Hyped Story Of Lynch's Capture Covers Officer's Incompetence, Vets Say

Three old soldiers say the hoopla over Pfc. Jessica Lynch has drowned out a darker story - that her company commander foolishly put Lynch and her comrades in harm's way.

Just as bad, the three say, is the Army's official report on what happened on March 23 when Lynch's 507th Maintenance Company ran into a firefight in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

The report calls the clash "a tragedy" and says the 507th's soldiers "fought hard. ... Every soldier performed honorably, and each did his or her duty."

That statement raises the eyebrows of retired artillery Col. Jerry Morelock of Fulton, Mo., now the director of Westminster College's Churchill Memorial.

In an e-mail interview, Morelock questioned whether the company commander had acted honorably and done his duty. That commander was Capt. Troy King. Morelock noted that King had:

Gotten his soldiers in one piece through a hostile city - and then turned around and driven back through it. (At that point, Morelock says, "the Iraqis found the soft targets presented to them by Capt. King's incompetence too tempting to pass up.")

Refused to jettison his unit's trailers, even when they slowed what should have been a hasty retreat.

Tom Kuypers of St. Charles is a retired lieutenant colonel of infantry. In an e-mail interview, he offered a stark judgment: "Capt. King will have to live with the burden that he failed to accomplish his mission. He failed his troops as a commander. He lacked competence as an officer. ... Commanders never abandon their troops in battle."

Another retired lieutenant colonel of infantry, Ed Kennedy of Leavenworth, Kan., shared that view. By e-mail, he quoted a maxim heard often in the Army: "A commander is responsible for everything his unit does - or fails to do."

All three veterans were stunned by the report's repeated mention of weapons jamming or malfunctioning. All three called the breakdowns a classic symptom of bad leadership.

Kuypers termed the jamming "a giveaway for lax discipline and the unit's lack of attention to detail." Kennedy said, "Dirty rifles are a sign of indiscipline, no matter how you cut it."

Kennedy blamed what he called "a major cultural divide between the combat arms and those of support soldiers. It's almost as if we're in different armies. And the 507th is part of this non-combat arms culture. There's a lot of tough talk but an underlying softness. They take pride in living in tents or trucks and not being fighters."

Kennedy added, "I think the pervasive number of females has made this even worse in the last 25 years."

But Kuyper said the 507th had gotten little in the way of help from the links above it in the chain of command. Among other things, he said, nobody provided an airborne escort, even though "helicopters routinely 'cover' convoys."

Even Kennedy said: "The leaders were all suffering from sleep deprivation and exhaustion. This added to the problem. ... Even a good rest plan can't fix this problem, and I empathize with their physical condition. I've been there. But battle drills that are rehearsed counter the effects of sleep deprivation."

King's home station is Fort Bliss, Texas. A spokeswoman there, Maj. Catie Morelle-Oliveira, said King had decided against granting interviews but was preparing a written statement.

Morelock scoffed at the press's lionization of Pfc. Lynch. In the official report, Morelock said, Lynch "comes across as just some poor young kid who got smashed up in a vehicle accident. In all likelihood, the Iraqis probably saved her life. Certainly they did more to ensure her immediate survival than Capt. King did."

Morelock's final words targeted the Army itself: "To refer to this combat action as 'a tragedy' - an 'event' in which the convoy seemingly just happened to find itself - is nonsense. Dismissing the whole thing by claiming that 'all served nobly' and then throwing medals at them is an insult to the soldiers who died and ought to be an embarrassment to the survivors."

A lot of people closer to the situation than you have said much the same thing as these guys that you dismiss.

Actually, the Army Times article (June 18, I think) paints a grim picture of the unit leadership wihtout explicitly saying so.

This guy is much closer to the truth than the original stories of JL fighting one handed and emptying her magazines into the enemy.

So what-My Uncle in WWII-POW got a medal as did lots of the guys. The media may have hyped it, but that's not the military's fault. Jessica Lynch suffered permanent injuries; she will doubtless experience pain for the rest of her life. MY friends and family in the military tell me the Iraqis caused these injuries. She deserves a medal. She served her country honorably. I think it's cruel to begrudge her this honor. I hear though that convoy didn't just get lost. Inexperienced officers totally screwed up and their conduct caused the capture of this group- a support group that had never seen combat-ask a marine what he/she thinks about these guys falling into the hands of the enemy:inexcusable is the usual comment I hear. Also, just because the author (follower of Buchannan for God's sake-I just noticed this) makes claims in this article doesn't mean it's true.

I've often wondered about this myself. When I was in the Army, supply/support unit convoys were always protected by Military Police units with air support in a readyness posture.

As far as the dirty weapons and discipline goes, one only needs to read the units TO/E to see that: This unit is capable of fighting as Infantry troops..... I agree with the Colonels of this article: This Captain needs to be looked at very closely and punished if in any way his negligence contributed to this incident.

The media may have hyped it, but that's not the military's fault. Jessica Lynch suffered permanent injuries; she will doubtless experience pain for the rest of her life. MY friends and family in the military tell me the Iraqis caused these injuries.

Exactly. I can see people criticizing the media coverage but criticizing Lynch herself is sickening to me. She served her country and paid the price physically. That's more than most of us can claim.

Do you think that you are the only one with sources or insight?

JL got a purple hear and POW medal, but calling her heroic is too much. Her conduct and survival is very admirable. There is a difference between admirable behavior and heroism, and the media and FR have really screwed this up badly.

Truth seems to be among the first casualty here and those who care about the truth are called cruel.

"Chosin", Ya I remember what they taught us back in 70, But the Corps. trained us Marines to ALL be fighters first, then what ever. Quess the Army of few who can, doesn't work so well, all the time

Of course you remember that USMC Col Chesty Puller and his 1st Marines were surrounded by thousands of chinese soldiers. It took quite a few of the Army's 7th and 3rd Inf Divisions few good men to get Col Puller and his marines out of the Chosin, including his dead. Col Puller had been told NOT to advance to the resevoir, but he stubbornly pushed ahead.

Truth seems to be among the first casualty here and those who care about the truth are called cruel

It appears that you are contributing to the casualty of the truth yourself. PFC J. Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service, not for valor. Further, I think she was fully deserving of her award of the BSM for meritorious service.

Get your facts together before you climb up on that soap box.

I've often wondered about this myself. When I was in the Army, supply/support unit convoys were always protected by Military Police units with air support in a readyness posture.

There are two ways to protect a convoy. One is to provide escorts; air and/or ground. The other is to secure the route itself. Due to the length of the route, the limited combat forces in theater, and the large number of support vehicles moving (thousands), the Army chose the second method. It worked--all the support vehicles that followed the designated route reached their destinations safely.

The 507th convoy element somehow left the secured route--that is how they got into trouble.

While your foot is still in your mouth, let me remind you that I did NOT claim that her medal was for heroism. I was referring to the early news stories and FReeper claims of heroism.

Next time you want to enter into a conversation uninvited to imply that I'm lying or careless with the truth, re read and understand the context.

Again, someone was so starved for a hero that they had to invent heroic deeds and then put in a name to go with it. Many Freepers ran with it, blindly heaping accolades upon a person because of her sex while at the same time denying it. If that was PFC Joe Lynch that is part of a lost unit that gets ambushed adn is so injured in a vehicle accident that he cannot/does not even fire a round in self defense, then there is no heroic deed.

Nope-plenty of people on this forum with more insight, sources etc than I have. However, I fail to see why It is so darn important to discredit the JL story with no evidence: the military types have not even finished their investigation.

I don't have any respect for guys like the authors of this article who are trashing our military men and women for political reasons. JL served honorably from what I can tell; the Military gave her a medal because they thought she deserved it -end of story. Why should we care? The military awards medals as they see fit. Sometimes, the process seems capricious, but why belittle JL because of it? She didn't give herself a medal. What should she have done-turn it down?

The military screwed up and that undoubtedly led to the capture of this unfortunate group. Is this surprising? Talk to any enlisted person and undoubtedly you will be regaled with other examples of officer mishaps-some that got soldiers killed. Unfortunately, it happens during every war.

I hate to interfere with your unseemly use of Pfc. Lynch's tragedy to irresponsibly speculate about her supposed rape and torture, but last Saturday I saw Stone Phillips on Dateline interview at great length the survivors of the 507th, including the black woman whose name escapes me (Shoshana Johnson?).

They described how Lynch, Lori Piesterwa (sp?), and two others were involved in a crushing Humvee accident. Piesterwa was driving and Lynch was sitting next to her. Going full speed, they hit the vehicle in front of them which had come to a complete stop.

The soldiers being interviewed told how they had gone to check on the soldiers in the crashed Humvee and were certain that all of them were dead. Only Lynch was still moving, and that was only a twitching of one foot, which the soldiers thought was just a post-mortem muscular reaction. When they later learned that Lynch had survived, they were -- to put it mildly -- astonished and overjoyed.

More was said in that interview and in the official reports, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has been suggested which would support your rank speculation of rape or torture of anyone, and especially not Lynch. Some POWs have reported that they were beat up immediately after being captured, but that's about it.

Lynch suffered greivous wounds in the service of her country, but that is apparently not sufficient for you and others on these threads who will never leave her story alone until everyone agrees without proof that she was raped and tortured. You are callously using Pfc Lynch as a source of your own perverted amusement. This is most offensive to me and disrespectful to Pfc Lynch.

the author (follower of Buchannan for God's sake-I just noticed this) makes claims in this article doesn't mean it's true.

The author is a regular St Louis Dispatch reporter & definitely not a Buchananite!

The reference to Colonel (Retired) Morelock on the Buchanan page does not identify him as a supporter--Morelock is the Director of the Churchill Memorial & Library & simply gave Buchanan a tour when he came by.

I don't have any respect for guys like the authors of this article who are trashing our military men and women for political reasons

Where did that come from? Read the article--where is the political slant? A reporter asked some retired military officers about a military incident and they gave their thoughts--nothing political about it except your reaction.

I was reporting what I had heard-that's what we do on FR, we speculate as none of us are in a position to know the truth. I would like to remind you that the Iraqis who tipped off the Americans saw Iraqis soldiers slapping Jessica. Also, there have been reports that these same Iraqis soldiers wanted to move Jessica, and she was protected by the Doctors and nurses at the hospital. Are you saying the bodies of our soldiers found at the hospital with bullets in their heads were not executed (after being beaten-of course you may not consider this torture)? Personally, I consider beatings to be torture. I don't look at a beating as a "that's all" scenario. I wonder how you would like to be beaten by sadistic monsters. As for Lori P., it has been previously reported that she died at the Iraqis hospital- by the Doctors and nurses at that hospital.

"Morelock scoffed at the press's lionization of Pfc. Lynch. In the official report, Morelock said, Lynch "comes across as just some poor young kid who got smashed up in a vehicle accident. In all likelihood, the Iraqis probably saved her life. Certainly they did more to ensure her immediate survival than Capt. King did."

I find Morelock and his opinions offensive. In case this idiot doesn't know, we found the bodies of executed soldiers at this hospital-the Iraqis sure didn't ensure their survival.

As for the other guys quoted in this article, I find it improper for a military man to publicly criticize (retired or active) our military during a wartime situation. This helps fuel anti-war sentiment and makes President Bush's job in Iraq more dificult.

The purpose of this article is to blacken the military's reputation. I question the motives of all who engage in this type of behavior. Also, to name Capt. King-with limited evidence-is sickening (your weapon can get quite dirty during a sand storm-or so I have been informed). Also, as a Marine, you are taught the primary duty of any solider in this situation is to evade capture and if captured to escape. Capt. Kelly may have been evading capture and not abandoning his soldiers as this article implies which is his sworn duty- who knows?

This article is a "hit piece" on the military-from start to finish and IMHO politically motivated. The fact that conservative freepers take it as gospel indicates that the author and his "sources" have been successful.

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