Jessica Lynch Is Rescued!!!

Jessica's Capture and Imprisonment

Pfc Jessica Lynch was captured on, or around, March 23 by Iraqis after her unit was ambushed. The ambush took place after several vehicles in the 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah. They were hit with a hail of gunfire and bullets. The soldiers of the 507th returned fire, but sand that had accumulated during their desert journey soon jammed their rifles.

"It wasn't a small ambush. It was a whole city. And we were getting shot from all different directions as we were going down the road," said Sgt. James Riley, who was also captured and rescued three weeks later. "We were like Custer. We were surrounded. We had no working weapons. We couldn't even make a bayonet charge. We would have been mowed down. We didn't have a choice," Riley said. Many of the U.S. soliders involved in this conflict were bravely fighting back. But after a hour or so of fighting, which claimed the lives of nine U.S. troops, Riley, the ranking soldier, decided they should surrender.

When news of the rescue was released, one official claimed that "She was fighting to the death" and "She did not want to be taken alive." The media went on a frenzy, making Pfc Lynch some sort of a "female Rambo". It captivated the attention of the nation, and the world. It was reported by the media that Pfc. Lynch had continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in the fighting. Later reports released by the Army state that Pfc Lynch was seriously injured when the Humvee she was traveling in slammed into a stalled vehicle during the attack, discounting the "female Rambo" image originally reported.

One account of Jessica's captivity came from an unidentified Iraqi pharmacist at the Hospital Pfc Lynch was held, who told Sky News that he helped cared for her and heard her crying about wanting to be reunited with her family. "She said every time, about wanting to go home," said the pharmacist. "She knew that the American Army and the British were on the other side of the [Euphrates] river in Nasiriyah city. . . . She said, 'Maybe this minute the American Army [will] come and get me.'

An Iraqi lawyer, Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, informed American forces about Jeccica's where-abouts. He said that he went by the hospital in Nasiriyah where his wife works and noticed the presence of security agents. He spoke to a doctor friend who took him to a first-floor emergency wing where he pointed out a soldier through a glass interior window; a young woman lying in a bed with her head bandaged, her right arm in a sling over a white blanket and what Mohammed thought was a gunshot wound to a leg. This was our Jessica.

Inside the room with her was an imposing Iraqi man, dressed all in black. Mohammed watched as the man slapped the American woman with his open palm, then again with the back of his hand. She was being very brave, he said. Mohammed immediately realized he had to do something. They stepped into the room and he said 'Good morning.' She thought he was a doctor. He say, 'Don't worry' and she smiled," he recalled. The next day, when the man in black was not around, Mohammed sneaked in to see Jessica again. "Don't worry, don't worry," he told her. He told her he was going to help. And that he did.

Jessica's Rescue

Mohammed snuck out of town, walking six miles until he met up with some Marines. With his arms raised he shouted "I have important information about woman soldier in hospital." He was immediately brought to officers who began asking him about the hospital and the soldier he had seen. But the Americans needed more information if a solid rescue plan was to be made. So Mohammed made a few more trips back and forth to the hospital over the next two days, risking not only his life, but also his family's.

On his first return trip to the hospital, he learned the Iraqis were talking about amputating Jessica's leg, which had been injured during or after the attack. Mohammed said he urged his doctor friend to stop the amputation. He slipped in to see Jessica to reassured her, but she mistook him for a doctor.

He walked around the hospital, counting the number of fedayeen stationed there. He counted 41. He noted that four guards in civilian clothes stood watch at Jessica's first-floor room armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and radios. He traced routes through the building that commandos could use.

A Special Operations force of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Air Force personnel swooped in early Wednesday morning, while Marines staged a fake offensive elsewhere around Nasiriyah to distract attention of the fedayeen and their allies. Jessica's rescue was a classic Special Operations raid, with U.S. commandos in Black Hawk helicopters engaging Iraqi forces on their way in and out of the medical compound, defense officials said. Acting on information from CIA operatives, they said, a Special Operations force of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Air Force combat controllers touched down in blacked-out conditions. An AC-130 gunship, able to fire 1,800 rounds a minute from its 25mm cannon, circled overhead, as did a reconnaissance aircraft providing video imagery of the operation as it unfolded.

"There was shooting going in, there was some shooting going out," said one military officer briefed on the operation. "It was not intensive. There was no shooting in the building, but it was hairy, because no one knew what to expect. When they got inside, I don't think there was any resistance. It was fairly abandoned." As the troops reached the room Jessica was in a soldier announced "Jessica Lynch, we are United States soldiers, and we're here to protect you and take you home." Jessica replied "I'm an American soldier too." The rescuers quickly evaluated her medical condition, secured her to a stretcher and took her to a waiting helicopter where she was airlifted out of harm's way. 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." "It was clear she knew where she was and didn't want to be left anywhere near the enemy." Attention to her medical needs soon begun.

"Talk about spunk!" said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), whom military officials had briefed on Jessica's rescue. "She just persevered. It takes that and a tremendous faith that your country is going to come and get you."

Jessica's Recovery

Jessica arrived on April 2nd at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to receive further medical treatment. Later, her family was able to speak to her on the phone. "It's Jessi," someone said, and a hush fell over the wood-frame house on Mayberry Run Road. "She was in good spirits, but she was in pain," Greg Lynch, a 43-year-old truck driver, related after a brief conversation with his daughter from the hospital in Germany where she was flown a few hours earlier. "She sounded groggy -- and hungry. She said she hadn't eaten in eight days." But she was able to crack a joke at the expense of her older brother, Greg Lynch Jr. As he tells it: "I told her, 'I have a birthday present for you.' She said, 'Bubby', she calls me Bubby, 'if it's not a new car, I don't want it.' "

When Jessi, who has a birthday April 26, gets home, "We're planning one heck of a big shindig," her father said. Another surprise awaits, the governor said today that Jessi wants to become a teacher when her Army days are over, and that the state will give her a full scholarship to any West Virginia college or university.

Jessica's family prepare to board a flight to Germany to be with her. Pictured are parents Deidre and Greg Lynch, brother Gregory, Jr and sister Brandi

On April 5th, Jessi's parents, two siblings and a cousin arrived at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in southwestern Germany and were able to pay Jessi two brief visits. "Lynch had a big smile on her face when her parents arrived," a hospital spokesperson.

Jessi is in stable condition in the intensive care unit, where she is being treated for a head wound, an injury to her spine, and fractures to her right arm, both legs, her right foot and ankle. The hospital also confirmed the possibility that gunshots may have caused fractures to the upper right arm and lower left leg. The hospital commander, Col. David Rubenstein, previously said no entry or exit wounds consistent with gunshot wounds had been found but the medical staff says, after more closely examining those wounds, there is a possibility they were caused by a low velocity, small caliber weapon, stressing that the treatment would have been the same no matter what the cause.

Jessi underwent back surgery Thursday April 3rd to correct a slipped vertebra that was putting pressure on her spinal cord. Her father said that she didn't have any feeling in her feet. On Friday she had more surgeries to stabilize her fractures in her legs and right arm. She's still being fed intravenously but 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.

Doctors have said the prognosis for Jessica's full recovery is excellent.

04/12/03: Jessi Returns Home to the U.S.! Jessi arrived around 6:10 ET in a C-17 military ambulance plane along with 49 other wounded servicemen. Jessi's family, who have been with her in Germany, accompanied her on the flight. She was brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Centre for further treatment and recovery. Walter Reed is not far from downtown Washington, DC.
Her family said in a written statement issued in Germany that Jessi "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".