You may be interested to know that 19-year old PFC Jessica Lynch, the
American prisoner of war recently rescued in Iraq, is a former FFA
member from West Virginia.
A copy of a New York Times article about the rescue and mentioning FFA
can be found below.
More information about Jessica, along with a contact address for sending
letters and cards of encouragement, will be posted on the National FFA
website shortly. Please share with us any other news about Jessica you
may have.
Many thanks,
Bill Stagg
Team Leader
Marketing & Communication Services
National FFA Organization
P.O. Box 68960
Indianapolis, IN 46268-0960
317-802-6060
[log in to unmask]
Commandos Rescue P.O.W. and Locate
Bodies
By JOHN M. BRODER
OHA, Qatar, April 2 - American Special Operations forces today rescued
Pfc. Jessica Lynch of the Army from Nasiriya, Iraq, where she had been
held captive since March 23.
Private Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W. Va., was found in the Saddam Hospital
in Nasiriya, which was also being used as an Iraqi military facility, a
Central Command official said.
Today a videotape of her rescue by Special Operations and marine units
was shown at a news briefing conducted by the official, Brig. Gen. Vince
Brooks. The general said Private Lynch is receiving medical care at an
American military facility in the region, but he would not give any details
on her condition or the location of where she is being treated.
General Brooks also said today that the remains of two people had been
found in the Saddam Hospital morgue and those of nine others in a grave
site outside Nasiriya.
No identification has been made, General Brooks said, but additional
forensic tests are being carried out. He added that an Iraqi official captured
at the hospital led American forces to the bodies.
Another Central Command spokesman, Capt. Frank Thorp of the Navy,
said "we have reason to believe" some of the bodies might be those of
Americans.
Private Lynch was one of 15 members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance
Company, which was attacked by Iraqi forces after taking a wrong turn off
a highway in southern-central Iraq as American troops advanced toward
Nasiriya on the first Sunday of the war.
"Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S.
Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq," General Brooks, Central
Command's deputy director of operations, said early this morning. "The
soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area."
General Brooks gave no further details. It was not clear whether the
Special Operations forces had to engage Iraqi combatants to rescue the
American soldier.
The Central Command official confirmed that the rescued soldier was
Private Lynch and said he believed she was not being held with other
American soldiers when she was recovered.
An Army official said tonight that Private Lynch had several gunshot
wounds. The rescue mission was launched at about midnight Iraqi time. It
had been planned for the past several days after American intelligence
learned where Private Lynch was being held. The operation was kept secret
from all but a handful of top Central Command officers and members of
the Special Operations forces who conducted the raid, the official said. The
operation was recorded on videotape by a member of the rescue team, and
the tape may be shown later today, the official added.
The 507th, which is based in Texas and attached in Iraq to the Third
Infantry Division, is a rear-guard unit of mechanics and other support
personnel who keep the Army's heavy machinery rolling forward.
Military officials said shortly after the ambush that Private Lynch's convoy
had come under attack from two Iraqi T-55 tanks and a company-size unit
of foot soldiers believed to be among the fedayeen irregulars, not Iraqi
Army troops, which mounted attacks on advancing allied troops beginning
that weekend.
Until tonight Private Lynch had been listed as missing in action because
her status and location within Iraq were said to be unknown. She was not
among the seven American soldiers - including five from the 507th -
formally listed as prisoners of war. The five terrified members of the
maintenance unit were shown on Iraqi television and then on the Arab
satellite network Al Jazeera television shortly after their capture.
Seven other members of the company are still listed as missing in action.
Two - Specialist Jamaal R. Addison, 22, of Roswell, Ga., and Pfc. Howard
Johnson II, 21, of Mobile, Ala. - have been confirmed as dead.
United States forces last week found four bodies of what appeared to be
American soldiers in Nasiriya. A mortuary team has been sent to the area
and is trying to determine whether they were among the missing members
of the maintenance company. Central Command officials said they
presumed they were, but the bodies have not been formally identified.
Private Lynch, who has said she hopes to be an elementary school teacher,
played softball and basketball at Wirt County High School in Elizabeth, W.
Va., and was a member of the Future Farmers of America. Her father,
Gregory Lynch, said shortly after her disappearance that she was eager to
serve in the Persian Gulf.
"She said: `We need to do it. I'm not afraid to do it,' " her father said after
learning that she was missing.
Her older brother, Gregory, is a member of the National Guard based in
Fort Bragg, N.C. Private Lynch enlisted through the Army's delayed-entry
program before graduating from high school in 2001.
United States marines have conducted extensive operations in the Nasiriya
area to find the missing and captured members of the maintenance unit.
They were apparently joined by Special Operations forces that have been
operating throughout Iraq on a variety of missions. They are highly trained
in what are known as "extraction" operations intended not only to rescue
captured American service members but also to capture Iraqis.
Jim Wilkinson, a Central Command spokesman, said that American forces
would continue to try to rescue other captured troops.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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Frank B. Flanders, EdD
Agricultural Education
University of Georgia
216 Four Towers Building
Athens, GA   30602
706 542 9043
FAX 706 542 9602
Map to Four Towers: http://aged.ces.uga.edu/four_towers.pdf
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