Posted on 10/31/2003 9:50:19 AM PST by eabinga
Three Of Jessica Lynch's rescuers are dead. Also a member of the 507th Maintenance Company killed himself.
July 7, Josh Speer
(AP) A U.S. Marine who was part of the unit that helped rescue Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch died in a car crash on his first weekend home since returning from Iraq.
Link to story
August 23, David M. Tapper
Killed in Afghanistan, the Navy SEAL was part of the Iraq team that rescued POW Jessica Lynch.
Tapper, 32, died there Wednesday while conducting combat operations in a lawless province near the Pakistani border - an area where the military believes the terrorists are operating.
Friends here said Tapper was shot in the back during an ambush. He died later at a hospital at Bagram Air Base, the Navy said.
Link to story
Octctober 3, Kyle Williams
The soldier, Spc. Kyle Edward Williams, 21, was found dead outside San Diego on Thursday and officials believe he committed suicide with one of the seven firearms he had been carrying with him.
Williams spent seven months in the Middle East as part of the 507th Maintenance Company, the same unit as Pfc. Jessica Lynch, Army officials said.
Link to story
October 22, Sok Khak Ung
LONG BEACH, California (AP) -- A Marine who helped in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq was shot to death at a family barbecue, just 12 days before he was to be discharged.
Lance Cpl. Sok Khak Ung, 22, and a family friend, Vouthy Tho, 21, were killed early Sunday in a garage at a Long Beach home by a gunman who fired six to eight shots before fleeing, police said.
Link to story
A U.S. Marine who was part of the unit that helped rescue Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch
A Marine who helped in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch
There are probably hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people who fit those definitions. By contrast, it sounds as if the SEAL who was killed was actually part of the rescue team.
Heck, I never take mine off!
Was a part of the rescue in-so-far as his unit created the diversion while the actual rescuers were going in. He wasn't at the hospital nor would he have likely been privvy to any super-secret details of the type that would get him whacked by the gov't. Although a Marine, he would've been at an entirely different echelon of operations than the SpecOps/Ranger types that went in to get Lynch.
The Navy SEAL, well one thing to keep in mind here is there isn't a great number of SEALs. SEALs and other SpecOps members have had a great deal of time and money invested in their training. A great deal. This administration believes in using them to maximize that investment apparently and it's hard to argue with that logic. It's good sound business.
Second the SpecOps take part in missions that are more dangerous by their nature than a normal soldier would. This raises their personal likelihood of becoming a casualty which was already higher by virtue of the fact that their numbers are lower.
Third, in Afghanistan you are going to see a higher ratio of SpecOps guys to normal infantry/combat soldiers being the casualties than you would in Iraq. In Afghanistan the conflict there is being prosecuted mainly by SpecOps where it is mainly ordinary soldiers/infantry etc in Iraq. So, Afghanistan is a likely place for a Navy SEAL to go down.
Think about some of the factors like this. Most of the soldiers involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom are likely still in Iraq but their mission has changed gradually over time and they have been right tin the middle of that transformation. The mission has gone from a high level war to a lower level one, from an invasion to an occupation/stabilization/fighting sporadically type mission. Those soldiers have had time to learn that environment gradually and learn to deal with it. While they are still in harm's way, the level of threat they are exposed to has been lowered over time.
On the other hand, a fellow like this Navy SEAL is going to be taken from one hot situation and placed into another a lot quicker than an ordinary infantryman would. The situations he's going to be involved in are just different in nature and more dangerous than that of an infantryman in the 3rd ID.
That's the way I see it anyway. I don't even see it as an odd coincidence. It is likely that a Navy SEAL would get killed in combat. The others got killed in the USA- a much more dangerous place than Iraq.
Lynch just wasn't that important to have to go around and kill people involved in her rescue now. The whole uproar over her rescue was created by the press- the Wash Post in particular- not the military. What would be the reason for wiping out those involved with her rescue?
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