Seven missing US troops head to hospital-CNN (One African American Woman)

Reuters | 4/13/03

[kattracks]

Seven missing US troops head to hospital-CNN

BAGHDAD, April 13 (Reuters) - Seven missing U.S. soldiers emerged from helicopters on Sunday and were taken into ambulances near Baghdad, including one African-American woman, CNN reported.

Five of the troops ran out of the helicopter upon arriving at a U.S.-controlled airstrip and two walked slowly, apparently having suffered injuries, an embedded CNN correspondent said.

The United States had previously listed seven soldiers as captured in the Iraq war, including five members of an Army military maintenance company taken on March 23 when their convoy made a wrong turn in southern Iraq and was ambushed by Iraqi forces. One of those was an African-American woman.

The other two were Army pilots of an Apache attack helicopter that went down on the same day.

04/13/03 08:31 ET

[YaYa123]

bless your heart for posting this great news

[YaYa123]

AP has an article too...but for some reason, I cant copy/paste it here from Lucianne's latest.

This is such wonderful news , my heart is pounding.

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[YaYa123]

Oh happy day!!

[ThirstyMan]

"One of those was an African-American woman."

That'd probably be Showshana, whom we saw on TV as a pow. I'm amazed they survived....looking forward to more details

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Wonderul news. Thank you. Now how about Scott from the first Gulf war.

[muggs]

This is such wonderful news , my heart is pounding.

This is such wonderful news that I have tears running down my face. I woke my husband to tell him and he didn't even get mad that I woke him up. :)

[YaYa123]

How thoughtless to have a fundraiser on this thread!

Here's more from CNN.com:

"Seven U.S. troops freed in Iraq
Sunday, April 13, 2003 Posted: 8:15 AM EDT (1215 GMT)

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Seven U.S. troops under Iraqi control were released to a Marine unit Sunday north of Baghdad after Iraqi officers abandoned their posts, according to CNN's Bob Franken, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Two of the troops suffered from gunshot wounds, sources said, although it was not clear when they were wounded.

Sources said junior Iraqi guards took the captured U.S. troops to a light U.S. Marine armored unit north of Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The seven Americans were being taken to a field hospital about 65 miles south Baghdad and then flown to Kuwait for further medical testing and debriefing........"

[YaYa123]

I just heard MSNBC report, "Marines found the US soldiers just walking up a road."

[kattracks]

Seven Missing U.S. Troops Found Healthy

By NICOLE WINFIELD
.c The Associated Press

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) - U.S. Marines have found seven missing U.S. troops on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit, and they appear to be healthy, Gen. Tommy Franks said Sunday.

An Iraqi tipped off the Marines who were near Samarra and were closing in on Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, that they would shortly ``come in contact with a number of Americans,'' Franks told Fox News

``I believe our guys picked them up on the road,'' he said.

``I know they're in good shape and I know they're in our hands and under our control now,'' he told CNN.

Franks said he had been reluctant to release the information because he was unsure whether the group was among five listed as missing or seven listed as POWs.

Franks originally said six were found. Central Command later that seven American servicemen were safe.

Bob Franken of CNN, who was with the Marine 24th Expeditionary Unit that found the POWs, said they were brought to an airfield in ambulances and all ran or walked to a C-130 transport plane.

Two of the POWs walked with a limp and one of those was a woman, Franken said.

One of the seven raised his hand in victory, and the woman was carrying her own equipment, he said.

Pentagon officials have committed to tracking down 12 soldiers still missing or captured since the spectacular rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch on April 1, but until Franks' revelation, there appeared to be no leads.

Franks said he was reluctant to discuss the matter further until he had better information - but he made sure to underscore once again his commitment to rescuing coalition captives.

``For sure we're going to take care of our own,'' he told CNN. ``This is very good news.''

Families of U.S. POWs reacted to the news Sunday with optimism.

``Either way, it's good news,'' said Ron Young Sr., whose son, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr., was listed as a POW after his helicopter was forced down March 23. ``It gives me hope, it really does,'' he said.

The sister-in-law of Army Spc. Joseph Hudson, a 23-year-old POW who was among the 507th Maintenance Company soldiers shown on Iraqi TV, was optimistic Sunday when she heard some of the troops had been freed.

``I hope it's Joe,'' Bethany Hudson said.

Officials had been sounding an upbeat note in recent days, saying more people were willing to talk and share secrets about potential POW sightings now that Saddam Hussein's henchmen are gone.

``What we're finding now is that the regime has been moved away, people will speak about what it is they know,'' U.S. Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar said Saturday during a briefing. ``And so, we suspect that much of the information that will assist us either in finding prisoners of war from this conflict or previous conflicts ... will come by way of the elimination of the regime.''

Lynch, who was rescued April 1 from a hospital in the southern city of Nasiriyah after an Iraqi civilian tipped soldiers off, became the first POW to return home Saturday.

The United States lists five other soldiers as missing and seven as prisoners of war.



04/13/03 08:39 EDT

[elhombrelibre]

Her family must be elated, and since she's the only African-American prisoner, there's little reason to not be overjoyed. As for the rest, it's wonderful. Now, find all of them with God's Speed.

[elhombrelibre]

I meant to say, "African-American female" prisoner. I do believe there is a male as well.

[YaYa123]

Thanks kattracks!!

I was listening to Franken via phone on CNN, but lots of noise, hard to understand...this AP column captured more of his on site, specific information.

[ThirstyMan]

if I recall correctly she's a single mom with a young daughter. this surely is a happy ending for us all but as you say, especially for the family

[MaskedMan]

Maybe...just maybe, one day we can forever drop the h-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-i-o-n of America.....

[xrp]

While, the leftist/collectivist media reminds us that 1 of the 7 was an "African-American", the other six were also hybrid humanoids. Amongst the 6 others were an English-American, a Swedish-American, a German-Dutch-American, a Spanish-Swiss-American and a Ukrainian-Hungarian-Croatian-German-Danish-Finnish-Antarctic-Guyanese-American and an extra-terrestrial-American.

LORD, I wish people would give up on the hyphenation of America. There is no place for the hyphen in our citizenship... We are a nation, not a hodge-podge of foreign nationalities. We are a people, and not a polyglot boarding house. - Theodore Roosevelt

[Axman4]

How thoughtless to have a fundraiser on this thread! Duh, this thread belongs to Jim Rob. You owe him for the ability to post here. If he or his assistants want to post a fundraiser on this thread then good for them.

[mel]

That is remarkable, just walking up a road.

[kattracks]

I believe the interest in the African-American in this case is due to the fact that this is a woman who was a POW.