Jessica Lynch
Rank/Branch: Pfc/Army
Unit: 507th Maintenance Co., Fort Bliss, Texas
Date of Birth
Home City of Record: Palestine, West Virginia
Date of Loss: March 23, 2003
Country of Loss: Iraq
Loss Coordinates: Nasiriyah
Status: MIA -- Rescued April 1, 2003
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: Convoy
Other Personnel in Incident: Army Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, El Paso, Texas, Army Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, Cleveland, Army Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken; N.J., Army Sgt. Donald Walters, 33, Salem, Ore., Army Spc. James Kiehl, 22, Comfort, Texas, Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, 19, Bedford Heights, Ohio, Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, 22, Tuba City, Ariz., Army Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, Mission, Texas, Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, Alamogordo, N.M., Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson, 30, Fort Bliss, Texas, Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, Park City, Kan,, Army Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, El Paso, Texas.
Source: Compiled by Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Date Updated:
REMARKS:Pfc Jessica Lynch, 19, of Palestine, West Virginia, worked as a supply clerk with the Army's 507th Maintenance Co.
She joined the Army because there were few jobs in her hometown. She was among a dozen soldiers with a U.S. Army supply convoy who are now listed missing in action or prisoners of war. Lynch's convoy was ambushed March 23 by Iraqi soldiers near An Nasiriyah when it took a wrong turn.
There has been bitter fighting around Nasiriyah, a vital crossing point of the River Euphrates about 225 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Family members have identified five POWs after Iraqi television video showed the captured soldiers who range in age from 19 to 31.
Lynch was not identified as one of the video taped prisoners of war.
The five identified are Spc. Edgar Hernandez, 21, of Mission, Texas; Spc. Joseph Hudson, 23, of Alamogordo, N.M.; Spc. Shoshanna Johnson, 30, of Medina, Texas; Pfc. Patrick Miller, 23, of Valley Center, Kan., and Sgt. James Riley, 31, Pennsauken, N.J.
They were all trained at Fort Bliss as a support unit to supply mechanics to repair the Patriot missile trucks based at the Texas army post.
Fort Bliss is about 600 miles west of Fort Hood.
Jessica's father, Greg Lynch said he was notified late Sunday night (23 March) by an Army official accompanied by the West Virginia State Police.
"We saw it on TV and kind of suspected," Lynch said. "I just want them to bring her back safely - her and all the rest of the kids."
Jean Offutt, a spokeswoman for Fort Bliss in Texas, where the 507th was based, said 10 or more of the soldiers who went missing Sunday were with the company, which deployed February with the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. It is not considered a combat unit, officials said.
Palestine, located about 70 miles north of Charleston, is a farming community in sparsely populated Wirt County, which had a 15 percent unemployment rate in January 2003 - one of the state's highest.
The lack of opportunity and the military service of her older brother, Gregory Lynch Jr., led Jessica into the Army, her father said. She signed up through the Army's delayed-entry program before graduating from Wirt County High School in Elizabeth.
"The Army offered a good deal," he said.
Gregory Lynch Jr. is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and was on his way home, the father said. "They are real close," he said.
Lynch called his daughter a jokester and a magnet for children. He now fears, he said, that she may never get the chance to have any of her own.
"She really loved small kids," he said. "That's what makes it so bad."

American Troops Rescue Iraq POW Lynch

WASHINGTON - American troops on Tuesday rescued Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who had been held as a prisoner of war in Iraq since she and other members of her unit were ambushed March 23, the Defense Department announced.

Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W.Va., had been missing with 11 other U.S. soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company. The unit was ambushed near Nasiriyah after making a wrong turn during early fighting in the invasion of Iraq. Five other members of her unit were later shown on Iraqi television answering questions from their Iraqi captors.

U.S. troops rescued Lynch near where her unit was ambushed, said Jean Offutt, a spokeswoman for Fort Bliss, Texas. The 507th Maintenance is based at Fort Bliss.

Lynch had been listed as missing in action but was identified by the Pentagon She was not among the seven U.S. soldiers -- including the five from the 507th shown on television -- formally listed as prisoners of war.

Offutt said she did not know whether Lynch had been wounded or when she might return to the United States.

The rescued soldier's hometown erupted in celebration at the news.

"They said it was going to be the biggest party this road had ever seen," Lynch's cousin Sherri McFee said as fire and police sirens blared in the background.

"Everybody was really worried ... but we all remained hopeful and knew she would be home," McFee said.

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at Central Command headquarters in Qatar announced that a U.S. POW had been rescued but refused to provide any further details.

In a brief statement, Brooks said: "Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq. The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."

Central Command officials in Qatar, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lynch was rescued from a hospital in Iraq.

Fifteen other Americans are formally listed as missing. The other POWs include two Army Apache helicopter pilots captured March 24 after their helicopter went down.

The 507th Maintenance was attacked during some of the first fighting in Nasiriyah, a Euphrates River-crossing city where sporadic battles have raged since U.S. troops first reached it. Troops and military officials have said much of the fighting there has involved members of the Fedayeen Saddam and other Iraqi paramilitaries who have dressed as civilians and ambushed Americans.

Lynch, an aspiring teacher, joined the Army to get an education and take advantage of a rare opportunity in a farming community with an unemployment rate of 15 percent -- one of the highest in West Virginia.

She was also following in the footsteps of her older brother Gregory, a National Guard member based in Fort Bragg, N.C. Jessica enlisted through the Army's delayed-entry program before graduating from Wirt County High School in Elizabeth.

"You would not believe the joys, cries, bawling, hugging, screaming, carrying on," said Lynch's cousin, Pam Nicolais, when asked Tuesday about the rescue. "You just have to be here."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., called the rescue a miracle.

"God watched over Jessica and her family," Rockefeller said through a spokesman in Washington. "All of West Virginia is rejoicing. This is an amazing tribute to the skill and courage of our military."

Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson said: "We also have others, other POWs we are just as worried about. This is good news today but we need a lot more good news."

"America doesn't leave its heroes behind," Wilkinson added. "Never has. Never will."

U.S. Veteran Dispatch
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