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.
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.
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.
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.
How do you manage to read THAT into it? You need to get your glasses checked.
Wish I could say the same, dear.
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?
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.
Where are the fawning pictures of our dead boys? WTFO?
God bless her family and I thank her for her service.
perfectly put
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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.