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thedrifter
04-05-03, 11:42 AM
Military Releases Details of POW Rescue

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer





CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) -- Frightened and seriously wounded, a 19-year-old supply clerk who was held by Iraq for more than a week at first hid under a sheet when a team of U.S. military commandos stormed into her hospital room.

"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 Pfc. Lynch, a Central Command spokesman told a briefing Saturday 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 Renuart.

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, Renuart 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,'" Renuart 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, Renuart 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," Renuart said. "It's a great testament to the will and desire of coalition forces to bring their own home."

Renuart 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, Renuart 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.

Lynch's family was to fly Saturday from from Charleston, W.Va., to Germany to see her.

While the U.S. team was in the hospital, Renuart said, they also found a weapons cache and a large-scale sandbox model in the basement that accurately depicted U.S. and Iraqi positions in Nasiriyah.

Sempers,

Roger

MillRatUSMC
04-05-03, 04:24 PM
Mighty interesting...
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.

What interest me or caught my eye was;
"consistent with low-velocity, small-caliber rounds,"
What are talking here 5.mm caliber type rounds?
The soviets made a rifle that used those caliber of rounds.
Now the question;
Did the soviets sell Iraq some of those caliber rifles.
Another conclusion or question;
Did she get wounded by "friendly fire"?
Would wounds sustain by M16A2 be of small-caliber?
Mighty interesting...

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

MillRatUSMC
04-05-03, 05:07 PM
This might be my last on PFC Jessica Lynch;
http://images.suntimes.com/images4/columnists/ontiveros.jpg

Foes of women in combat crawl out of the woodwork

April 5, 2003
BY SUE ONTIVEROS SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

I don't think the plane carrying the wounded Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch was even off the runway before the tired old argument about whether women should be in the military, particularly in war zones, surfaced yet again.
Yes, Lynch looked pretty tiny being carried out on that stretcher. And she did look like a kid playing dress-up in the Army's photo of her with that camouflage hat perched on her little head.
But the reality is that for the most part, our troops fighting right now--male and female--are young. All the images of this war show us young faces. Yet that is how it always is in war. The troops are young and healthy. Maybe it's a good thing that their lack of age makes them oblivious to the dangers they face.
I had to shake my head when I read earlier this week the quote from Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, which wants women barred from serving close to combat. ''We have to ask, 'What are we doing with women in high-risk positions?' '' Donnelly said. Gee, where the heck do you think the nurses have been who have served in every conflict with U.S. involvement? It's a war, and the battle lines move constantly. Don't you think they've been close to the action?
Those against women in the military want you to think it's a new phenomenon, but it isn't. Women have served in every major war in U.S. history. During the Revolutionary War, women sometimes hid their gender so they could join the war effort.
Ah, but the naysayers will say, Jessica Lynch was more than a soldier--she was a POW. The argument goes on that a woman POW has an added disadvantage because of fears male captors would rape and sexually assault a woman POW. I think we'd have to be pretty naive to think those same captors wouldn't sodomize or sexually abuse male POWs, because sexual assault is all about dehumanizing and dominating another person.
Much will be made about the Iraqi pharmacist's accounts of his encounters with Lynch while he treated her wounds. Yes, it's believable that she cried every day and wanted to go home. You don't think male POWs have cried and wished the same thing? Who wouldn't rather be home than detained in a POW camp?
We have to remember why Jessica Lynch enlisted in the Army in the first place. The 19-year-old comes from a town with double-digit unemployment, and the Army was her one chance to get an education. Like many cash-strapped individuals before her, Lynch signed up so that she could get a college education and go on to become a kindergarten teacher. Now that she's been all over the news, three universities have stepped up and offered to pay for her education. What nice publicity for them. But where were they before, when she was just another broke high school student with a dream?
Another part of the argument is that many females signing up don't realize they could find themselves in dangerous situations. I sure hope the military weeds out individuals that gullible before they ever don a uniform. It's the military, for crying out loud: guns, weapons, combat! Who wouldn't think there might be some danger involved?
I think women who are in the military should be treated the same as their male counterparts. Everyone makes such a big deal about being able to do push-ups and other physical feats. We've yet to see a war where the guy who could do the most push-ups won the battle.
In a combat situation, you want someone who can think fast on his or her feet, someone with common sense, a person with a brain. There's no reason that person couldn't be a female.
It's being reported that Lynch fought off the Iraqis until she ran out of ammunition. In the process, it's thought she killed a few of her aggressors.
It sounds as if she was a brave soldier fighting to the finish. Nothing in her actions shouts out her gender, and that's the way it should be.

Besides companies offering her cars and any thing under the sun.
What Sue says is of interest;
three universities have stepped up and offered to pay for her education. What nice publicity for them. But where were they before, when she was just another broke high school student with a dream?
Now some want to make her more for their own interests.

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

firstsgtmike
04-05-03, 06:35 PM
"three universities have stepped up and offered to pay for her education. What nice publicity for them. But where were they before, when she was just another broke high school student with a dream?"

I put several thoughts in the hopper, and while they are still churning and by no means complete, I want to share the ingredients with you.

Most high school graduates start college before they are ready for maximum gain from the experience.

Whenever talk about reinstating the draft surfaces, there is also talk about drafting into including a "Public Service Corps".

How do you identify WORTHY "broke high school students with a deam"?

I think think a solution would be to restrict college scholarships to those individuals who have "graduated", either from the military or from a public service type corps.

And, the public service should be performed away from the home area, to enable a "diverse" learning experience.

The thoughts are still churning, and the mixture is looking better all the time.

GunnerMike
04-05-03, 11:49 PM
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."

Does not sound like the description of a rifle round wound, but rather pistol. Rifle caliber wounds would be "high velocity".

JChristin
04-06-03, 01:11 AM
I am so proud of PFC. Lynch, only wish she were a Marine. The Marine Corps and its reputation would have been duly well served.

There will be argument for argument shake for years to come regarding women Warriors and our "rightful" place on the war fields. Men do not grow up with the type of discrimination women face. People grow up and into their own cultural and society norms, and what is expected of them - according to their gender and race. This is what tells them what is "right," what is "wrong," and what "is" acceptable and what "isn't" acceptable." Our family, schools, and communities teach us such influences. We grow up that way, we don't know any different.

Military life is dominated by such norms, and yes, this is especially and exceedingly true about my beloved Marine Corps. I never really knew gender discrimination on such a large scale until I became a Marine. It was tough to take sometimes. Held back from occupation specialties because of your gender and not one’s ability is really heart wrenching – especially when it is YOU who is affected and not someone you heard about or have read about in the newspaper.

Once again, due to the recent experiences of PFC. Lynch who has unknowingly reopened the case for women in combat roles, the American people are called upon to ask themselves the age old question, “is it time yet?”

Not every male Marine should be on the front lines, and not every female Marine should be either. However, the ones who hold the abilities, the smarts, and the training, should all share equally in the division of warfare occupations based upon these three traits. Gender should not play a role. “Is” it or “isn’t” it time yet?

I hope PFC. Lynch accepts one of those university promises to pay for her education. I’m still paying off my student loans from attending university for seven years. I hope everyone who served time as a POW or was MIA receives the same type of benefits. Afterall, it would only be fair – now wouldn’t it? However, as I learned long ago, “life isn’t always fair, but we should strive to make it as fair as we can.”


semper fi,
jchristin