Franks: Six Missing U.S. Troops Found

[thedrifter]

Franks: Six Missing U.S. Troops Found

By RON KAMPEAS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Coalition forces have found six U.S. troops previously classified as missing, Gen. Tommy Franks, the war's overall commander said Sunday. The six appear to be healthy.


Franks said he had been reluctant to release the information because he was unsure whether the six were among five listed as missing or seven listed as POWs.


"They appear to be healthy," Franks told ABC News.


Pentagon (news - web sites) officials have committed to tracking down 12 soldiers still missing or captured since the spectacular rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch on April 1, but until Franks' revelation, there appeared to be no leads.


Franks said he was reluctant to discuss the matter further until he had better information — but he made sure to underscore once again his commitment to rescuing coalition captives.


"For sure we're going to take care of our own," he told CNN. "This is very good news."


Officials had been sounding an upbeat note in recent days, saying more people were willing to talk and share secrets about potential POW sightings now that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s henchmen are gone.


"What we're finding now is that the regime has been moved away, people will speak about what it is they know," U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar said Saturday during a briefing. "And so, we suspect that much of the information that will assist us either in finding prisoners of war from this conflict or previous conflicts ... will come by way of the elimination of the regime."


Lynch, who was rescued April 1 from a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah after an Iraqi civilian tipped soldiers off, became the first POW to return home Saturday.


The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.


Sempers,

Roger

[thedrifter]

WASHINGTON - Seven missing U.S. troops have been freed, Gen. Tommy Franks, the war's commander said Sunday.

Sempers,

Roger


Info still coming in.........

[thedrifter]

Seven Missing U.S. Troops Found Healthy

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - U.S. Marines have found seven missing U.S. troops on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit, and they appear to be healthy, Gen. Tommy Franks said Sunday.


An Iraqi tipped off the Marines who were near Samarra and were closing in on Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), that they would shortly "come in contact with a number of Americans," Franks told Fox News


"I believe our guys picked them up on the road," he said.


"I know they're in good shape and I know they're in our hands and under our control now," he told CNN.


Franks said he had been reluctant to release the information because he was unsure whether the group was among five listed as missing or seven listed as POWs.


Franks originally said six were found. Central Command later that seven American servicemen were safe.


Bob Franken of CNN, who was with the Marine 24th Expeditionary Unit that found the POWs, said they were brought to an airfield in ambulances and all ran or walked to a C-130 transport plane.


Two of the POWs walked with a limp and one of those was a woman, Franken said.


One of the seven raised his hand in victory, and the woman was carrying her own equipment, he said.

Sempers,

Roger

[Sparrowhawk]

I hope one of them was that missing women as well....
soon we will know

[thedrifter]

Cook

The reports.....are saying a woman....is one......but nobody can not confirm yet......but there was a joke....They were giving Marine
uniform...and they laugh....saying they will accept that for now.....

Sempers,

Roger

[Sparrowhawk]

They would still have to go through Boot Camp..LOL

This is all great news... The girl's father had all but given up hope from his statements.
Now, he and the family can rejoice. It seems like she was spared some of the horrors Jessica went through.

[wrbones]

Good news.

[greybeard]

There seems to be a little confusion in the reports. The release I just saw from CENTCOM said the troops found were from the "missing" list, not from the known POW list. Am I getting bum scoop?

[thedrifter]

At this time some of the families are getting confirmed that it was the POW....'s.......507th Maintenance Company soldiers.........


Sempers,

Roger

[thedrifter]

Iraqis hand
over prisoners to Marines

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

WASHINGTON, April 13 — Coalition forces found seven U.S. troops previously classified as missing on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit, Gen. Tommy Franks said Sunday. The soldiers appear to be healthy and were flown from Iraq to Kuwait City.

FIVE OF THE rescued were prisoners of war, part of the 507th Maintenance Company convoy that was ambushed in the southern city of Nasiriyah on March 23. The other two soldiers are Army servicemen captured early the morning of March 24 when their AH-64A Apache Longbow attack helicopter was shot down by Iraqis during a predawn airstrike near Najaf, NBC News reported.
“They’re in good shape and I know they’re in our hands and under our control now and that’s very good,” Gen. Tommy Franks, the war’s commander, told CNN from war headquarters in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Iraqi troops north of Baghdad told Marines near the town of Samarra that they would shortly “come in contact with a number of Americans,” Franks said on Fox News. The Iraqis apparently had been abandoned by their commanding officers as the U.S. forces advanced on Tikirt, the hometown of Saddam Hussein.
The United States had previously listed seven soldiers as captured in the Iraq war, including five members of an Army military maintenance company taken on March 23 when their convoy made a wrong turn in southern Iraq and was ambushed by Iraqi forces.


Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, of Park City, Kan.; Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M.; Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, Fort Bliss, Texas; Sgt. James Riley, 31, of New Jersey; Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Florida;
Army Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., 26, of Lithia Spring, Ga.; and U.S. Army Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas.
The Washington Post, quoting a Marine commander near the Iraqi town Samarrah, reported that Iraqi guards brought the prisoners to the Marines.

Ronald Young Sr. identified one of the Americans from a shaky video shown by CNN as his son, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., who was listed as a POW after his Apache helicopter was forced down March 23.
“It’s him, and I’m just so happy that I could kiss the world!” the elder Young said. “It’s him! It’s definitely him.”
A CNN reporter who was with the Marine 24th Expeditionary Unit that found the Americans said they were brought to an airfield about 50 miles south of Baghdad in ambulances and all ran or walked to a C-130 transport plane to take them to Kuwait. Two walked with a limp and one of those was a woman.

One of the seven raised his hand in victory, and the woman was carrying her own equipment, he said. Marines nearby applauded as they went past.
Two of the soldiers suffered from gunshot wounds and the group was flown to a medical facility near Baghdad, The Washington Post reported.

IRAQIS WILLING TO TALK
Officials had been sounding an upbeat note in recent days, saying more people were willing to talk and share secrets about potential POW sightings now that Saddam’s henchmen are gone.
“What we’re finding now is that the regime has been moved away, people will speak about what it is they know,” U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar said Saturday during a briefing. “And so, we suspect that much of the information that will assist us either in finding prisoners of war from this conflict or previous conflicts ... will come by way of the elimination of the regime.”
The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.
Jessica Lynch, who was rescued April 1 from a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah after an Iraqi civilian tipped soldiers off, became the first POW to return home Saturday. The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.
Many of the 23 Americans held by Iraq during the 1991 war said they were moved often during their captivity. Many ended up in Baghdad, held either in the basement of what was then Saddam’s secret police headquarters or at the prison in the Rasheed military complex in southeastern Baghdad.

LYNCH RETURNS HOME
Lynch, 19, was taken by ambulance from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a huge campus several miles from downtown Washington, to recover from her head-to-toe injuries at the Army’s premier medical center.





• Slide show: Images of war




Some four-dozen wounded soldiers also were on the flight from Germany.
The former POW from Palestine, W.Va. was carried on a stretcher down the rear cargo ramp of the huge C-17 aircraft, while her parents entered a van.
“Our medical team finds Pfc. Lynch to be in satisfactory condition so far,” Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, commander of the Walter Reed facility, said Saturday night in a statement.
“They will spend the rest of the weekend evaluating her more fully and continuing the care she received at Landstuhl. She will get the same outstanding medical care America expects all of our patients — battle casualties and others — to receive. We expect to have more to say about her condition tomorrow.”
Hospital officials said they expected to hold a news conference Sunday.
Her family said in a written statement issued in Germany that Lynch “is in pain, but she is in good spirits. Although she faces a lengthy rehabilitation, she is tough. We believe she will regain her strength soon.”

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1862792.jpg

An unidentified soldier, far left, escorts, from left, Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, Army Sgt. James Riley and Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr. to a plane in central Iraq on Sunday.


http://www.msnbc.com/news/1862793.jpg

Servicewoman Shoshana Johnson, 30, Fort Bliss, Texas, prepares to board a plane in central Iraq after she and six other POWs were found Sunday

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1862794.jpg

U.S. Army Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, left, Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, center, and Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, all of the 507th Maintenance Company, head to a C-130 transport plane on Sunday


Sempers,

Roger

[SHOOTER1]

Gods watching over his own,Semper Fi.:banana: :thumbup: