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‘She’s Alive’

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Posted 09 April 2003 - 10:40 AM

POW Jessica Lynch is on her way home. But her rescue raises unanswered questions-and the grim specter of women combat casualties

By Martha Brant
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

April 2 — It sounded like one of those fanciful Hollywood scripts. On Tuesday night, more than 1,000 Navy Seals, Army Rangers, Marines and Air Force pilots joined forces for a mission to get back one American POW: Private First Class Jessica Lynch, a “junior enlisted” soldier with a maintenance division.

THE MILITARY had received HumInt (human intelligence) that the 19-year-old—a member of a maintenance unit that was ambushed more than a week ago—was being held at Saddam Hospital in the southern city of Nasiriya. The intel also suggested that the hospital was being used as a military staging area. But the U.S. troops were after her, not Iraqi soldiers. “Some brave souls put their lives on the line, loyal to a creed that they know,” Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks said at a middle-of-the night briefing announcing Lynch’s rescue. “They will never leave a fallen comrade behind.”

The special-ops forces dropped in well outside the city and sneaked up on the compound in the dark for the “snatch.” Just before 1 a.m. local time (5 p.m EST), word reached Central Command here in Qatar that the rescue had been successful. Reports said she had broken bones and gunshot wounds, but was emotionally and mentally OK. Brooks wouldn’t confirm those details. “The good news is she’s alive,” he said. “For her privacy, I won’t go any further into that.” Instead, CENTCOM showed a video clip taken during the raid. The grainy green footage-shot with night-vision equipment-showed Lynch being carried on a stretcher. It then zoomed in on her face: pretty, but stricken.

The Special Ops left “a whole lot” of dead Iraqis, one CENTCOM source says, before hooking up with a convoy and taking off. The rescuers also found 11 dead bodies. Two were laid out in a morgue and nine in a grave outside the buildings. They could be other members of Lynch’s convoy, which ran into Iraqi forces after making a wrong turn. Seven besides Lynch were reported missing and five more were classified as POWs after being interviewed on Iraqi state TV. But the remains are so badly charred that it has been impossible to identify if they are even American soldiers.

Only a handful of people at CENTCOM were in on the operation. Gen. Tommy Franks deemed the intel credible and gave the green light for the mission Tuesday night. Then he and his top commanders went to sleep. The tightly sealed communications shop here tried to keep a lid on the story and decided to keep Lynch’s name confidential. But as soon as officials here notified the Pentagon of the rescue, the story—and the name—leaked back in Washington. By the time CENTCOM was making its official statement to a sparsely attended press conference a little before 4 a.m., ABC was already interviewing Lynch’s family.

Many questions remain. The U.S. soldiers found ammunition, mortars, maps and terrain models in the basement of the hospital. But there were no reports of chemicals and chemical suits. What did Lynch live through? The speculation is not pleasant. And it raises an image Americans may yet have to deal with during this war: female casualties. Women don’t yet fight on the front lines, but there are more than ever near the front lines—flying Chinooks, driving trucks and, in Lynch’s case, fixing them. She’ll be home in Palestine, W.V., soon. But regaining her peace of mind—and determining the fate of her comrades in the 507th Maintenance Division—may take awhile.

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.
Regards,

Scott Drake
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