Jessica Lynch

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Jessica Lynch, 2004

Jessica Dawn Lynch (* 26. April 1983 in Palestine , West Virginia ) is a former American soldier who during the Third Gulf War in Iraq became a prisoner of war. The circumstances under which she regained her freedom were staged in the media. The representations at that time were later refuted by an investigation report by the US Army.

Capture and Liberation

Jessica Lynch was part of the 507th Maintenance Company of the US Army, which deviated from the planned route on March 23, 2003 during its war deployment near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyya and was thus caught in a military ambush. Eleven soldiers were killed and six more were taken prisoner by Iraq . Since she was separated from the other prisoners due to her injuries, a US special unit rescued Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyya on April 2, 2003. The liberation action caused a sensation in the US press.

Depiction of the rescue

Jessica Lynch's rescue, portrayed in the media

Because of her gender and young age, the Lynch case caught the attention of the American media while the soldier was still missing. The other five prisoners (including the 30-year-old cook Shoshana Johnson) were hardly mentioned. Just a few hours after Lynch's liberation, the US military released dramatic footage of the commando operation for the media. At the same time, press reports appeared in which Lynch was declared a heroine who fought to the last cartridge and killed numerous Iraqis. She was also mistreated and possibly raped while in detention.

Critical media processing

The television magazine Monitor discussed a possible staging of the rescue operation on June 19, 2003, based on a documentary by BBC war correspondent John Kampfner . Based on the feature film “ Saving Private Ryan ”, this had the subtitle “Saving Private Jessica: Fact or fiction?” (Rescue of soldier Jessica: fact or fiction?).

The incident was also critically questioned in the documentary series Censored Images of War (in German: Censored Images of War) and described as contradicting itself.

Facts according to the investigation report

Lynch received the Purple Heart , Prisoner of War and Bronze Star medals in June 2003

In July 2003, the US Army published an investigation report that looked into the use of the 507th (and thus also the Lynch case). The reasons for the unfortunate operation were given in it, lack of training, inexperience and human error, especially of the company commander. According to the report, Jessica Lynch was with four other soldiers in a Humvee that got out of control as a result of enemy fire and crashed into a stationary tractor-trailer. Except for Lynch, all inmates were killed, she herself suffered serious injuries and was rescued from the wreck by Iraqis. As Lynch later revealed, she did not fire a shot during the incident.

According to later research, the Iraqi hospital staff and doctors are said to have taken care of the injured soldier. Relatives of a doctor are said to have donated blood. When Iraqis tried to hand the injured woman over to American soldiers in an ambulance, the soldiers shot at the car. Later, during a night mission, Lynch was picked up from the hospital by a special unit without any resistance. Media reported that the area around the hospital was free of Iraqi soldiers at the time.

consequences

In August 2003, Jessica Lynch was honorably discharged from the army on medical grounds.

At a hearing by the US Congress on April 24, 2007, Lynch and the brother of former football star Pat Tillman , who was killed in a so-called " friendly fire " in Afghanistan , accused the Pentagon of using these two cases for propaganda purposes abused and deliberately telling the public the untruth.

Web links

Commons : Jessica Lynch  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Censored Images of War (part 6) on YouTube , August 4, 2007, accessed October 24, 2019 ( Army and politics writing the script of Jessica Lynch ).
personal data
SURNAME Lynch, Jessica
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lynch, Jessica Dawn (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American soldier in the Third Gulf War
DATE OF BIRTH April 26, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Palestine , West Virginia