Author Topic: PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..  (Read 3089 times)

Offline dynamt

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #60 on: July 23, 2003, 11:45:37 AM »
The Hummer she was riding in had been struck by an RPG and was under heavy small arms fire. How some of you guys could compare what ensued to a traffic accident is beyond me. I guess you could also call it pilot error when someone takes a sidewinder up the tail pipe and crashes.

From what I've read most of injuries are attributed to (rifle butt clubbing) not a traffic accident.

dynamt

Offline Apache

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #61 on: July 23, 2003, 11:57:12 AM »
I still don't understand why some feel she doesn't deserve the Bronze Star.

Refresh my memory but heroic isn't the only qualifier is it? Isn't meritorious service in there some where?

She was in a non combat unit full of clerks, cooks and maintenance personnel. They were in a combat situation. Her vehicle crashed due to being hit by direct/indirect enemy fire. She received injuries. She was taken prisoner of war.

Other than the purple heart, is there any combat medal she could have been awarded? If memory serves, the Bronze Star is the lowest in rank of combat awards.

Offline WestyAH

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #62 on: July 23, 2003, 12:13:59 PM »
Just to be able to look at the facts for myself (thank you Pyro for showing us the link to the official Army report) can Mr "anonymous" scan or link to anything official with which I can read for myself details of the events as he writes them?

 IMO when the poor kid read the prepared statements on tv and was riding in the car during the parade to me she quite often looked embarrased and retrospective.  Not a  "shy girl caught in the limelight" type of embarrased but well, just embarrased. Like someone caught up in something she'd rather not be part of.

Offline anonymous

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #63 on: July 23, 2003, 12:43:48 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by WestyAH
can Mr "anonymous" scan or link to anything official with which I can read for myself details of the events as he writes them?


i dont know about official but theres this; 'But the report avoids the details of the plight of Private Lynch, who’s still undergoing rehabilitation after suffering multiple broken bones and spinal and head injuries. She’s said she has no recollection of the event. The report seems to suggest Lynch was injured after her Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into a truck in the convoy. The driver of the Humvee, Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, died of injuries she sustained, and two other occupants were killed under circumstances still under investigation, the report says. NEWSWEEK has learned, however, that U.S. military intelligence officers believe Lynch’s injuries were inflicted after she and other survivors surrendered. “This poor girl,” said one Special Forces captain involved in her rescue. He’s among three military intelligence sources who say she was standing when she surrendered, and had minor injuries at most. That was confirmed by Mehdi Kafaji, the Iraqi orthopedic surgeon who was in charge of her treatment at the hospital in An Nasiriya. “She had blunt-force trauma not consistent with what you’d expect from a car accident,” Kafaji says. He adds that there was no sign of bullet wounds on her body, and her injuries appeared to have been inflicted by a severe beating, probably with numerous rifle butts. Her Fedayeen captors then took her to An Nasiriya’s Saddam General Hospital. She told doctors she had not been sexually assaulted.' this came from; http://www.msnbc.com/news/938211.asp?cp1=1

Offline Yeager

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #64 on: July 23, 2003, 12:48:56 PM »
It would sure be nice to be able to read the citation for the bronze star.  I would like to know what she did that was meritorious.  Am not doubting that she does not deservce this medal but I am really curious as to what she did to deserve it.
"If someone flips you the bird and you don't know it, does it still count?" - SLIMpkns

Offline WestyAH

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #65 on: July 23, 2003, 12:49:54 PM »
Thanks. I'm not saying many of those things did not happen. I do believe prisoners were beaten and that several of them were executed while in captivity.   I just don't put much merit or stock into media stories from Newsweek as well as the BBC, Foxnews and especially CNN or MSN.

And I'd echo Yeagers post.  The citation for the award is most notable for it's absence everywhere. The only official reference I've found to why she recieved it is here: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2003/n07222003_200307223.html

The General delivery the award cited "meritorious service in combat," which is pretty ambiguos, and then he moved right on to her receiving the POW medal.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2003, 12:53:23 PM by WestyAH »

Offline rc51

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #66 on: July 23, 2003, 12:51:00 PM »
As an EMT who has seen many car wrecks.
I must say her injuries sound just like the ones you would get in a car wreck.
Remember she was sitting unrestrained on the transmission hump
and the think the hummer was going 50mph when it hit the truck.
Now there is no way that she would have not got mutiple fractures from that kind of impact.

Offline rc51

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #67 on: July 23, 2003, 12:52:44 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Yeager
It would sure be nice to be able to read the citation for the bronze star.  I would like to know what she did that was meritorious.  Am not doubting that she does not deservce this medal but I am really curious as to what she did to deserve it.


The media was all over her like a cheap suite!!
and this is great PR for the Army.
Sad to say but i bet thats all there is to it.

Offline rc51

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #68 on: July 23, 2003, 12:57:08 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by SOB
Considering I'm not in the Army, it's really none of my business.  As a citizen who was also sitting in my air conditioned apartment during the war, I say good for her.


SOB

PS...Who else would like to see RC51 get his bellybutton handed to him by a female soldier?  ;)


LOL well being as I'm 6'4" and 270lbs It would take one tough
Biotch:D
I was lucky when I was in the Army I never had to serve with women.
Our standards where never lowerd always kept at the highest level where the should be!!
I did my 4 years SOB and made SGT E-5 what did you do?
Mos of 11B-Bravo-4 If you don't know what that is then you are speaking out of you're prettythang


PS I have seen all of Bruce Lee's movies
:D:D
« Last Edit: July 23, 2003, 01:07:18 PM by rc51 »

Offline anonymous

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #69 on: July 23, 2003, 01:00:50 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by rc51
LOL well being as I'm 6'4" and 270lbs It would take one tough
Biotch:D


use yer head army! explain to him that your gonna need four one hundred pound hotties to receive a proper beating. :)

Offline anonymous

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #70 on: July 23, 2003, 01:03:42 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by WestyAH
Thanks. I'm not saying many of those things did not happen. I do believe prisoners were beaten and that several of them were executed while in captivity.   I just don't put much merit or stock into media stories from Newsweek as well as the BBC, Foxnews and especially CNN or MSN.

And I'd echo Yeagers post.  The citation for the award is most notable for it's absence everywhere. The only official reference I've found to why she recieved it is here: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2003/n07222003_200307223.html

The General delivery the award cited "meritorious service in combat," which is pretty ambiguos, and then he moved right on to her receiving the POW medal.


there could be alot of reasons they arent giving out alot of details on her treatment or the citation yet. i know guys who are still waiting on decorations from afghanistan because of delays in investigating the incidents to make sure the decorations are legit. irony is the underserved ones from asskissing go thru fast no problem.

Offline muckmaw

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #71 on: July 23, 2003, 01:14:14 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Apache
I still don't understand why some feel she doesn't deserve the Bronze Star.

Refresh my memory but heroic isn't the only qualifier is it? Isn't meritorious service in there some where?

She was in a non combat unit full of clerks, cooks and maintenance personnel. They were in a combat situation. Her vehicle crashed due to being hit by direct/indirect enemy fire. She received injuries. She was taken prisoner of war.

Other than the purple heart, is there any combat medal she could have been awarded? If memory serves, the Bronze Star is the lowest in rank of combat awards.


Hope this helps...

The Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the Army of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, in connection with military operations against an armed enemy; or while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.

Offline SOB

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #72 on: July 23, 2003, 02:17:31 PM »
It was a joke, Nancy, hence the smiley...;)


SOB
Three Times One Minus One.  Dayum!

Offline davidpt40

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #73 on: July 23, 2003, 02:30:56 PM »
Can anyone tell me about PFC Miller?  Was he killed in action?  I heard somehwhere that the 'hero' of the battle was shot and stabbed, perhaps this was Miller.

Killing 9 Iraqis while being only a PFC and the rest of his convoy was either pinned or stunned, now theres something to be proud of.

Offline rc51

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PFC Lynch gets Bronze Star and Hero's welcome..
« Reply #74 on: July 23, 2003, 02:31:04 PM »
I knew that bettie:D