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First Girl Lost in War
The Sun ^ | 24 March 2003 | Will Barker

Posted on 03/24/2003 7:42:00 PM PST by Plainsman

A PRETTY 19-year-old country girl who joined the US Army to escape unemployment was feared to be the first woman soldier to die yesterday.

Blonde Jessica Lynch was among 12 soldiers in a US supply convoy ambushed by Iraqi troops. Her parents were left weeping like others in America and Britain as more Coalition victims of the war were identified.

Supply clerk Jessica was feared dead after five survivors from the ambush were paraded before Iraqi TV cameras in sickening footage beamed around the world on Sunday.

Also shown were the bodies of the other seven members of the 507th Maintenance Co convoy, but Jessica’s parents could not identify her among them.

Her father Greg Lynch said: “The only thing they can tell us is she’s missing.

“I just want them to bring her back safely — her and all the rest of the kids.”

Private Jessica — known as Jessie — only joined up because she could not find a job in her farming community home town of Palestine, West Virginia.

Lorene Cumbridge, a 62-year-old cousin, said: “She’s just a West Virginia country girl. Warm-hearted. Outgoing. I really thought growing up she would become an elementary school teacher.

Missing ... supply clerk Jessica

But for West Virginia children in some of the more rural areas, the military is the one good chance of getting an education and making something of themselves.”

Lack of jobs and the military service of her older brother, Gregory Lynch Jr., led Jessica into the Army, her father said.

She signed up before graduating from Wirt County High School in Elizabeth, where she played basketball and softball.

Greg said: “The Army offered a good deal.” Jessica’s brother is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Locals have been supporting Greg, Jessica’s mother Deidre, and her 17-year-old sister, Brandi Renee.

A yellow ribbon was tied to a tree near the family’s mailbox and two others were attached to posts on the front porch.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: jessicalynch; mia; womenincombat
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Comment #61 Removed by Moderator

To: Poohbah
Jerks...

If I said any more, I'd be given a lengthy time-out.
62 posted on 03/24/2003 8:29:13 PM PST by hchutch ("But tonight we get EVEN!" - Ice-T)
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To: Constructionist
What? What the .... are you talking about?
63 posted on 03/24/2003 8:29:24 PM PST by LisaAnne
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To: Wavyhill
but rather need to be slaughtered without mercy.

You have said what I've wanted to say for several weeks, but didn't. And yes, that is the level of revulsion and outrage they manage to stir up in any moral person. I have come to see them as vermin rife with plague, and their plague is pure hatred of anything pure and good.

64 posted on 03/24/2003 8:29:35 PM PST by laz17 (Socialism is the religion of the atheist.)
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To: saramundee
Thank your sister for her service.
65 posted on 03/24/2003 8:30:30 PM PST by annyokie (provacative yet educational reading alert)
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To: Ciexyz
wasn't Bill Clinton the idiot who put American women in the position that this brave young woman was in?
66 posted on 03/24/2003 8:31:06 PM PST by bonesmccoy (Defeat the terrorists... Vaccinate!)
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To: CheneyChick
Nice of you to pipe up, dear.
67 posted on 03/24/2003 8:32:44 PM PST by annyokie (provacative yet educational reading alert)
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To: annyokie
"Thank you, Frank! Women in Combat are nothing but a hazard to our otherwise brave boys!"

My my my. An American soldier dies, and YOU BASH OUR TROOPS. Go to hell.

WTF is it, that if one of our soldiers dies and we come here to mourn, it won't be two minutes before some POS hijacks the thread and turns it into a troop-bashing screed. I'm sick of it. I'm PROUD OF MY DAUGHTER and if you morons don't like it, take it somewhere else. An American soldier died tonight, and I don't care if they are man or woman, they died for us.
68 posted on 03/24/2003 8:33:15 PM PST by dandelion
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To: Euro-American Scum
A combat area is no place for women, in any capacity, at any time.

Tell that to all the nurses in the MASH units, and the soldiers, Marines and Airmen they saved. This female soldier was a supply clerk and was supposed to be out of immediate combat area, but she was still a soldier and undoubtedly knew how to use her M-16 or M-9. Hopefully, if she's gone, she took a few Iraqies with her. Being a "country girl" she may have known how to shoot before she ever joined the Army. One hopes so, because that would increase the chances of her taking a few of Saddam's minions with her.

69 posted on 03/24/2003 8:34:02 PM PST by El Gato
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To: FITZ
Who knows what is happening to her and maybe she's been killed too by now

What worries me as the Battle of Baghdad approaches, as much as Iraqis using chemical weapons or worse, is that the POWs may be used as hostages... or worse, killed as part of scorched-earth. The death throes of Saddam's regime and the Ba'ath party are not going to be pretty, because nothing else about them is.

70 posted on 03/24/2003 8:35:42 PM PST by laz17 (Socialism is the religion of the atheist.)
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To: Poohbah
Notice the slant...she wasn't actually serious about going to war, she was just looking for a job, and that EE-VIL Dubya MURDERED HER!

How do you manage to read THAT into it? You need to get your glasses checked.

71 posted on 03/24/2003 8:38:28 PM PST by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
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To: annyokie
Nice of you to pipe up, dear.

Wish I could say the same, dear.

72 posted on 03/24/2003 8:38:35 PM PST by CheneyChick (Lock & Load)
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To: laz17
Poor girl, dead OR alive. See my post #38 , I have heard what happens.
73 posted on 03/24/2003 8:38:48 PM PST by Paradox
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To: Porterville
Women still don't belong in combat areas.
74 posted on 03/24/2003 8:39:12 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: Constructionist
I have always felt that having women in the service is a HUGE mistake. If alive and taken prisoner, I'm sure she is discovering why. I need not elaborate here.

Because the female PWs would be tortured and raped while male PWs are getting manicures and eating bon-bons? Don't you think women are aware of that possibility before they start signing papers and taking oaths?

75 posted on 03/24/2003 8:39:26 PM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: dandelion
Look, Brainiac, and READ the thread before you pop off.

MY child, albiet, MALE, is active duty. STFU.
If you can read closely, you will see that I have not bashed anyone.
76 posted on 03/24/2003 8:41:03 PM PST by annyokie (provacative yet educational reading alert)
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To: bonesmccoy
wasn't Bill Clinton the idiot who put American women in the position that this brave young woman was in?

No, she wasn't in a combat arms position, she was a supply clerk. Women have served in non-combat positions since well before Bill Clinton dishonered the office of President of the United States. One difference is that today they are all taught to defend themselves with arms, which hasn't always been the case.

77 posted on 03/24/2003 8:41:21 PM PST by El Gato
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To: annyokie
Go ahead and flame me, but, this kind of cheap sentimentality is the reason that GIRLS should not be in the Service.

Where are the fawning pictures of our dead boys? WTFO?

God bless her family and I thank her for her service.

perfectly put

78 posted on 03/24/2003 8:41:32 PM PST by ALS
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To: my_pointy_head_is_sharp; Poohbah
This paragraph exposes the writer's bias:

Private Jessica — known as Jessie — only joined up because she could not find a job in her farming community home town of Palestine, West Virginia.

79 posted on 03/24/2003 8:41:35 PM PST by Loyalist
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To: Age of Reason
It doesn't matter - they are already there, and they are doing their job.

This is really starting to chap my *ss that one of our women is captured, or one of them dies, or they just made the mistake of showing up to do their ****ing job, no one can pay tribute to these gals without some *sshole putting them down. I just ONCE want to say "Good job, soldier girl" without some idiot bashing these women. I'm not going to take it any more.

80 posted on 03/24/2003 8:44:25 PM PST by dandelion
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