The real hero behind the 'bravery' of Private Jessica

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 27/07/2003 | Julian Coman

[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."

[takenoprisoner]

If oldcorps is correct, then we have a problem. Since if there is no auto qual for Bronze as a POW, and Lynch was unable to defend or herself or help her fellow soldiers in the firefight, exactly what was her "meritorious service?"

When one goes to war one engages in firefights. Do all soldiers who engage in firefights earn the Bronze Star?

[CWOJackson]

No problem at all really, read my previous. The award is given based on merit measured against criteria. Competent authority reviewed her actions and determined that she qualified; hence the award.

[takenoprisoner]

Seems to me then she was hand picked to become the poster child for the Iraqi war...with nothing to do with any action she performed other than being there and getting apprehended by the enemy.

[OldCorps]

"Do all soldiers who engage in firefights earn the Bronze Star?"

Of course not. A PFC being awarded a Bronze Star Medal (BSM), with or without V device is a rare thing. The vast majority of infantry grunts and armor crewmen in the 1st armored, 3rd, 4th and 101st Infantry divisions will not be awarded BSMs.

here is the site for the POW medal.

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/images/medals/pow_medal.htm

[CWOJackson]

Not at all, she was hand picked by the media to become a poster child, she was given the Bronze Star by competent authority based on her personal conduct. The two have no relationship with each other.

[takenoprisoner]

We agree on the media. Still, I see a little DOD complicity here egging on the media.

[Liberal Classic]

Amen.

[CWOJackson]

I have no doubt they are egging it on, still a totally separate issue. I don't see anyone questioning the very same award being given to other junior enlisted people from her outfit. And why is that?

[takenoprisoner]

I gotta hit the sack. So in the words of one of the greatest, "thanks for the memories."

[CWOJackson]

I'm sure there were plenty of troops waiting to great him with those very words. Good night.

[Movemout]

I don't disagree with Mrs. Walters. If those are the facts then I hope Sgt Walters is recognised. What you have here is a classic example of the fog of war. A Company Commander is either lost or given bad directions. He leads his soldiers into a hornets' nest of paramilitary forces. They fall under attack. Good soldiers are killed and captured. Jessica may not be the star of the act but she was there. I doubt she participated in the media frenzy to make her a star. She probably just wants to be left alone to try to sort out what happened. I hope she finds peace. She lost good friends and comrades to butchery and a muslim killing frenzy. I think a bronze star is little consolation.

[Michael121]

POW medal has been around a long time.

[Movemout]

I make little distinction between two frenzies, muslim and media. It was inadvertent but, in retrospect, appropriate.

[Michael121]

"elaborately staged rescue"

Yeah like this is accurate reporting.

First if all it was a raid that was filmed. It was edited by the DOD and parts released. You just don't show the world how you do things. But the raid was not staged.

First off FOX NEWS interviewed a black SSGT with the 507th, he was in the Hospital bed. He stressed they were not lost. They did not make any wrong turns. They were following an Armored column. As Germans did in WWII as N. Koreans and as NV regulars and VC's did, you wait to ambush the support and supply. You slip in and re-mine areas behind the engineers clearing a path and marking that path. Most military vehicles now have GPS. And that is DOD GPS more accurate than what is on the open market.

I don't believe in the "lost" convoy or the "wrong" turn. I believe a recovering SSGT.

[CWOJackson]

So well stated. It's amazing how many people seem to have a viseral dislike for this young soldier who did nothing more then her duty. Yet they want to blame her for the media hype or because she was awarded a medal for doing her duty.