US names dead POWs

BBC ^ | April 05, 2003

[Dog Gone]

US names dead POWs

The bodies were found during the mission to rescue Private Lynch

United States military officials say eight bodies recovered during a mission to rescue a female US army private, in southern Iraq, are those of American soldiers.

They were among a number of American service personnel initially registered as missing after their convoy was attacked by Iraqi tanks.

The bodies were found on Wednesday after a midnight raid by American special forces to rescue the wounded prisoner of war Private Jessica Lynch.

She was one of 15 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company who were listed as missing, captured or killed when Iraqi tanks ambushed their convoy near Nasiriya, southern Iraq, just over two weeks ago.

The commandos, who rescued Private Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriya, found 11 bodies - nine of them believed to be those of Americans.

Those nine bodies were sent to an air force forensic centre in the United States for identification - and to investigate how they died.

Eight of the bodies have now been identified and named, but the Pentagon has not said whether the soldiers were killed in the ambush or after they were captured.

'Five still prisoners'

Commandos recovered the bodies from an Iraqi hospital

The dead soldiers were identified as: Sergeant George E Buggs, 31, Master Sgt Robert J Dowdy, 38, Private Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, Spc James M Kiehl, 22, Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, Pvt Brandon U Sloan, 19, Sgt Donald R. Walters, 33.

All but Sgt Buggs were members of the 507th Maintenance. Sgt Buggs was a member of the 3rd Division Support Battalion, another Army unit that was in the same convoy.

The dead include a woman, believed to be the first female American soldier killed in the Iraq war, Private Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, of Tuba City, Arizona.

Five other members of the 507th Maintenance Company are still believed to be prisoners.

The rescue of private Lynch was reportedly made possible with the help of an Iraqi lawyer, who risked his own life to tell American forces where she was after he saw a guard hit her.

She is now being treated at an American military hospital in Germany.

[amom]

V

RIP


Salute

[GOP_Proud]

My heart is with these families.
Peace, dear heroes.

[Jonah Hex]

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed,

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks,

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

At ease, brothers.

[Lael]

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now abed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

'Happy', and 'Happiness' have a different meaning today. Clue is the word "Hapless", which means 'Luckless'

Try...

We few, we lucky few, we band of brothers.

For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition.

And gentlemen in England now abed,

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

[Kay Soze]

God Bless them and Keep them.

I Pray their families heal.

I am grateful to these men for keeping me and my children free.

Because of their sacrifice American swill be safer.