he could always do something that would discredit himself.
So they turn around and name a street after Pete Rose!
Christ help me. As a historian this pains me no end. Talk about torture.
The Amazons were femal warriors in Greek mythology. It was these Amazons cut their breast off to enable them to draw the bow back.
You have obviously confused the Greek Amazon story with tales of the Welsh archers - And I can assure you Welsh archers were all men.
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