Jessica Lynch

-          Born April 26,1983 in Palestine, West Virginia (USA)

-          Served in Iraq during the invasion in 2003.

-          19 years old when captured by the Iraq forces.

Jessica Lynch. Perhaps the most well-known soldier from the Iraq war. She became involved in an incident in 2003, an incident which made her famous. But exactly what happened during that incident? After being presented like a heroine, the story told by the government was put into question. Why was this the case? What was wrong with the story? What truly happened? Hopefully you’ll find some answer to these questions by reading this.

Official story

According to the official story released by the U. S government, Jessica and her unit were taking fire under a mission. Eleven American soldiers were killed and four others were captured by the attacking Iraqis. Jessica Lynch fired all her ammo and killed several enemies before she was captured. The four surviving soldiers were brought to a local hospital close to where the fighting took place.

A large mission was arranged to rescue Jessica Lynch and the other soldiers. Due to the fact that she was being tortured and held as prisoner the American forces stormed the hospital with heavy equipment. The American soldiers fought their way to Jessica Lynch. Jessica Lynch was put in a helicopter and flown away to a hospital. Back in the U. S she was welcomed as a heroine.

Jessica`s story

Jessica Lynch was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Prisoner of War Medal. And after what she did, she truly deserved every single one of them – or at least, that would be the case if the story was true. After the official story was released, contradictions started appearing. In fact, Lynch herself rejected the official story. She claimed that she was not the hero that she had been portrayed as. She did not keep fighting until she ran out of ammo, she did not keep fighting after being shot; in fact she wasn’t even hit by gunshots at all. Firing her weapon wasn’t even an option as it had jammed. The story further continued to crumble as information was released from the hospital, where she had been kept. According to this information, the rescue mission had not involved the intense combat as previously told, but was closer to a staged raid in a civilian environment. The other soldiers, who were kept at the hospital as well, had already been released the day before she was rescued and Lynch had actually been offered the same as well. Finally, leaked medical information confirmed that she hadn’t been shot during the combat.

Why would the government make up this kind of story?

That leaves us with two different stories. One from the Government portraying Lynch as a heroine, who was kept as a prisoner, and another one showing what might actually have happened. Something is clearly not right here. Why would the government make up this kind of story? The war in Iraq was unpopular. The soldiers were not being recognized and supported by their fellow Americans. The government needed to do something about it. They needed something to make their soldiers look like heroes. And that’s when Jessica Lynch was attacked. This gave the government exactly what they had needed: An opportunity to create a story about a heroine.

Anders, Hussam, Esben & Simon