Name: Jessica D. Lynch
Branch/Rank: Army/Pfc
Unit: 507th Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, TX
Date of Birth/Age: April 26, 1983/19 at capture
Home City of Record: Palestine, W. Virginia
Date of Loss: March 23, 2003
Country of Loss: Iraq
Original Status: Missing in Action
Current Status: RESCUED
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground

Killed in action:
Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, 22, of Roswell, GA; Pfc. Howard Johnson II, 21, of Mobile, Ala.

Missing in action (later declared KIA):
Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, of Cleveland, Ohio; Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, of El Paso; Spc. James M. Kiehl, 22, of Des Moines, Iowa; Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, of El Paso; Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, of Tuba City, Ariz.; Pvt. Brandon Ulysses Sloan, 19, of Bedford, Ohio; and Sgt. Donald Ralph Walters, 33, of Salem, Ore.  

Prisoners of war:
Spc. Edgar Adan Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas; Spc. Joseph Neal Hudson, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M.; Spc. Shoshana Nyree Johnson, 30, of El Paso; Pfc. Patrick Wayne Miller, 23, of Walter, Kan.; and Sgt. James Joseph Riley, 31, of Pennsauken, N.J.

Four more members of the unit were wounded, but managed to hold off or evade enemy forces until a Marine unit arrived to help evacuate them.

Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. April 2003.

Synopsis: A group of about 20 members of the 507th was ambushed near An Nasiriyah, Iraq on the fourth day of battle by civilian-clothed Iraqi forces. The soldiers were supplying the 3rd Infantry Division in its drive to Baghdad in central Iraq when they took a wrong turn. Broadcast pictures showed the convoy with a vehicle that appeared to have its tires shot out, another was overturned. Six vehicles were destroyed according to media reports.

The 507th, which deployed with the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, is not considered a combat unit, Defense Department officials said. Made up mostly of mechanics, the 507th keeps the diesel tanker trucks rolling, fixes generators and keeps the mechanical parts in good shape. Lynch was a supply clerk.

Some members of the 507th were shown on Iraqi television as prisoners being questioned, but Lynch was not one of those. Lynch and the unit's cook, Shoshana Johnson, are among the first women POWs of this war, but women have been held prisoner starting with the Civil War. Two more women are listed as missing {MIA}.

Lynch was rescued April 1, from an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriyah. Army Rangers, Air Force combat controllers, Navy SEALs and Marines participated in the mission after receiving word from multiple local sources that she was in Saddam Hospital - a facility used by the regime as a military post - and still alive. Media reports indicate a witness stated that she was being "slapped" by an Iraqi officer when seen.

Doctors treating Lynch after her rescue and flight to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany indicate Lynch has two broken legs, a broken foot and ankle, a broken arm, disc injury, and head laceration. No confirmation yet on whether she was hurt in the ambush on the 507th, by her captors, or in the rescue effort. Initial reports of her having stab/gunshot wounds were confirmed when her family admitted she had 2 gunshot wounds. Doctors in Germany had earlier denied it. She underwent back and orthopedic surgery on April 3rd and 4th, was listed in stable condition, and was expected to recover.

Lynch was described as a "country girl" and had joined the Army because of the lack of jobs in rural West Virginia. She had hoped to attend college after her extended enlistment and become a kindergarten teacher. Her brother, Pfc. Greg Lynch is an avionics electrician from Fort Bragg, N.C. He's currently on emergency leave in their hometown of Palestine, W.Va. Lynch Jr. had enlisted the same day as his sister.

Her parents, Gregory and Deadra Lynch credited faith and a "brave bunch of people" for her rescue. Gregory Lynch Sr. went on to say "We love her, the little brat's caused a big stir in this town."

Jessica Lynch and her family left Landstuhl early Saturday morning (April 12) with 49 other wounded. They will continue medical treatment and recovery in the U.S.

Meanwhile, TV Networks fight over rights to her story, and 5 others prisoners, captured with her, have yet to be located in Iraq. Nine others from her unit were memorialized in services at Fort Bliss on April 11. They were killed in the ambush and it's aftermath where Jessica and her fellow soldiers were captured.

As of May 8, 2003 all the POW returnees, except for Lynch, have returned to Fort Bliss, Texas and are on leave.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030709-121049-4754r.htm

July 9, 2003

Crash caused Lynch's 'horrific injuries'

By Rowan Scarborough

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

    The Army will release a report tomorrow on the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company in Iraq that will show Pfc. Jessica Lynch and another female soldier suffered extensive injuries in a vehicle accident, but not from Iraqi fighters.

    The deadly March 23 battle in Nasiriyah, in central Iraq, has emerged as perhaps the most famous incident in the war - both for what happened and for what was reported to have happened, but did not.

    The Army's 15-page report officially will debunk accounts that Pfc. Lynch emptied two revolvers at her attackers and was shot and stabbed before being taken prisoner of war. In fact, she was riding in a Humvee that was struck by a projectile during a frantic attempt to escape the ambush. She suffered "horrific injuries," said Pentagon sources familiar with the report.

    Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, a good friend of Pfc. Lynch's, was driving the Humvee. The strike on the vehicle caused her to lose control. The utility vehicle smashed into a disabled tractor-trailer at more than 45 mph, critically injuring Pfc. Piestewa, the Pentagon sources said....

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA15PR66ID.html

POW Lynch Expected to Return to West Virginia Home Next Week, Family Spokesman Says

By April Vitello Associated Press Writer
Published: Jul 15, 2003

ELIZABETH, W.Va. (AP) - Former POW Jessica Lynch is expected to return home to West Virginia next week, a family spokesman said Tuesday.

Lynch is to be released July 22 from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and should arrive in Wirt County by midafternoon, spokesman Randy Coleman said.

The former POW is scheduled to make a brief statement in Elizabeth, then travel via motorcade to her home in nearby Palestine. She still has trouble standing and will not take questions from the media, Coleman said....

========================================

New York Times -- April 27, 2007
Politics During Wartime
By Michael DeLong

Michael DeLong, a retired Marine lieutenant general, is the author, with Noah Lukeman, of "A General Speaks Out: The Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Tampa, Fla. -- As the deputy commander at United States Central Command from 2001 to 2003, I represented the military in dealing with politicians regarding the capture and rescue of Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch in Iraq, and thus I can speak with authority about what really happened after her maintenance convoy got lost near Nasiriya in 2003 and she was taken prisoner. I feel compelled to respond to accusations that have been made in recent days by several politicians.

The initial reports from the field regarding Private Lynch stated that she had gone down fighting, had emptied her weapon and that her actions were heroic. Based on these reports, politicians from her home state, West Virginia, wanted the military to award her the Medal of Honor. Their request rose up the ladder until finally it reached me.

But initial combat reports are often wrong. Time must always be taken to thoroughly investigate all claims. In the case of Private Lynch, additional time was needed, since she was suffering from combat shock and loss of memory; facts, therefore, had to be gathered from other sources. The military simply didn't know at that point whether her actions merited a medal.

This is why, when the request landed on my desk, I told the politicians that we'd need to wait. I made it clear that no one would be awarded anything until all of the evidence was reviewed.

The politicians did not like this. They called repeatedly, through their Congressional liaison, and pressured us to recommend her for the medal, even before all the evidence had been analyzed. I would not relent and we had many heated discussions.

The politicians repeatedly said that a medal would be good for women in the military; I responded that the paramount issue was finding out what had really happened.

As it turned out, after a careful review of the facts, the military concluded that the initial reports were incorrect. Ballistic tests on
Private Lynch's weapon demonstrated that she had never fired; she had merely been a passenger in a vehicle that went astray, came under fire and crashed. Private Lynch was badly hurt, and in her condition, she could not fight back. Her actions were understandable and justifiable, but they could not be labeled heroic.

(It's important to make clear, too, that Private Lynch has never claimed to be a hero. As she told Congress earlier this week, the "story of the little girl Rambo from the hills who went down fighting" was not true.)

Accusations that the military played up Private Lynch's rescue for its own publicity purposes are also false. As someone who witnessed the operation from the planning to the execution, I can tell you it was one of the most spectacularly executed rescues I've seen in my 36-year career. Our receiving word of Private Lynch's rescue - and subsequently, news of the rescue of the other prisoners - was a high point of the war for all of us at CentCom.

None of us were in it for the publicity: we did it to save a comrade. Period. We never ordered the operation filmed - the troops who executed it decided to film it on their own. Ultimately, it was good that they did, not for publicity purposes, but because that film can now be used to train soldiers.

A nation needs heroes. Hero-making in itself is not a bad thing. But hero-making without grounds is. In the case of Ms. Lynch, overzealous politicians and a frenzied press distorted facts.    For these politicians to   step forward now and accuse the military of capitalizing on the Jessica Lynch story is utter hypocrisy.