Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

W.Va Soldier Missing, Wirt County Native was in ambushed supply convoy
The Charleston Gazette---The Associated Press ^ | 03-25-2003 | The Associated Press

Posted on 3/25/2003, 4:10:09 PM by countrydummy

PALESTINE — A West Virginia woman who joined the U.S. Army because there were few jobs in her native Wirt County is among a dozen soldiers reported missing after a supply convoy was ambushed in southern Iraq, her father said Monday.

Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, of Palestine, works as a supply clerk with the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company, said her father, Greg Lynch.

“The only thing they can tell us is she’s missing,” Lynch said.

He said that an Army official, accompanied by State Police, came Sunday night to the family’s two-story white house, perched atop a hill along a one-lane dirt road.

On Monday, one yellow ribbon was tied to a tree near the family’s mailbox and two others were attached to posts on the front porch. Two American flags flew from a second-floor porch.

Some members of the 507th were shown on Iraqi television as prisoners being questioned Sunday. Jessica Lynch was not one of them.

“We saw it on TV and kind of suspected,” Greg Lynch said. “I just want them to bring her back safely — her and all the rest of the kids.”

Jean Offutt, a U.S. Army spokeswoman at Fort Bliss, Texas, where the 507th is based, said 10 or more of the soldiers missing Sunday were with the company, which deployed last month with the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. It is not considered a combat unit, officials said.

Lynch said neighbors and friends had been dropping by and calling since his wife, Deadra, and Jessica’s 17-year-old sister, Brandi Renee, a high school senior, first learned the news.

“Everyone has been real supportive,” he said.

Palestine is a farming community in one of West Virginia’s least-populated counties, which contains about 5,900 residents. Wirt County’s 15 percent unemployment rate in January was one of the state’s highest.

Lorene Cumbridge, a 62-year-old cousin who lives about a quarter of a mile from the Lynches, said Jessica, known to family and friends as Jesse, grew up playing at her home.

“She’s just a West Virginia country girl. Warm-hearted. Outgoing,” Cumbridge said. “I really thought growing up she would become an elementary school teacher. But for West Virginia children in some of the more rural areas, the military is the one good chance of getting an education and making something of themselves.”

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 in 2001.

“The Army offered a good deal,” the elder Lynch said.

Gregory Lynch Jr. is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. “They’re bringing him home now,” the father said.

“They are real close,” he said of his two older children. “They always talk to each other when they were in the state.”

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.”

Cumbridge said she would like for the world to know her cousin.

“We have so many Jesses over there right now,” she said. “You turn on the TV and it just breaks your heart. There are a lot of families in West Virginia that have a Jesse, too, and they’re going to be feeling for the Lynch family.”

Wirt County High School Principal Ken Heiney said Jessica Lynch was active at the small school of about 325 students, where she played on the basketball and softball teams and was a member of Future Farmers of America.

“She’s a top-notch young lady,” Heiney said. “Everybody knew Jesse. She was here at Christmastime visiting with former teachers and friends before she was to leave again for the Middle East.”

An assembly was held to inform students of Jessica Lynch’s status Monday, Heiney said most students knew that Lynch was missing in action by the time they arrived at school.

“It’s a small community,” he said. “News like this moves fast.”

A group of faculty and staff members remained at the high school after classes ended Monday to make yellow ribbons for distribution throughout the community.

“The teachers who had Jesse in their classes were really touched by what’s happened,” Heiney said. “She was a pleasure to be around. But this is reality. It really brought the war home.”

Heiney was meeting with teachers after school Monday to plan a special event for Jesse, including distributing yellow ribbons to students and teachers.

Photos

Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, of Palestine, Wirt County, works as a supply clerk with the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company.


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Culture/Society; Extended News; Free Republic; Front Page News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: West Virginia; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: iraq; mias; soldiers; war
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last
I tried to paste her picture, I don't know how!
1 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:10:09 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: countrydummy

2 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:13:01 PM by areafiftyone (God Bless George Bush and Tony Blair!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: countrydummy
Already posted on another thread.
3 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:13:10 PM by GOP_Proud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: madfly; JohnHuang2; sauropod; farmfriend
please send on to your lists and pray for this family and soldier
4 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:14:00 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone
Thanks for the photo. I pray for the soldier's safety and for comfort to her family.
5 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:16:26 PM by Sangria
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: countrydummy
AMERICAN HERO ALERT:


Heroes of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit
giving water to a dehydrated Iraqi. Would they do the same? They do not.

WARNING - LINK TO PORTIONS OF THE INTERVIEW NOT SHOWN ON AMERICAN TV

This shows Americans POWs abused, hurt, with medical care withheld,
unlike the pictures before and after the link.


6 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:16:35 PM by Diogenesis (If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone
Thank you so much!
7 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:16:43 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GOP_Proud
Thanks, I tried to find it but did not see it so thought it had not been posted. Do you have the link>
8 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:19:20 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: countrydummy; Sangria
You are both sooo welcome! Breaks my heart to see this picture! Gotta control myself - I am at work!
9 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:19:28 PM by areafiftyone (God Bless George Bush and Tony Blair!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: countrydummy
This is ridiculous. We cannot allow US women to be captured by the brutal Iraqi regime. God only knows what they will do to her. I pray she is not captured, but instead hiding out somewhere waiting for allied troops to rescue her.
10 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:19:47 PM by thoughtomator (Let's Roll!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diogenesis
Did you read the post about the Red Cross being angry about that picture of the Iraqi given water! What a freaking joke the Red Cross is!!
11 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:20:50 PM by areafiftyone (God Bless George Bush and Tony Blair!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
OMG she is a beautiful girl! I am a female too and agree with you completely. I Hate NOW!!
12 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:21:55 PM by areafiftyone (God Bless George Bush and Tony Blair!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
I sure hope so!!!!!!!!! What a very brave person it takes to join knowing that death is the least of their worries!
13 posted on 3/25/2003, 4:58:01 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Diogenesis
Well, I think this picture shows why she wasn't with the other prisoners. We all had only thought the worst atrocity those bastards performed was in the photos. I guess we all know better now...

I am a physician working for the Army. I was on A.D. during "the Storm". I know for a fact that a female physician in the Army Medical Corps was raped while prisoner of the Iraqis. Fact.
14 posted on 3/25/2003, 5:25:17 PM by wastoute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: countrydummy
Hope neither Nick Rahall nor Bobby Byrd decide to investigate. Neither knows the difference between Kuwait and Iraq. Chances are they would end up in Syria or Turkey.
15 posted on 3/25/2003, 6:55:33 PM by lilylangtree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lilylangtree
Byrd won't do anything but some long winded speech that will bore everyone to death! Nickie will say it was all Bush's fault that she is in the situation she is in(makes me tremble)because he does support the troops but believes that Saddam is a nice person and would not use his WMD against us! Lying pig!
16 posted on 3/25/2003, 7:09:41 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: countrydummy
God, comfort the families of those missing and killed. God, hold the hand of those who are now in the midst of terror. In this moment, may they see your face and know that millions are praying for them. Let them know they are not alone...
17 posted on 3/25/2003, 7:19:02 PM by dandelion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dandelion
What a beautiful prayer! I want to thank you for that! I am sure the family of this soldier as well as all the others will thank you as well!
18 posted on 3/25/2003, 8:55:56 PM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: sauropod; farmfriend
May God in Heaven support this family in the time they are in. May we also as prayer warriors pray for this soldier, her family and friends!

As a mother of a soon to be soldier, (female as she may be) I and my husband and all of our friends and family pray for this young soldier!
19 posted on 3/26/2003, 1:47:28 AM by countrydummy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: areafiftyone
After Iraq, George W. Bush ought to declare war on the feminazis and Bill Clinton, who succeeded in getting rid of the "No Risk Rule" for female troops in 1994.

We've had female POWs in past wars, but Bill Clinton and the feminazis lifted a lot of the restrictions of the past that had limited the military roles of women. Leave it to the rapist of Juanita Broaddrick to put our female troops in more danger than they've ever been.

20 posted on 3/26/2003, 6:33:54 AM by billclintonwillrotinhell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-22 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson