The Story of Jessica Lynch, This Time The Truth.
The Story of Jessica Lynch 
What really happened in Nasiriyah.
04/24/2007 12:00:00 AM
TODAY, THE HOUSE Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by
Henry Waxman (D-CA) conducted a hearing into “misleading military
statements” that followed the death of Pat Tillman and the ordeal of
Jessica Lynch. I cannot speak of the Pat Tillman incident, but I can
speak to the story of Jessica Lynch.
I spent more than two years of my life studying the battle of An
Nasiriyah. I read thousands of pages of government reports and
personally interviewed nearly one-hundred of the participants of the
battle, including four survivors of the 507th Maintenance Company’s
ambush, several Marines who came upon the scene of the ambush, a young
Marine who worked in the regimental intelligence shop and was
responsible for the safekeeping of Jessica’s personal effects, and
several of the soldiers, sailors, and Marines who were actually involved
in her rescue. The results of my research were published last year in
Marines in the Garden of Eden.
Following her rescue, unsubstantiated reports abounded, the media made a
variety of assertions: Jessica Lynch was a pretty teenage girl who had
been subjected to the ravages of an unjust war. She had been sent into
battle with inadequate equipment and protection. After taking a wrong
turn, Iraqis feigning surrender had ambushed her unit. Yet, she bravely
fought off the enemy until she could resist no longer. Because of the
incompetence of the leadership in Washington, D.C., she had been taken
prisoner by evil Iraqis who did unspeakable things to her.
This was the type of story that had “legs.” Every news producer in
America salivated when they read the first copy. They knew that their
ratings would skyrocket when the story of this fragile American girl was
told. This was the type of story that would go down in history. There
was only one problem–/most of the story wasn’t true./
The 507th Maintenance Company didn’t simply make a wrong turn. Iraqis
did not feign surrender. Lynch’s unit had machine guns, rocket and
grenade launchers and, while their M-16s were old, the reason most
failed was that they were improperly maintained.
America’s news media did not seem to care. They repeatedly ran every
story they could about America’s new princess-prisoner. At the same
time, the U.S. military was trying to play down the story. They knew
Jessica was being held captive and they immediately started plans for
her rescue. Many Iraqis had come to Marines and embedded reporters to
tell of a female soldier being held captive in a Nasiriyah hospital.
Kerry Sanders of NBC was asked to not speak of Jessica’s captivity. The
commanders in the field feared that if word leaked of her captivity, she
would be moved, or worse, before they could get to her.
*Here is what really happened in Nasiriyah:*
At midnight on March 22/23, the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Marine Regiment
was preparing to move into Nasiriyah to secure the bridges over the
Euphrates River and the Saddam Canal. They had stopped for a short rest
only hours earlier at the intersection of Highway 1 (a major Iraqi
highway) and a small two-lane road. This Cloverleaf was a modern freeway
intersection with on and off ramps to/from the six-lane highway.
South of Nasiriyah, the U.S. Army was using Highway 1 as its ONLY supply
route through Southern Iraq. Several Marines described the Highway as
looking like I-95 on a Friday evening. The thoroughfare was jammed with
thousands of supply vehicles. To the Marines’ amazement, the Army
vehicles all had their headlights on. In the Iraqi night, a stream of
American vehicles could be seen off to the horizon.
The 507th Maintenance Company commander had accurate maps, a computer
disk with his orders and more maps, and a handheld GPS device. He could
plainly see the convoy on Highway 1. The 507th Maintenance Company was
behind schedule and, by the time they reached the Cloverleaf, the
Marines were moving up the two-lane road to assume their attack
positions. The Marines were hoping for capitulation but expecting a fight.
Lynch’s company commander led his vehicles through the intersection and
raced past the heavily-armed Marine mechanized infantry battalion. He
led his company up the deserted road, over a railroad bridge, which was
defended by a company of dug-in Iraqi tanks, through an Iraqi military
checkpoint, over the Euphrates River Bridge, through a four-kilometer
stretch of the inner city of An Nasiriyah, over the Saddam Canal Bridge,
through the northern outskirts of the city, past an abandoned military
headquarters, and then past the operational military headquarters.
Finally, he decided to turn around.
On his trip north, he had awakened every Iraqi with a gun. At that
point, the sun was just starting to rise. The 507th’s flight to safety
was fraught with gunfire. The company commander got lost again and as
his beleaguered convoy was forced to turn around a second time. The
vehicle that Brandon Sloan and Sergeant Donald Walters were riding in
got stuck in the sand. Sloan jumped from the vehicle into another truck;
Walters began to lay down covering fire as his comrades turned their
vehicles and fled to safety. In the confusion, Walters was left fifteen
miles behind enemy lines.
*Sergeant Donald Walters was the Real Hero*
Walters resisted for as long as he could. He probably “fought to his
last bullet.” He was captured alive and taken to an Iraqi stronghold and
later murdered. When I last spoke to my source, a criminal investigation
was still under way. Our government was helping the Iraqis collect
evidence against Walters’ murderers in an ongoing effort to bring them
to justice.
Meanwhile, the rapidly shrinking convoy raced south. Several kilometers
south of the Euphrates River, Shoshana Johnson’s flatbed semi-tractor
trailer jackknifed and Lori Piestewa could not react fast enough. Her
Humvee slammed into the rear of the jackknifed truck, instantly killing
the company First Sergeant, Robert Dowdy. Lynch and the other two
occupants in the trucks’ bed (George Buggs and Edward Anguiano) were
tossed about like rag dolls, and Piestewa was critically injured. She
and Lynch were pulled from the vehicle and taken to the Tykar Military
Hospital, which was only a kilometer or two from the scene of the crash.
Piestewa succumbed to her wounds soon thereafter, leaving Lynch alone
and near death.
As Jessica lay bleeding in the Iraqi hospital, the Marines were moving
up the road to secure the same two bridges the 507th had first blundered
over then fled back across. When the first Marine vehicles crested the
Euphrates River Bridge, all hell broke lose. The Marines of 1st
Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment became heavily engaged with an
ever-increasing enemy. They battled the Iraqis for the rest of the day,
losing eighteen Marines during the fight. The battle was chaotic and
communications were terrible. The Regimental and Brigade headquarters
had extreme difficulty keeping up with the number of Marine casualties.
At one point during the fighting, the Commanding General and the
Regimental Commander thought that over one hundred Marines had been
lost. By sunset, the Marines had achieved their objectives. The two
bridges were in their control and still standing. There was little time
to check on the 507th casualties and vehicles. The Marines had their
hands full with sorting out their own casualty count.
During the battle, the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment had
moved up behind 1/2 to secure the southern bridge over the Euphrates
River. They were involved in skirmishes with the enemy all night and by
morning Iraqi civilians were venturing up on the bridge to tell the
Marines of a young female soldier being held captive in Nasiriyah’s
hospital. The Tykar military hospital was within eyesight of the bridge,
just south of the river. So, the Marines turned their attention toward
the hospital.
Shortly after sunrise, an Iraqi in a white lab coat came out of the
hospital and asked to speak with the American commander. He gave 2/8’s
Fox Company commander a letter, which he said was from the head of the
hospital. He told the Marine captain that they were treating patients
and wanted nothing to do with the fight. As the morning progressed, more
and more civilians came up to the Marines to tell them about Jessica’s
captivity.
Finally, a Marine infantry company was sent to search the hospital. As
they approached, gunfire erupted. The hospital was an armed camp. The
main buildings had sandbagged fighting positions on their roofs and
fighters in nearly every window. A fighting trench completely surrounded
the hospital. It took an entire Marine Infantry Battalion more than an
hour to silence the Iraqi gunners and three more days to completely
clear the hospital of the Iraqi fighters. As it turns out, it was
Chemical Ali’s headquarters, complete with hundreds of gas masks,
protective chemical suits and even a torture chamber.
Some of Jessica’s uniform was found in that hospital, along with pieces
of other soldier’s uniforms. More of Jessica’s uniform and some of her
personal effects were found hidden in a nearby farmhouse. Jessica had
been at the Tykar Hospital, but she had been moved to the main hospital
in downtown Nasiriyah sometime during the first day of fighting.
The story of the Marines’ battle to secure Nasiriyah is an amazing saga
that everyone should read. The battle was filled with individual acts of
heroism. A Distinguished Flying Cross, two Navy Crosses, a handful of
Silver Stars, and a larger handful of Bronze Stars were awarded for
valor in the battle. Sergeant Donald Walters was awarded a Silver Star,
as well. Donald was a sandy-haired young man. Some believe that it was
an intercepted Iraqi radio report of his ordeal that was somehow
attributed to Jessica Lynch, the only blonde female in the unit.
I do not recollect hearing an official military press release stating
that Jessica “fought to the last bullet,” but I do remember every news
channel broadcasting the story day and night for at least a week. No
one, absolutely no one, knew what happened to Jessica, for she was the
only survivor of her vehicle and she lay close to death for a week in
the Saddam Hospital in downtown Nasiriyah.
The military soon knew she was in the Saddam Hospital and quickly began
planning her rescue from the center of a war-torn city. While the
Special Forces planned the rescue, the 2nd Marine Regiment fought for
days to secure the city. Fanatics continued to resist. At the same time,
civilians continued to approach Marines and newsmen to tell of Jessica’s
captivity behind enemy lines.
The commanders of the rescue mission wanted no repeat of the failed
attempt to rescue hostages in Iran. They would have been remiss had they
not planned for every contingency. Remember, the Marines had fought a
bloody battle to secure the Tykar Hospital and armed fanatics continued
to roam the streets of southern Nasiriyah, attacking Marines at every
opportunity.
Nasiriyah was a very dangerous place. So, a massive rescue operation was
planned. If the Iraqis were setting a trap, the rescuers would be
prepared. Their goal was to rescue a frightened nineteen-year-old
soldier and bring her home safely. The rescue plan, diversion and all,
was expertly executed. Lynch’s shattered body was on a helicopter headed
for much-need medical attention within seven minutes of the first
American boots hitting the ground in the downtown hospital complex.
This was the first successful rescue of an American POW since WWII. It
was precisely executed with not a single casualty inside the hospital,
American or Iraqi. As it turns out, the last of the resistance had fled
only hours before the rescue, but that doesn’t change a thing. Weeks
after the rescue, there were still armed Iraqis shooting at Marines. The
rescue force needed to be prepared for a fight and they were.
Apparently, some Iraqis complained that the rescue force yelled at them.
I guess our troops should have been more polite.
It seems to me that Congressman Waxman and his committee should be
investigating how the media perverted the story to build its ratings. It
is appalling how little regard some of today’s journalists have for the
truth. CENTCOM immediately announced Jessica’s rescue. It was good news.
But, it was the American media that ran the 15-second video of her
rescue over and over and over and over again. It was the American media
that turned her rescue into a propaganda event. And they did it for the
worst of reasons.
