Posted 24 November 2003 - 05:38 PM
Just returned from second tour in Baghdad, Iraq.
Read PVT Lynch's book on the long flight back.
Posted on this site more than several months back re: her rescue and the operation conducted to effect that rescue.
Some additional notes in lieu of the book and thoughts/observations posted on this thread.
Lynch was dragged from the vehicle and beaten. Those who captured her were the most brutal and devoted to Saddam. The southern portion of Iraq, at the time of the war's beginning, was flooded by Saddam Fey. and Special Security Organization (SSO) forces. They fought as guerrillas in both the urban and rural environments, attacking the main supply routes (MSRs) and defending the cities which we'd stated before hand we would bypass in favor of taking Baghdad.
Their attacks on the MSRs became so effective that both the 82nd Airborne Division and the Navy's SEALs were tasked to conduct operations against these guerrillas to protect, as best as possible, the support troops now moving up behind the combat forces. The SEALs conducted nighttime hunter-killer missions in the desert and around known towns and cities where the guerrillas were operating out of.
The original fight for Nasiriyah saw the Marines take heavy casualties. They did not like operating in the city because of this. It was house to house, street to street, and their mobile capability was hampered at every turn and faced determined RPG attack(s) as well as determined, fanatical defenders. By the time the 507th wandered into town the Fey./SSO were blooded, had won some hard victories against the Marines, and were eager to tear up yet another US convoy.
The political/religious doctrine of the Fey/SSO was not discussed in the book. In short, Lynch represented everything wrong in their world regarding females, much less Americans, much less an American "Crusader" on sacred soil. In their world she was to be - and was - treated as less than an animal. Being beaten and sexually assaulted was a given. It is truly a miracle she did not die then, or was not killed later simply out of hand.
Hers and LP's flak jackets (names taped to their inside panels), and chemical warfare suits (which both were wearing at the time), were recovered by Marines searching buildings and offices near the scene of the attack. Both flak jackets were punctured and blood stained. The chem-bio suits were cut down the fronts of the pants and were likewise bloodied. These were recovered in an upstairs lavatory in the building they'd been taken to and held in initially. It is here, most likely, Lynch was further beaten and assaulted for the 3 hours she does not recall.
When the clothing and flak jackets were found, and their condition described, we knew both young women had been brutalized.
Lynch's later presence in the hospital was widely known by the population in general and reports of her presence came in on a consistent basis to those US forces outside NAS. No fewer than 6 locals were interviewed at length regarding Lynch being held at the hospital, with the overrated lawyer being merely one of these and a bit player at that. The Marines at TF Tarawa did not conduct significant interviews with the locals, leaving that to be done by US special operations forces co-located with them. Once it was established beyond a reasonable doubt that Lynch was indeed present and alive, the mission was hastily put together and launched.
In the aftermath of Lynch being rescued the hospital was visited by US Forces. The Marines had already taken a number of light infantry weapons from inside the facility, but US SF forces did recover an additional number of AK47s from the basement area. Also found at the "hospital" were sand tables for the planning of military operations; documents; military equipment and uniforms; torture rooms; and evidence of Iraqi high value targets possibly having been present ("Chemical Ali" and "Dr. Germ"). The area around the hospital was significanty prepped by overhead fires (AC130 gunship) prior to the assault team landing, and rangers from both 1st and 2nd battalion(s) secured the inner perimeter during the assault. The Marines created an outer perimeter using their mech forces. Besides Lynch, the objective was to locate any Iraqi HVTs and kill/capture them; and locate any evidence of weapons of mass destruction being stored at the hospital.
Upon entry the assault team reported finding two dead bodies in the hospital's small courtyard, and later additional bodies in the morgue that appeared to be US or Coalition; and then the mass grave site in the soccer field area. No shots were required to be fired during the assault. This due to both the heavy prep of the immediate area just prior to the force going in, and the fact the FEY / SSO had evacuated the hospital upon the initial overhead fire and attack alerting them as to "good guys inbound".
There were a number of casualties from the prep phase and many of these were being treated inside the hospital both during and after the assault. Their numbers grew the morning afterward and after the assault force had fully departed the area. Again, this was the FEY/SSO purpose for using the hospital in the first place as a command and control center, as well as field interrogation site for POWs such as Lynch.
Lynch was flown by Blackhawk to Talil Air Field, then by a specially equipped CH-47 from Talil to Kuwait where she was initially treated and secured before being further evacuated to Germany.
As noted, she is fortunate and blessed to have lived through this event. Why her captors did not kill her at any stage of her captivity is unknown. That she was brutalized is a fact. Those other US POWs taken prisoner from the 507th were likewise mistreated in terms of being struck, humiliated, and tortured to one degree or another. They themselves alluded to this during one nationally broadcast interview during which one former POW was reminded by his fellow soldiers they were not to discuss their mistreatment in public.
Lynch's weapon being inoperable was most likely due to dirty magazines, an important piece of the overall M16 weapons system that most support soldiers are never taught how to properly clean and maintain. Dirty magazines were the cause of many malfunctions for this reason throughout the war. The M9 pistol magazine was the worst offender in this respect. A dirty magazine will cause a misfeed and jam a rifle in a heartbeat. It is as likely this occurred for Lynch as anything else. She reports cleaning her rifle. She does not, and if asked today, would probably concur she never took the entire magazine assembly apart for those magazines she was issued and cleaned them...ever. They were most likely fully loaded, and remained loaded for some time during which sand, grit, and the fine Iraqi desert powder coated their interiors and the rounds loaded into them. A formula for malfunction and catastrophic failure if ever there were one.
In the end her firing a shot one way or the other would not have made a difference. In fact, it may have been the first of many miracles that ultimately saved her life.
Found the book thoughtfully written and most illustrative of a very fine human being. Jesse became the focal point of a huge war machine that needed a victory badly on that first day in April. She truly has no idea how many were watching and from where. Her composure even under the worst circumstances, as video taped on scene and rushed to Camp Doha, Kuwait, upon her arrival in country, galvanized US and Coalition forces across the theatre. The entire experience was far bigger than Jesse Lynch. She was at its core, and she demonstated with a wane smile, hands clutching at a folded American flag laid across her, and with eyes that bespoke the horror of her captivity that the least among us had been wounded and mistreated, and that the best among us had gone for her and brought her home.
For the American Soldier this message came across loud and clear. And it invoked a wrath, a fury, a pride, and a determination for both vengence and victory that saw literally thousands of FEY/SSO/RA/RG/SRG forces killed without mercy or concern as our forces trampled them in the rush to Baghdad.
No one but a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine can or will understand this.
But it is the Truth and no words, books, or interviews will ever capture the Spirit this event invoked from 1 April until Baghdad was taken.
Lynch is more than a hero. She became and remains a powerful and positive symbol to those who identified with her from the moment she was captured, to the moment she was freed.
De Oppresso Liber
Help
Posted 19 November 2003 - 01:32 PM
