Posted on 04/24/2007 8:16:56 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
WASHINGTON, DC -- Army Private Jessica Lynch told a congressional hearing Tuesday morning that "Americans are capable of creating their own heroes" without the military making them up.
Lynch, a West Virginia native who got tremendous coverage after a military team rescued her from a makeshift Iraqi hospital, joined relatives of NFL-star-turned war hero Pat Tillman in discussing her time in the limelight.
"This is not a time for finger-pointing, but a time for proof," she told the panel.
Lynch's platoon was hit by a rocket and grenade attack on the initial drive to Baghdad in 2003. Three in her vehicle were killed outright and 11 died in the resulting skirmish.
"Tails of great heroism were being told," said Lynch. "Little Girl Rambo who went down fighting. It was not true."
Lynch, who is now attending college classes, said if the stories inspired troops, then perhaps they were of some good.
"But why did they lie and try to make me a lesson when the real heroes were my fellow soldiers who rescued others or fought till the death" she asked.
Lynch said received criticism for having made money from her story, but she noted that "I have injuries that will last a lifetime."
She said she had a six-inch gash in her head and severe back and leg problems. To this day she has no feeling on her left side from her knee down.
Lynch also told of the counselors in the hospital who tried to help her work out emotional and physical issues after she was sexually abused and raped in custody.
Lynch said she remains 100 percent behind the troops in Iraq.
Wow
God bless her. She has been through a lot.
I’m surprised that no mention has been made in the press about the elephant in the living room: she’s living testimony as to why women should not be participating in combat units.
Nah, actually I’m not surprised there’s been no mention of that.
She waited until now. I smell a "book deal".
“But why did they lie”
Because the Washington Post journalist was creative?
I wondered about that, too, but it says she was at congressional hearings (over what, I'm not sure). I assume that translates into: Now that the dems are in control, she was given an opportunity to trash the military.
If the Media forgets to tell your story Jessica, pretty toug for the rest of us to turn you into a hero.
I realize it’s splitting hairs, but technically, IIRC, her unit was considered support and not combat. Of course, a support unit in a firefight might not get the technical difference.
No kidding. The day she got released from the enemy she could have declined all of the attention.
She only helped in creating the image she now calls a lie.
The Democrat-led Congress will continue having such hearings until all vestiges of gallantry and heroism are eliminated from the Iraq campaign. It’s just a part of their deranged overall goal to make certain no one, anywhere, thinks highly of the President, the Administration, or the military.
Thanks again, “protest voters.”
I notice she was VERY quite about such “ Untruths” when people were building her a NEW HOUSE!!!!!
>> Of course, a support unit in a firefight might not get the technical difference.
The difference surely didn’t do her any good. :-(
What an icon for the War Effort. At least the millions "Rosie Riveters" of old had honor in their duties.
Self made heroes like Kerry don’t get challenged by the Dumbocrats.
Jen,
You just said it all.
For those people who thought putting us in the minority would fix some problem they had in their head....well...this is what happens.
They will continue to trash the military. Old Jessica is a joke. Don’t think for a minute Byrd didn’t put her up to this. She had no problem with the lime light when they built her a new home.
she doesnt know shit about shit. if i wanted to make the CEO of GM out to be failure, i don’t think i would go find a minimum wage mechanic and put her in front of the world as my witness.
No, she was clear she did not consider herself a hero as soon as she arrived in the USA.
Here is her testimony:
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070424110022.pdf
She seems unaware that her testimony is part of a political circus to embarrass the administration. In my mind, she is a hero just for grabbing a rifle and riding a fuel truck through the most dangerous place on Earth. I wonder if she’s really that naive or unaware of how inspiring her story is to non-combatant Americans. It’s also very inspiring to hear about the Iraqis who risked their own lives to help her.
And, I will add, she is being used to embarrass the military as well as the Bush administration. Why isn’t anyone speaking out against this circus? Where are our leaders?
I think she was wrong to speak out today.A political move on the democrats and her part in support of them in my opinion.
I just saw her book today in a bin of books. It made me wonder what story she told in that book - was it the truth, closer to the actual event, under a Republican Congress, or her current version of the truth, changed in order to be praised by the DemoRat Congress?
Maybe she can inspire some other naive young girls to go into the combat zone without being properly trained to be raped without even firing a shot.
Jessica Lynch has become the poster girl for keeping your rifle clean.
Wow - 20 post so far and not one I.D.H.
Maybe you should read the book and find out.
I wonder if she’s seen ‘Flags of our Fathers’?
Boy.,the Democrats really want to destroy Bush as well as our military,thanks Jess for helping.
and tell the protest voters don’t forget to not vote for Rudy so Hillary can win too.
Credit where credit is due.
The real hero behind the 'bravery' of Private Jessica - It was Sgt. Donald Walters who performed many of the heroics attributed to Pvt. Lynch in the fanfare of publicity designed to lift the nation's morale, and Sgt Walters who was killed after mounting a lone stand against the Iraqis who ambushed their convoy of maintenance vehicles near Nasiriyah.
Yea they are but id like to hear it from someone who didnt lick it up with a spoon
I watched this hearing today and when Darryl Issa quizzed her about who "they" referred to in her testimony, she said she didn't see any larger conspiracy beyond the media. Of course this hasn't been reported, but if the actual transcripts are ever posted you'll clearly see she wasn't trying to blame anyone except the media. Is any surprised that it wasn't reported this way?
Anybody who bought the Jessica Lynch story 100 percent back in the day was being a little credulous. And blaming her now is crass. Jessica Lynch was fighting for our country in a foreign land and paid in blood. The backlash against her has nothing to do with anything she did wrong. And if she’s angry about being exploited, she’s entitled.
Several weeks ago, I heard that Lynch might testify, and I was curious about what was happening with her nowadays. I hadn’t heard anything about her in a long time.
I found several items on the Web which surprised me, and/or I had forgotten. The items below are what I remember from my reading.
One caveat - this is all based upon my memory from what I read several weeks ago, and comes exclusively from whatever news articles I could find online (some of which were a few years old). So, if I get anything wrong, please feel free to correct me (but be gentle!!!).
First, according to a couple of articles I read online, she tried to get a job as a checkout clerk right when she graduated from high school. However, she was told that she was not qualified (a high school graduate not qualified for a job as a cashier?? What’s up with that??). One article said that she had applied for this job at a local grocery store, and another said she had applied at a local Walmart.
Either way, when she could not find a job locally, she decided to follow in the footsteps of an older sibling, and join the military. Soon after she did that, the Iraq war began (probably much to her surprise!!).
Second, right before she and her compatriots shipped out for Iraq, she participated in a rather wild party in the barracks. During this party, with men present, she removed several articles of clothing. From the CAREFUL research I performed upon this subject, some sources said she removed all of her clothing, while others said that she was only topless. I am not sure which one is true.
Unfortunately for her, some of the men at the party had digital cameras in their possession (possibly cell phones), and some rather “compromising” party photos were taken. Lynch later claimed that she did not have sex with anyone at that time - that it was just a wild party.
Those who took the photos put them up for sale after Lynch became famous. “Hustler” publisher Larry Flynt bought all of them. At first he was going to publish them, but then changed his mind. He said that Jessica was a good girl who simply got caught up in Bush’s illegal war. He said that he was going to place the photos in his files for future usage, in case he could ever use them to embarrass the Bush administration. They remain there to this day.
In light of this, is it any wonder that Lynch now finds herself brought up before the Democratic-controlled Congress, and is being made to say all of these things?? I would guess that there is a certain amount of blackmail happening here.
Third, remember how her convoy got to where it was the night it was attacked - they were LOST!! They made a wrong turn, and instead of following the rest of the military vehicles, they wound up out in the styx, where everything was enemy-controlled. As a result, they were soon ambushed.
Fourth, according to what I read in some articles I found published a year or two later, Lynch claimed that her weapon jammed immediately, and that she never fired a shot. Instead, injured from the crash of her vehicle, she hit the ground praying, and lost consciousness. She claims that she does not remember anything about the next several hours or so, until she woke up in the Iraqi-controlled hospital. She thinks that if she was raped, it was during this time, because she claims that she does not remember the incident.
She said that she was taken care of in the hospital as well as their somewhat primitive conditions would allow, and that people there were nice to her. Eventually, a man who either lived nearby, or worked in the hospital (I can’t remember which) went to the Americans and told them where Lynch was. He did this at great risk to himself and his family. Later, he and his family were allowed to immigrate to America because their lives were in grave danger if they remained in Iraq.
As a result of this, the dramatic rescue of Lynch took place. By that time, Lynch was awake, and she later told the news media she did not know why the U.S. Military came storming into the hospital. She said that there were no hostiles nearby, and that their coming in with such a dramatic show of force was way over the top. She later said that she felt that her rescuers were just putting on a show for the embedded news cameras.
Fifth, after Lynch was discharged from the Military, and back home again, the Iraqi man who risked his life to tell the Americans where she was being held came to her home town for a visit. He was shown around town, and treated very nicely by the locals. However, Lynch claimed that she was too busy to meet with him. Not very nice, and lacking in class, in my opinion. From what I remember, she has never met with him, even though he has tried to meet her on a few occasions.
Sixth, Lynch soon became engaged to another soldier, the Hispanic man shown in the news media who was so supportive of her when she first returned stateside. In other various articles I found that were published over the next year or two, it was written that they eventually broke up, although no reason was ever given.
Lynch then got together with another man that her family introduced her to. This man got her pregnant, and their child was born within the past few months. To my knowledge they are not married, nor did they discuss marriage in any of the articles I found online. There does not seem to be much info published about this relationship, just like the end of her first engagement.
Seventh, I believe that she began attending a four year university. However, because of various medical/recovery issues, she eventually moved back home, and attended a local community college until she became pregnant.
Eighth, at some point in time, she published a book outlining her experiences. Some people had issues with this, but I can’t remember anymore what those issues were. It may have been that she got paid a lot for the book, or may be that some of the facts she laid out were disputed by others. The memory fades as time goes by
Either way, I am not 100% impressed with this person. I have a lot of respect for her because of her service to our country, and a lot of sympathy for her because of her injuries. However, other moral aspects of her are not quite as admirable. Would I go out of my way to make her a national hero?? Probably not. If I could know the stories of all of the U.S. military people serving in Iraq, I would probably find a lot of others more deserving than her.
She didn't go out to anyone she was a POW in a Hospital and 100% of the wild stories were driven from the press.
If you go back to when she was taken as a POW the press was writing everything from off the record interviews with their plants in CENTCOM and they took 20 versions and made the story up. It wasn't the military who made the story up or the Private.
TAILS? (Lord I wish I could make money as a proof reader)
First question to Miss J. is:
Why didn't you say all this BEFORE you got the book deal, etc....?
Second question is:
WHO is paying you to say this NOW?
Another ‘RAT’ POS coming out of the woodwork to bash the Military-—of course, she comes from the old KKK Senator’s State of West Virginny, so what else could be expected-—she never said a damned word when they kissed her sorry ass and made her a ‘heroine’, with all the trimmings——I smelt a ‘RAT’ then and now I know it was all true-—she is a damn disgrace to all women who serve and have served their country-—the ‘RAT’ party and it’s supporters are the scum of the earth-
So do a few thousand others, many of whom are doing 2 or 3 tours because they BELIEVE IN THE CAUSE, none of whom will make a dime selling books or getting movie deals because of THEIR lifetime injuries.
She said she had a six-inch gash in her head and severe back and leg problems. To this day she has no feeling on her left side from her knee down.
Well at least she HAS something from the knee on down! Some folks came home with no legs at all! Are THEY getting book deals? Are THEY getting free homes? Are THEY bashing the military for some weasel politican who doesn't give a crap about the military unless it gets him/her elected again?
Take the Virginia shootings, for instance. When interviewed on a news reporting show (Nightline?), several men were asked about 76 year old Holocaust survivor who held the door shut while they jumped out of the room. All but one said that the man seemed confused and disoriented. Only one said something to the effect that the man sacrificed his life so that they could escape. And if that could be suspicious, then there's the report of the victim who made some movement and apparently another young man was spared from being shot because Cho shot the gesturer another time--again, heroism could be a stretch.
Yet the media ignored those who said the old man seemed confused and focused on his supposed heroism. And they went way out on a limb in declaring the gesturer a hero with skimpy supporting evidence.
Do you have a source for that, or are you just repeating the most vicious and nasty gossip you heard?
I was at Ramstein when Lynch came in on an air evac. I still remember how surreal it looked to see all the media go crazy over her, while right next to her were wounded male soldiers and the media could not give a damn.
But, that wasn't Lynch's fault. It was the media hyping the "women in combat" mantra.
I do blame Lynch, however, for accepting every perk and dollar she could get her hands on (free house, free tuition, book deal, new car, etc) and not telling the truth when she had the chance.
Even on this board, people went bananas if you criticized Lynch.
There are thousands of soldiers who were injured who never got a lick of media attention or six figure book deals. It was their fault for being born men.
‘She thinks that if she was raped, it was during this time, because she claims that she does not remember the incident.’
Gee, check your underware.
They built a wheel chair ramp into it also.
“She had no problem with the lime light when they built her a new home.”
I thought that her family’s rather modest home was rebuilt or outfitted by her small community to accommodate her rather serious injuries. She was in a wheelchair for quite awhile and from what I heard yesterday she still wears a brace and suffers from colon,kidney and bladder problems.
http://www.disabilityworld.org/06-08_03/access/lynch.shtml
It seems she didn't have to accept this medal to me.
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