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Twelve construction workers were detained Friday at Fort Bliss because they were in the country illegally or didn't have proper work permits, officials said. The 12 were detained after Military Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents interviewed 335 workers at one housing construction site, at Fort Bliss and another at Biggs Army Airfield. The workers were required to verify their identification and employment status. ICE agents will continue the investigation into the source of the false documentation, post officials said. Most of the workers were employed by four subcontractors -- a framing company, a drywall company, a rock-wall builder...

Jessica Lynch Awarded Bronze StarLynch Gets Medals Ahead of Homecoming ELIZABETH, W.Va. - Former POW Jessica Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Washington Monday as she prepares for her homecoming. Lynch, who returns to the hills of West Virigina Tuesday, also received Prisoner of War medals at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The Bronze Star is given for meritorious combat service, a Purple Heart is most often awarded to those wounded in combat, and the POW for being held captive during wartime. "The Purple Heart ... was not necessarily about being wounded or injured...

Discrepancies in reports of POW's capture, rescue raise questions Posted: May 6, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Diana Lynne © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Hollywood writers could not have imagined a more gripping and rousing story as that of the capture of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch and the dramatic Special Ops rescue caught on videotape and instigated by an Iraqi lawyer who reportedly put his life on the line for hers. But some question whether elements of the saga are more hype than fact, created to spin the POW's experience to serve political purposes. An avalanche of movie and book offers flooded the Lynch...

the saga of Saving Private Lynch. Branded on to our consciousness by media frenzy, the flawless midnight rescue of 19-year-old Private First Class Jessica Lynch hardly bears repeating even a month after the fact. Precision teams of U.S. Army Rangers and Navy Seals, acting on intelligence information and supported by four helicopter gunships, ended Lynch's nine-day Iraqi imprisonment in true Rambo style, raising America's spirits when it needed it most. All Hollywood could ever hope to have in a movie was there in this extraordinary feat of rescue — except, perhaps, the truth. So say three Nasiriya doctors, two nurses,...

Nikki Johnson doesn't like to hear the conflict is almost over -- not with her sister a prisoner of the Iraqis FORT BLISS, Tex. - The Iraqis, giddy with the first breath from under the yoke, were properly jubilant: They, after all, have a country to build. But for the ordinary Americans who make work, tend, staff and feed their young to the great military machine which -- whatever else it has done or may yet do to varying degrees of world approval -- will give the Iraqis that glorious chance, the dramatic fall of Baghdad yesterday was greeted with...

Pfc. Jessica Lynch will be flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., soon. She has been isolated from media coverage of her rescue and has no idea what awaits her when she regains her health. Private Lynch survived the ambush in Iraq of the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, but can she survive the ambush of the feminine forces of political correctness that placed her in harm's way. These people want to use her to promote their theory that men and women soldiers are the same. This thesis is, of course, unprovable. While women may be just...

Family Not Pressing U.S. POW on Details By COLLEEN BARRY .c The Associated Press LANDSTUHL, Germany (AP) - The family of rescued POW Jessica Lynch said Tuesday her strong will helped her survive captivity, but that they weren't going to press for details of her ordeal until she's ready. Still stunned by their daughter's capture by Iraqi forces and dramatic rescue nine days later, Pfc. Lynch's parents described their relief at finally laying eyes on Jessica in her hospital bed in southwestern Germany. ``We said, 'Hi, Baby, how are you doing?' and she said, 'Fine,''' Gregory Lynch Sr. told reporters...

Father says Lynch in good spirits after POW ordeal LANDSTUHL, Germany, April 8 (Reuters) - The father of U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch, a prisoner of war rescued by American forces in Iraq, said on Tuesday she was in good spirits and only wanted to go home. "Her spirits was real high and we was real glad to see her. We was kinda figurin' it'd be a lot worse," Greg Lynch said outside the hospital that is treating her. Jessica, 19, spent nine days as a POW in Iraq with back injuries, two broken legs, a broken arm, broken foot and...

POW Father Denies Daughter Shot, Stabbed 2 hours, 47 minutes ago By ALLISON BARKER, Associated Press Writer PALESTINE, W.Va. - The father of rescued POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Thursday she was in great spirits following her first surgery and said she had not been shot or stabbed during her ordeal. "We have heard and seen reports that she had multiple gunshot wounds and a knife stabbing. The doctor has not seen any of this," Gregory Lynch Sr. said. "There's no entry (wounds) whatsoever." Lynch said his 19-year-old daughter, who is at a military hospital in Germany, had surgery...

Rescued U.S. soldier put up fierce fight - Wash Post WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - Rescued U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch shot several Iraqi soldiers prior to her capture, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing U.S. officials. The 19-year-old Private First Class continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her, one official told the newspaper. "She was fighting to the death," the official was quoted as saying. "She did not want to be taken alive." Lynch...

POW Reportedly Fought Captors With Gun By JOE COLEMAN .c The Associated Press LANDSTUHL, Germany (AP) - Spirited but hungry, rescued prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch arrived in Germany for treatment of two broken legs and bullet wounds reportedly suffered in a fierce gun battle she waged against her Iraqi captors. The Washington Post reported Thursday that the 19-year-old Army supply clerk shot several Iraqi soldiers during the March 23 ambush that resulted in her capture. She kept firing even after she had several gunshot wounds, finally running out of ammunition, the newspaper said, citing unidentified U.S. officials. ``She...

Monday, April 07, 2003 During their tour at Fort Bliss, a sprawling military base on the western tip of Texas, Jessica Lynch and Lori Ann Piestewa had little choice but to spend time together. As logistics and supply specialists, their military duties constantly intertwined. When Private First Class Lynch needed to stock up on toilet paper or shaving kits for deploying troops, she ordered the gear from Private First Class Piestewa, stationed in a nearby warehouse. When they were not at work -- a rarity in the weeks leading up to the Iraqi war -- the pair shared a tiny...

<p>According to the Cable News Network ticker, Private First Class Jessica Lynch has been moved to intensive care as a precaution in Landstuhl, Germany to monitor fever, increased heart rate and any possible infection.</p> <p>Not mentioned whether her family did visit her in the ICU ward when thye came.</p>

Family of Rescued POW Arrives in Germany By JOSEPH COLEMAN .c The Associated Press LANDSTUHL, Germany (AP) - The American POW rescued by U.S. commandos in a daring raid in Iraq was reunited with her family Sunday at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. ``I can't wait to see her,'' Pfc. Jessica Lynch's mother, Deadra Lynch, said before leaving for Germany. Lynch's father, two siblings and a cousin also flew over from West Virginia. Their meeting comes a day after the family learned that eight members of Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, were killed in the same ambush that...

POW Family Denies Daughter Shot, Stabbed By ALLISON BARKER .c The Associated Press PALESTINE, W.Va. (AP) - The father of rescued POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Thursday that she was in great spirits following her first surgery and denied reports she was shot and stabbed during her captivity in Iraq. ``We have heard and seen reports that she had multiple gunshot wounds and a knife stabbing. The doctor has not seen any of this,'' Gregory Lynch Sr. said.

<p>Marines were sent to rescue wounded members of the 507th Maintenance Company on March 23, the day the Fort Bliss unit was attacked in Iraq, but nine of the Marines who took part in the rescue effort were killed and eight others are missing, Pentagon officials said Sunday.</p>

The captured American Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, by all accounts, had no intention of becoming a feminist icon. A note of unseemly glee has greeted the tragedy of her falling into the hands of the Iraqis, as if to say, "Look, women can be prisoners of war, too!" The New York Times ran an editorial titled "The Pinking of the Armed Forces," hailing Johnson's capture a reminder of how the American military has evolved, slowly and sometimes reluctantly, into an organization where the dangerous jobs of war are performed by both sexes." One can only wait for other leaps ahead...

LOCAL NEWS NEWSCHANNEL 9 Fort Bliss soldiers among those captured by Iraq An estimated ten soldiers from Fort Bliss are among those believed to be captured by Iraqi forces Sunday. Sunday, March 23, 2003 -- Fort Bliss officials confirmed that ten soldiers with the 507th Maintenance Company were involved in an incident while engaged in manuevers with the 3rd Infantry Division. The names of the soldiers are not being released until the military talks to the families. The status of the soldiers is unknown at this time. Fort Bliss Chief of Staff Col. Ben Hobson will speak at a press...

Arab TV Shows Allegedly Captured Troops .c The Associated Press DOHA, Qatar (A) - The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera aired footage Sunday of interviews with what the station identified as captured American prisoners, and also showed bodies in uniform in an Iraqi morgue that it said were Americans. The station said the prisoners were captured around Nasiriyah. In the interviews, two of the prisoners identified their unit only as the 507th Maintenance. It appeared there were the bodies of at least four dead troops lying on the floor of the room. At least five Americans were interviewed, two of whom...