RATHBUN-NEALY, MELISSA
Name: Melissa Rathbun-Nealy Rank/Branch: Spec./US Army Unit: 233rd Transportation Co. Age: 20 Home City of Record: Newaygo, MI Date of Loss: 30 January 1991 Country of Loss: Iraq Loss Coordinates: Status: Prisoner of War Status in 2002: Released 03/04/91 Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Jeep
Other Personnel in Incident: David Lockett (released)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 09 March 1991 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the POW NETWORK 2002.
REMARKS: OPERATION DESERT SHIELD
SYNOPSIS: Melissa Rathbun grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and graduated from Creston High School in 1988. Following graduation, she joined the Army - for adventure and to earn money for college - according to family friends. While in the Army, Melissa was married briefly and divorced.
When U.S. troops were sent to Saudi Arabia, Spec. Rathbun-Nealy, assigned to the 233rd Transportation Company, shipped out with the rest of her company. She was one of about 30,000 women among the 400,000 American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf.
On 30 January 1991, Rathbun-Nealy and Spec. David Lockett, both from the 233rd Transportation Company, became missing near the border of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Rathbun-Nealy was the driver and Lockett a passenger in one of two heavy equipment transfer vehicles (tank carrier or HET) delivering equipment to troops on that day. Rathbun-Nealy and Lockett were transporting a repaired truck. The two vehicles took a wrong turn and ended up in the middle of fighting as Iraqi tanks, armored patrol vehicles and troops moved into the city of Khafji, Saudi Arabia. The vehicles came under fire and one of them managed to speed out, but when the occupants of the first vehicle looked back, they saw that the second, driven by Rathbun-Nealy, had gotten stuck in the sand in attempting to turn around. Marines from the 1st Marine Division deployed just two miles south of the city organized a rescue party after the truck that escaped requested help.
As the Marine vehicles crept into the outskirts of the city, two Cobra helicopters flew shotgun overhead. When they arrived at the spot where the vehicle crashed, they found the truck abandoned with the passengers' duffel bags and gas masks inside the vehicle. The material they had been transporting was gone. The doors of the vehicle were open and the weapons gone. The wheels were still spinning. No sign of the occupants was found; there were no bloodstains seen. The vehicle was observed for the next three days, wheels still spinning.
First Pentagon reports indicated that the crashed truck was occupied by Rathbun-Nealy and Lockett. Later, Pentagon sources revealed that the two missing from the crashed jeep had been rescued, but declined to name them. Rathbun-Nealy and Lockett, the Pentagon said, were lost some distance away from this loss location.
In early February, a captured Iraqi reported that he had been part of a prisoner escort unit that took Lockett and Rathbun-Nealy to Basra, a military command center and key port city just north of Kuwait. The site, according to the source, was a primary target for allied bombers. The source indicated that Rathbun-Nealy had an arm injury, but the cause of the injury is not known. The Pentagon, however, initially listed the pair as missing from their post. Nearly two weeks following the incident, the Pentagon changed the category to Missing in Action. Despite numerous reports that the two had been captured, the Pentagon has not yet changed their status to Prisoner of War. Some observers feel this is an apparent effort by the Pentagon to downplay the existence of American prisoners of war.
By February 12, U.S. military officials were admitting to receiving "conflicting information" on the missing pair. One official said "We are reasonably confident that they are prisoners of war. Where they are, precisely what shape they're in, we don't know."
Critics speculate on the "information gap" relating to this case. The loss of a servicewoman in a combat zone would be unusual, if not embarrassing, to the U.S. The two escaped soldiers would be attractive media targets had they been associated with the loss incident of the first known black man and the only female in the U.S. military to be missing since World War II.
Radio Baghdad later reported that Iraqi troops had captured many American soldiers, both men and women. The broadcast said female POWs would be given special treatment under Islamic law. This does little to assuage the fears of Rathbun-Nealy's parents and other observers.
In late January, video interviews of Allied POWs were broadcast on Iraqi television, and later broadcast in the United States. Several Allied POWs made appearances and gave "peace" statements. All appeared to be speaking under extreme duress and appeared to have been beaten. On January 20, the Iraqis stated that POWs would be used as "human shields" to protect their important military sites from attack by Allied forces.
On March 3, 1991, both David Lockett and Melissa Rathbun-Nealy were released in a group of six American POWs. They reported that, although they had been held in solitary confinement much of the period, they had been well-treated.
Lockett and Nealy added details to their capture. Upon capture, the Iraqis intended to leave Lockett, who was injured, behind. Nealy refused to leave without him, and he was taken prisoner also. The blood in the front of the truck convinced others in the transportation unit that Lockett had died. They held little hope for his survival. Meanwhile, the Pentagon was reporting to the families that there was no sign of violence at the truck. The two were held at Basra until their release.
Melissa Rathbun-Nealy is twenty years old and is an only child. Her parents, Leo and Joan Rathbun live at Newaygo, Michigan. Rathbun-Nealy has been in the Army for two and one-half years and is stationed at Ft. Bliss, Texas. She was in Saudi Arabia since October, 1990. She was married for about a year to Army Sgt. Anthony Nealy, who is currently serving in Saudi Arabia. She is the first woman military member reported Missing in Action since World War II.
==============================
FEMALE POW A SHIELD: REPORT
BY WILLIAM GOLDSCHLAG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
FEB. 12, 1991
Iraq apparently is using a captured American woman soldier as a human shield
against allied air raids, a Pentagon official said yesterday.
Army Spec. Melissa Rathburn-Nealy, 20, Grand Rapids, Mich., the only female
American POW, was reportedly taken to the southern Iraqi city of Basra, which
has come under constant pounding by allied bombs since the Persian Gulf War
began Jan. 16.
The official said an Iraqi prisoner of war described transporting two U.S.
Army prisoners an man and a woman, to Basra, a key military command and
supply center just north of Kuwait.
DISAPPEARED NEAR BORDER
The descriptions appeared to match those of Rathburn-Nealy and Spec. David
Lockett, 23, the Pentagon official said.
The Two Americans were declared missing Feb. 1, after disappearing on a road
in Saudi Arabia near the Kuwait border.
Around the same time, Iraq announced it had taken a woman prisoner, brought
her to the Saudi city of Khafji - which its troops then held - and said she
would be well treated under Islamic law.
SAME FATE AS MEN
Now, it appears she she has been consigned the same fate as other allied
prisoners, most of them pilots.
Iraq said last month they would be moved to strategic sites to be used as
human shields against air attacks. Iraq said one such POW, whom it did not
identify, was killed in an air raid.
With News Wire Services
===========================
FATHER OF MISSING WOMAN SOLDIER APPEALS TO SADDAM
02/22/91 01:28PM
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) The father of the only woman soldier missing
in
action in the Persian Gulf War hoped to help win her release by asking Saddam
Hussein to acknowledge his daughter as a prisoner of war.
''President Hussein, Melissa is my only child,'' Leo Rathbun of Newaygo
wrote Friday in a letter to the Iraqi president through Abdul Amir Al-Anbari,
the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations.
''I beg of you please to have your government give my Melissa a message
that her family loves her and is praying for her and that we have received
mail from all over the world from people who are offering support and
prayer.''
Army Spec. Melissa Rathbun-Nealy, 20, a Grand Rapids native, and her
partner, Army Spec. David Lockett, 23, have been missing since Jan. 30. The
two were in a two-truck convoy carrying supplies to the front lines near the
Kuwaiti border when they came under small arms fire.
A published report earlier this month indicated a captured Iraqi soldier
said he helped transport a female and male soldier matching the descriptions
of Rathbun-Nealy and Lockett to Basra in Iraq. That Pentagon has yet to
confirm that report.
''I felt I would appeal father to father,'' Rathbun said in a telephone
interview with The Grand Rapids Press. ''I had to do something.''
Rathbun said he and his wife, Joan, are appealing directly to Saddam
because the American government has not declared his daughter a POW. They
don't want their daughter to be forgotten if a peace plan calling for the
release of all POWs goes through.
''The Army has not recognized Melissa as a POW and if war ends, I believe
the Bush administration would ignore the problem of MIAs and POWs just as the
previous administration ignored the MIAs and POWs still thought to be held in
Vietnam,'' Rathbun said in the interview.
''I believe (Bush is) too concerned with how the American public would
react to the idea of a female prisoner of war who was in a non-combatant role
and should not be in prison.''
Rathbun said he has not appealed to President Bush, ''because it won't do
any good, and it would only interfere with how he wants to run this war.''
Rathbun also appealed to Saddam ''to instruct your government to allow the
International Red Cross or the Red Crescent to visit Melissa and all other
allied prisoners of war and to treat them in accordance with international
law as it applies to the holding of war prisoners.''
===============================
11/05/93
I AM OUTRAGED BEYOND BELIEF!
Editor's note: U.S. Veteran Dispatch is pleased to feature guest columnists
who contribute their personal views on issues which affect each and every
one of us as U.S. citizens. We invite any reader to share their viewpoints
through our guest column. The U.S. Veteran Dispatch exercises the right to
refuse inappropriate columns or columns containing offensive or libelous
material and to edit according to available space.
By Melissa Anne Coleman
Former POW, Iraq
As one of the prisoners of war in Operation Desert Storm, I was the first
enlisted female prisoner of war in American history. I am still a member of
the United States Armed Forces.
The motivation behind the writing of this letter is my reading of a recent
article in the newspaper. In this article, it was stated that the Iraqi
prisoners of war that the allies captured during Operation Desert Storm are
welcome to relocate here in the United States and belief that each one of
them will receive $7,000 (seven thousand dollars) to assist them in their
relocation process.
Firstly, as a citizen of the United States, but most importantly, as a
member of the Armed Forces and a former prisoner of war in Iraq, I am
outraged beyond belief. It was also printed in the article that the money is
coming out of a special fund for refugees. Why it is that the Iraqis and
other refugees have a special fund here in America, but there is no special
fund for Veterans Administration facilities? There are so many veterans from
this war and others who are desperately trying to make ends meet and heaven
forbid that they might have a family to support, who would give a body part
to receive seven thousand dollars from the United States government.
This brings me to another issue that has been on my mind and probably on the
minds of many other American citizens. How can the United States government
possibly justify sending aid to Kuwait, Somalia or Bosnia when they are not
even taking care of their own people? So many times I have heard a news
report stating that food has been air-lifted and dropped over these poor
countries with all of these starving citizens.
When was the last time any of you took a walk around any of our
"wonderful"
cities here in our country? Why don't you come down off your high horses and
step out of your glass houses and take a look at what is really happening in
this country. Little children and entire families are struggling every
minute, eating out of trash cans, sleeping on sidewalks or in parks, and
getting beaten, ridiculed and sometimes killed just trying to stay alive.
For what? To walk past a store window and see little Ethiopian or Cambodian
or whatever country is being exploited that day on television, looking on
pitifully as an American begs us to send money to feed and clothe them. Why
can't the government take some of our money that they spend on the
commercials and the shipping of these supplies and give it to the Americans
that need it?
In conclusion, I have just one question:
Why is it that in this day and age, foreigners have priority over American
citizens in what seems to be every aspect of life? It may seem that I am
asking too much by requesting a response from any of the under named
offices, but actually, considering what the Iraqis are getting, mine is a
very small request. And it would only cost 29 cents.
Pres. Bill Clinton;
Vice-President Al Gore;
Gov. Ann Richards;
Senators: Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Donald W. Reigle, Bob Kruger, Phil Gramm;
Stars and Stripes.
=======================
Female POW: I wasn't a hero
by Michelle Koidin
January 16, 2001
The Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO - Her mother walked through her days in a fog, not knowing
if her only child was dead or alive. Her father prayed day and night.
Hundreds of people she had never met wore POW bracelets inscribed with
her name.
Locked away in a Baghdad prison for 33 days, Melissa Coleman had no idea
such a fuss was being raised about her. She assumed the video and
snapshots taken by her Iraqi captors let everyone know she was OK.
And, amazingly, she was.
"Even though it was in the middle of a war, and it was air raids going
on - I could see the traces of them shooting anti-air warfare - it was
peaceful," says Coleman, then Melissa Rathbun-Nealy and the first of two
female U.S. prisoners of war in the Persian Gulf War.
"I was just alone, I was by myself, and I had to rely on myself and my
mind. I'd talk to myself. It's weird to say, but it was peaceful."
Today, the only outward traces of her service are a fingertip-sized
shrapnel scar on her forearm and two scars the size of jelly beans in
her upper arm from the puncture and exit of a bullet.
But like thousands of fellow veterans, Coleman says she suffers from
chronic fatigue, memory loss, headaches and muscle pain. The ailments
are associated with an unexplained condition known as Gulf War syndrome.
Teenager, truck driver, POW
Now 30, she left the Army in 1993 and is a stay-at-home mom living off
medical disability and her husband's pay. The San Antonio apartment she
shares with her husband, fellow Gulf War veteran Michael Coleman, and
their 7- and 8-year-old daughters bears no symbols of their days at war.
On a recent afternoon, her husband was sleeping after an overnight shift
at the post office, and her girls were at school. Her parents, Leo and
Joan Rathbun, were visiting for the winter from Newaygo, Mich.
Fiddling with a shiny purple press-on nail and running her fingers
through her hair, Coleman recalls how she went from a sassy, rebellious
teenager who joined the Army on a whim to a soldier who drove
tank-hauling trucks to a POW at age 20. And then, how her life changed
on Jan. 31, 1991.
More than three weeks before the 100-hour ground war began, Coleman and
her partner, 23-year-old Spec. David Lockett of Bessemer, Ala., were
hauling tanks to the front lines when they made a wrong turn and
accidentally crossed the border from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.
"All of the sudden, we hear gunfire, and I just jumped on the
floor,"
she says calmly.
Blood splattered. Coleman was shot in the arm. Both were cut by
shrapnel. The truck stalled. Lockett pulled Coleman out, and before they
knew it, they were surrounded by 10 to 15 Iraqi soldiers wielding
AK-47s.
Three meals and a courtyard
Coleman cried at first, then prayed for strength.
Over the next day and a half, the two were whisked across the desert and
interrogated at abandoned buildings along the way.
She finally got medical treatment at the prison in Baghdad where they
ended up.
While some of the 21 U.S. POWs said they were beaten, starved or held in
solitary confinement, Coleman says she was fed three meals a day, given
access to a courtyard and allowed to walk freely from her cell to a
bathroom down the hall.
"Looking back, it really wasn't that traumatic," says Coleman, who
is
believed to have been the first U.S. servicewoman imprisoned by enemies
since World War II.
Back home, word spread that a female truck driver was missing in action.
No name had been released, but Leo Rathbun had a pit in his stomach.
He went out and bought a fifth of whiskey. After a couple of drinks, the
doorbell rang. Through the window, Rathbun saw an Army uniform. It was
the beginning of a long month of waiting and wondering.
"It was almost like a case of hopelessness because we couldn't get any
information from the government at all," Joan Rathbun says. "We knew
that they weren't in the truck. We didn't know if they tried to escape,
whether they were shot dead, whether they were buried in the sand
someplace - we knew nothing."
Their fears finally were put to rest March 4, when they turned on CNN
after an excited phone call from a friend and saw Coleman and other POWs
being turned over to the Red Cross at a Baghdad hotel.
Unaware that her high-school senior picture had been published and
broadcast worldwide, Coleman was surprised to hear the shouts from
strangers: "Melissa, are you OK? Melissa, did they hurt you?"
Over the next several weeks, the swarms of news crews were about as
daunting to Coleman as her imprisonment. But she found a way to cash in
on her fame, making "nice sums of money" by telling her story to
tabloid
TV shows.
"What did I do to be a hero?"
Less than a month later, Coleman returned to her post in El Paso and
quickly married Michael Coleman, who had proposed before the war. She
then was exposed to the downside of celebrity when she received hate
mail over her marriage to a black man. Coleman, who is white, began
shunning the spotlight.
Today, she has settled into a quiet routine of driving her daughters to
school and taking computer classes. Her Purple Heart, Prisoner of War
and National Defense Service medals are stuffed in a closet. When her
dad suggests she dig them out and display them, she shrugs, much as she
scoffs at being called a hero.
"What did I do to be a hero?" Coleman says. "I didn't do
anything. The
ones that flew the air raids, the ones that got Kuwait back, they were
the ones that were the heroes."