I Finally Read the Jessica Lynch Book

Well it only took me nearly ten years to get around to it, but I finally read the book recounting the infamous story of 2003 Iraq War P.O.W. Jessica Lynch. I had some free time on my hands last week, thanks to end-of-year state school testing that led to my being pretty much locked in a room with middle schoolers for two days straight while they did their best to prove to the state that they can read, write, and conduct math calculations at a level suitable to warrant extra funding for their school district, err... I mean, advance to the next grade level. Don't get me started.

Ok, back to the book. It was easy, fast reading (my favorite kind) and obvioulsy an engaging story as I completed the book in a matter of hours. Like most Americans, I am intimately familir with the Jessica Lynch ordeal, and was one of the millions glued to the t.v. in 2003 when she was taken captive and held for nine days before being snatched from an Iraqi hospital by U.S. Special Forces. It was especially intriguing to me at the time considering I was on active duty in the military and am only a few months older than Lynch.

After the incident, it is well known there were a lot of individuals who felt (and still feel) Lynch's status as a "Hero" is way more than she deserves considering all she did when her convoy was under attack was basically put her head between her knees and pray. After the humvee she was riding in finally crashed, Lynch was rendered unconcious and lost three hours of her life. According to her, she awoke several hours later in an Iraqi field hospital with no memory of anything between the tmie of the accident and the time she woke up in the hospital. According to miltiary medical records, her body showed evidence of sodomization and the possibility that her catostrophic injuries may not have been caused by the humvee crash, but were perhaps the result of her being beaten with rifle buttstocks or other solid objects. However, her records also initially indicated that she had several gunshot wounds, but this was later proven to be false. Again, she doesn't remember anything but the crash.

In my opinion, I don't care if she was shot ot not, sodomized or not, went down with her gun blazing or never reached for it, beaten or carried to the hospital on a feather pillow - the fact of the matter is she was severaly injured in a war zone and technically held by the "enemy" for more than 24 hours - she is a HERO! I know grown men that would have been screaming for their mommies in her situation. Having served in Iraq myself, I can't imagine the horror of seeing all my comrades killed around me and then being completely alone and broken and laying in a foreign hospital in the middle of the desert. She also managed to survive with subpar medical treatment for nine days before being rescued. There are former military service members out there sporting purple hearts for crap like trippng and breaking a colar bone while out on patrol - to say this girl doesn't deserve her status as a survivor and hero in any manner is obsurd.

I also respect Lynch for what she has done since her life changing days as a P.O.W. A lot of people would have just ridden the wave of fame and fortune as long as possible and right into the ground. She made millions from selling her story to both print and news media, she made more off the movie they made about her story, she gets paid to tour and speak throughout the country, along with a ton of other endorsements - not to mention full disability pay from the military; this girl could have easily ended up the owner of a Porsche convertible partying her way from bar to bar throughout her 20's and now sitting on the couch relaxing into her 30's living off the interest of her windfall fortune. But that's not what she did. She went to college, earned her degree, and pursued her original dream of being a teacher - what she wanted to do before ever joining the military. She is now in the process of earning her Master's degree and a proud mom to a beautiful six-year-old little girl.

Sorry - she IS a HERO.

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Wednesday, 08 May, 2013
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