Jessica Lynch Forums: Jessica Speaks - Jessica Lynch Forums

Jump to content

Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

Jessica Speaks Iraq is her past; daughter Dakota, her future

#1 User is offline   Laracroft 

  • Advanced Member
  • PipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 212
  • Joined: 25-August 04

Posted 15 March 2010 - 11:16 PM

http://www.the-daily...article/4788617



By CHARLOTTE J. MUENZENBERGER

Staff Writer

MILLERSBURG -- You know that old saying, "There's no place like home." "Well, it's true," said Jessica Lynch, a former Prisoner of War, during her keynote speech at the Ohio Holstein Convention held at Millersburg Smokehouse, Friday.

Looking around the room filled with dairy farmers, Don Alexander, Holstein association general manager, said, "Their financial crisis is a personal one. Jessica's situation gives her an entire different outlook on life. What she did was selfless."

"You can't give up no matter what. You have to keep striving ahead," Lynch said, promoting a positive attitude.

Although she sustained many injuries during her stay in Iraq, Lynch showed no sign of weakness.

Removing the top portion of the podium, she said, "I'm a country girl. I can do it myself."

"I grew up on a road named Mayberry and even had a sheriff named Andy," she laughed.

And a smiling country girl she was. However, at age 18, Lynch made the decision that changed her life forever. "I loved small town country life, but I wanted more," she said about enlisting in the United States Army.

"I went from being no one to being an army soldier," she said, remarking she originally joined the military for career opportunities and the chance to travel the world.

"I went in before 9-11, I had no idea what was going to happen. I wanted to go to Hawaii," she said.

March 23, 2003, Lynch was captured by Iraqi soldiers when her group drove into Nasiryah by mistake. Her friend Lori Piestewa sat at the wheel when a rocket-propelled grenade demolished their Humvee.

"It was like a horror flick and we were destined not to make it. We thought we were on the right track, but we weren't," Lynch said.

They fought knowing it would be their end. "We were ducks in the middle of a pond with no where to go. I knew we were going to die," she said.

Waking up in an Iraqi hospital with no memory of any event post attack, Lynch said, "I woke up scared and startled to see so many unfamiliar faces staring at me. I couldn't move my body. I felt abandoned, alone and helpless and... I wanted to go home."

"She remembers nothing, but the things done to her were unspeakable," said Alexander.

Now home, and sharing her story, seven years later, she said, "I'm so thankful I am alive and was an American soldier."

For Lynch, the hardest part of recovery was the mental stress. "I was a female Rambo one second and propaganda to create war hype the next," she said, noting she was blamed for not being the hero everyone wanted her to be.

Remembering her toughest times, Lynch said, "Lori was the sun that lifted my world. She was the real hero."

Lynch named her two-year old daughter, Dakota Ann after Piestewa, who died just after the attack. Dakota is a Native American word for friend and Ann was Piestewa's middle name.

While raising her daughter, Lynch is pursuing her dream of becoming an Elementary Education teacher.

"I know with perseverance, I will be OK," she said. "When I look at Dakota Ann and see her smiling face, I know Iraq is my past, and she is my future."
0

#2 User is offline   mainzman 

  • Advanced Member
  • PipPipPip
  • Group: Advanced Members
  • Posts: 803
  • Joined: 19-August 03

Posted 05 April 2010 - 07:40 PM

Dakota looks just like Jessica.
0

Share this topic:


Page 1 of 1
  • You cannot start a new topic
  • You cannot reply to this topic

1 User(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users