Here's from the local paper.
Big to the special forces dudes too!
Before capture, U.S. soldier was 'fighting to the death'
By Susan Schmidt and Vernon Loeb
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.
Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she suffered multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
"She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."
Lynch also was stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the official said, noting that initial intelligence reports indicated that she had been stabbed to death. No official gave any indication yesterday, however, that Lynch's wounds had been life-threatening.
Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined and that further information would emerge as Lynch is debriefed.
Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they say, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed.
Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's valor but had no confirmation.
There was no immediate indication whether Lynch's fellow soldiers killed in the ambush were among 11 bodies found by Special Operations forces who rescued Lynch at Saddam Hussein Hospital in Nasiriyah, although U.S. officials said that at least some of the bodies are believed to be those of U.S. servicemen. Two of the bodies were found in the hospital's morgue, and nine were found in shallow graves on the grounds outside.
Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said the military has not confirmed whether they were members of Lynch's unit.
"We don't yet know the identity of those people," he said. "Forensics will determine that."
The ambush that led to Lynch's capture took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
Seven soldiers from the 507th are still listed as missing in action. Five others, four men and a woman, were taken captive after the attack. Video footage of the five has been shown on Iraqi television, along with grisly pictures of at least four soldiers killed in the battle.
Lynch, from Palestine, W.Va., arrived yesterday at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. She was in stable condition, suffering from broken legs and a broken arm, in addition to the gunshot and stab wounds, sources said.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke gave no specifics of her condition, telling reporters only that Lynch is "in good spirits and being treated for injuries."
But one military officer briefed on her condition said that while Lynch was conscious and able to communicate with the U.S. commandos who rescued her, "She was pretty messed up."
Lynch spoke by telephone with her parents last night.
"She's real spirited. She hasn't eaten in eight days and she's hungry," her father, Greg Lynch, said. "She wants some food."
"Talk about spunk!" said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, who had been briefed on the rescue by military officials.
"She just persevered. It takes that and a tremendous faith that your country is going to come and get you."
One Army official said that it could be some time before Lynch is reunited with her family, since experience with those taken prisoner since the Vietnam War indicates that soldiers held in captivity need time to "decompress" and reflect on their ordeal with the help of medical professionals.
"It's real important to have decompression time before they get back with their families to assure them that they served their country honorably," the official said. "She'll meet with Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion (SERE) psychologists. These are medical experts in dealing with this type of things."
At Central Command headquarters in Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks showed a brief night-vision video clip of commandos rushing Lynch on a stretcher to a waiting Black Hawk helicopter. Later, television networks showed footage of her arriving in Germany. She has said nothing publicly since her rescue.
One intriguing account of Lynch's 10 days in captivity came from an unidentified Iraqi pharmacist at Saddam Hussein Hospital who told Sky News, a British network, that he had cared for her and frequently heard her crying about wanting to be reunited with her family.
"She said every time, about wanting to go home," said the pharmacist, who was filmed at the hospital wearing a white medical coat over a black T-shirt.
"She knew that the American Army and the British were on the other side of the (Euphrates) river in Nasiriyah city. ... She said, 'Maybe this minute the American Army (will) come and get me.' "
Lynch's rescue at midnight local time Tuesday was a classic Special Operations raid, with U.S. commandos in Black Hawk helicopters engaging Iraqi forces on their way in and out of the medical compound, defense officials said.
Acting on information from CIA operatives, they said, a Special Operations force of Navy SEALS, Army Rangers and Air Force combat controllers touched down in blacked-out conditions.
An AC-130 gunship, able to fire 1,800 rounds a minute from its 25mm cannon, circled overhead, as did a reconnaissance aircraft providing real-time overhead video imagery of the operation as it unfolded.
"There was shooting going in, there was some shooting going out," said one military officer briefed on the operation.
"It was not intensive. There was no shooting in the building, but it was hairy, because no one knew what to expect. When they got inside, I don't think there was any resistance."
As soon as they rolled into the hospital compound, civilian patients and medical staff began emerging with their hands up. Most were allowed to leave, or to return to the building for treatment.
Meanwhile, U.S. Marines advanced in Nasiriyah as a diversionary tactic to preoccupy whatever Iraqi forces might still have been in the area.
The officer said that Special Operations forces found what looked like a "prototype" Iraqi torture chamber in the hospital's basement, with batteries and metal prods.
Briefing reporters at Central Command headquarters, Brooks said the hospital apparently was being used as a military command post. Commandos whisked Lynch to safety on a stretcher to a waiting Black Hawk helicopter that had landed inside the hospital compound, he said, while others remained behind to clear the hospital building.
The announcement of the successful raid was delayed for more than an hour because some U.S. troops had remained on the ground in Nasiriyah longer than anticipated to finish searching the hospital and retrieving the bodies, Brooks said.
"We wanted to preserve the safety of the forces," he said.
Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.
