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Lynch's family
going to Germany
More details emerging
about soldier's rescue

From staff, wire reports
Saturday April 05, 2003; 09:47 AM

Family members of Pfc. Jessica Lynch were planning to leave for Germany today for a reunion with the 19-year-old Wirt County native who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, several officials said.

As the family was preparing to leave, a military briefing at Central Command in Qatar released more details about her rescue, telling how she at first hid under a sheet and then was relieved to see U.S. Special Operations forces had come to her aid.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller had expedited passports for the Lynch family and had them at his Washington, D.C., home, said Rockefeller spokesman Mark Ferrell. The Senator planned to meet the Lynch family at Dulles Airport to provide the passports, Ferrell said.

Lynch family members planned to attend a press conference this afternoon at the state hangar at Charleston's Yeager Airport before starting their trip overseas, said Randy Coleman, a spokesman for the state Division of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

The Lynches were planning to travel to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where Jessica Lynch was being treated for her injuries.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld personally intervened to get the Lynches to Germany after Rockefeller, who is the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, brought up the issue during a closed-door briefing.

Rumsfeld followed up, calling Rockefeller a couple of times himself with updates and to make sure everything was happening properly.

Meanwhile, today, military officials provided more details about Lynch's rescue.

Frightened and seriously wounded, she at first hid under a sheet when a team of U.S. military commandos stormed into her hospital room, officials said today.

"Jessica Lynch,'' called out an American soldier, approaching her bed. "We are United States soldiers, and we're here to protect you and take you home.''

Peering from behind the sheet as he removed his helmet, she looked up and said, "I'm an American soldier, too.''

In the first details released about the daring rescue of Lynch, a Central Command spokesman told a briefing today that a team of Navy Seals, Marine commandos, Air Force pilots and Army Rangers worked with U.S. Special Forces in the rescue Tuesday in Nasiriyah.

While troops engaged the Iraqis in another part of the city, the team persuaded an Iraqi doctor to lead them to Lynch, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Gene Reunart.

Lynch, now recuperating at the military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, had suffered a head wound and fractures in her right arm, both legs, her right foot and ankle, and an injury to her spine. The rescue team quickly evaluated her medical condition, secured her to a stretcher and carried her to a waiting helicopter, Reunart said.

"Jessica held up her hand and grabbed the Ranger doctor's hand, and held onto it for the entire time, and said, ‘Please don't let anybody leave me,''' Reunart said. "It was clear she knew where she was and didn't want to be left anywhere near the enemy.''

Meanwhile, the Iraqi doctor told the team there were remains of other U.S. forces nearby, and they were led to a burial site. Because they had not brought shovels, Reunart said, the team dug up the bodies with their hands.

"They wanted to do that very rapidly, so they could race the sun and be off the site before the sun came up,'' Reunart said. "It's a great testament to the will and desire of coalition forces to bring their own home.''

Reunart did not shed any new light on how Lynch sustained her wounds -- whether she was injured in captivity or when the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed March 23 when they made a wrong turn in Nasiriyah.

Eight of the dead soldiers found during the rescue were members of the ambushed unit, Reunart said. The ninth was a soldier from a forward support group of the Army's Third Infantry Division, he said. All have been transported back to the United States.

Lynch's family in West Virginia said doctors had determined she'd been shot. They found two entry and exit wounds "consistent with low-velocity, small-caliber rounds,'' said her mother, Deadra Lynch.

She had a back operation Thursday and surgery for other broken bones Friday, said the commander of the hospital, Col. David Rubenstein. A friend is at her bedside and although she's still being fed intravenously, she's drawn up a list of her favorite foods for the hospital: turkey, steamed carrots and applesauce.

"Her emotional state is extremely good. She's jovial. She's talking with staff,'' Rubenstein said.

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