Seven years after the rescue of Private Lynch
POW IN IRAQ | Still coping with pain from her injuries, she's delivering a message of hope
Seven years after Army Rangers swept in and carried former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, then an Army private, out of an Iraqi hospital, the young woman says the ordeal still haunts her.
"I have nightmares on a regular basis," Lynch said during a recent phone interview, her quiet, girlish voice sometimes disappearing behind a request for attention from her 3-year-old daughter, Dakota Ann.
(Getty Images)
Now Lynch is giving back, speaking on behalf of the Fisher House Foundation, which operates free, temporary "comfort homes" for families of injured veterans on 18 military installations and 15 VA medical centers in 13 states, including Illinois.
On May 28, a new Fisher House will be officially dedicated on the campus of Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital, near west suburban Maywood. The $5.7 million facility, which began serving families in March, has 20 bedroom suites. A local, two-year fund-raising campaign, led by DMS Pharmaceutical Group Inc. of Park Ridge, helped raise $600,000, said Betty Stamatis, president of Friends of Fisher House-Illinois.
Among its services, Hines provides care for spinal cord injuries, helps rehab service members who have lost their sight, tries to relieve post-traumatic stress disorders and rehabilitates those with severe injuries to multiple organs.
Fisher House is "based on the premise that a family's love is good medicine," said Stamatis.
She noted that as the victims of war are being taught how to adjust to their new lives, families must also learn. For example, as blind vets need to adjust to the loss of sight, the families must learn to create homes that are blind-friendly.
Since 1990, more than 130,000 families have stayed in Fisher House facilities, which are similar to Ronald McDonald Houses. They are named after Zachary Fisher, a New York real estate investor and philanthropist, and are the brainchild of Pauline Trost, whose husband, Adm. Carlisle Trost, was chief of naval operations under President Ronald Reagan.
Earlier this year, President Obama announced that Fisher House is among 10 charities he is contributing to from his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize award. Obama is donating $250,000 to Fisher House.
"I dream of people chasing me through the woods and trying to kill me."
Still, she says, "I don't mentally let it get to me. It's just something I live with every day. More than anything, I consider myself blessed because of my baby and the fact I made it out alive."
Lynch -- now 27 and involved in veterans causes -- had been held captive for nine days when rescued, an event that thrust her into a worldwide spotlight because of early -- and erroneous -- government depictions of her as a Rambo-like fighter and the televised rescue raid that followed.
The lingering effects of the physical injuries she suffered in the early days of the Iraq war are everyday reminders of the day in April 2003 when her convoy was attacked after making a wrong turn in Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Her best friend, Lori Ann Piestewa, and 10 other soldiers died in the attack. Lynch, who suffered multiple injuries, and five others were captured.
Lynch now lives in Elizabeth, W.Va., and is planning her wedding. She also has become a speaker on behalf of the Fisher House program, which provides free housing for families whose loved ones are being treated in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals.
A former Army supply clerk, Lynch became internationally known after her capture and rescue -- and after military officials, in widely circulated reports early in the war, initially described her fighting back fiercely after the ambush. Lynch has maintained she never fired her weapon and was knocked unconscious during the attack.
Today, she remains in pain from her injuries -- a crushed right foot, metal rods in her right humerus, left femur and left tibia, a metal cage supporting her spine, and nerve damage that has affected her bladder and bowel. She uses a brace on her foot and continues to undergo physical therapy, but she said those things do not define her life today.
She is attending classes in elementary education at West Virginia University. She also speaks to groups -- some as large as 50,000 people -- across the country several times a month.
Elementary students she has spoken to have read about her in class.
"The first time I realized that, I thought, 'My goodness. I'm in the history books.' "
Some people still want to believe in what she calls the "fabrication" that she engaged in Rambo-style heroics, she said. Rather than focusing on her past, she said, the message she tries to convey is one of hope: "Persevere. You have the power to overcome. It is within you."
How The Presstitutes Lie To America
Example: How The Press Has Become A Tool Of Our Government
The following article entitled, She was 'fighting to the death ...' states,
She was 'fighting to the death ...'
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.
Lynch, 19, a supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die in fighting 11 days ago, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy took a wrong turn in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
"She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."
Lynch was stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in on her position, the official said, noting that initial intelligence reports indicated that she had been stabbed to death.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5548808.htm
The Reality was quite different as revealed in this report.
Rescued POW had no gunshot, knife wounds: father
WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 03, 2003
The father of rescued POW Jessica Lynch said Thursday she suffered no gunshot or knife wounds at the hands of her Iraqi assailants, contrary to reports quoting a US official.
http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030403213949.0bsaiduj.html
While the first article is clearly a complete fabrication attributed to "official sources" it is convincing evidence of how our journalists have prostituted themselves and become a part of the propaganda machine, employed to lie and distort the truth.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten