Jessica Dawn Lynch (born April 26, 1983) is an American teacher, actress, and former United States Army soldier who served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a private first class.
On March 23, 2003, she was serving as a unit supply specialist with the 507th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi troops during the Battle of Nasiriyah; Lynch was seriously injured during the offensive and captured by Iraqi soldiers shortly afterwards. Her subsequent recovery by U.S. special operations forces on April 1, 2003, received considerable media coverage as it was the first successful rescue of an American prisoner of war since World War II and the first ever of a woman.
Initial official reports on Lynch's capture and rescue in Iraq were incorrect. On April 24, 2007, she testified in front of United States Congress that she had never fired her weapon (her M16 rifle reportedly having jammed), and that she had been knocked unconscious when her vehicle crashed during the ambush. Lynch has been outspoken in her criticism of the original stories that were reported regarding her combat experience. When asked about her heroine status, she stated: "That wasn't me. I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do... I'm just a survivor."
In 2014, Lynch made her acting debut as specialist Summer L. Gabriel in the 2014 film Virtuous. Her role was loosely based on her own experiences during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Lynch was born on April 26, 1983 in Palestine, West Virginia, the second child and first daughter to Deidre Lynch and Gregory Lynch, Sr. Her family could not afford to send her to college; her older brother had to drop out for financial reasons as well. Searching for a way to pay for the children's education, the Lynch family met with an army recruiter in the summer of 2000 when Lynch was seventeen and still in high school. "He did not lie to the kids," her mother said, "he said there was always the possibility of war in the future." "But at that time it was before September 11, and there was no terrorism," Lynch recalls, "so we were like, 'that would never happen to me.' " On September 19, 2001, Lynch entered basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She later completed Advanced Individual Training for her Military Occupational Specialty as a unit supply specialist (MOS 92Y) in the Quartermaster Corps at Fort Lee, Virginia.
On March 23, 2003, a convoy of the United States Army's 507th Maintenance Company and the 3rd Combat Support Battalion elements, led by a Humvee driven by Lori Piestewa, was heading towards Baghdad. Several vehicles experienced mechanical problems, and the company fell hours behind. As a result, the company missed a turn and headed into territory controlled by Iraqi forces near Al Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.
Lynch, then a supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss, Texas, was wounded and captured by Iraqi forces. She was initially listed as missing in action. Eleven other soldiers in the company were killed in the ambush. Five other soldiers were captured and subsequently rescued 21 days later. Lynch's best friend, Lori Piestewa, received a serious head wound and died in an Iraqi civilian hospital.
A video of some of the American prisoners of war, including Piestewa, was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television. Later, footage was discovered of both Lynch and Piestewa at an Iraqi hospital before the latter died.
After some time in the custody of the Iraqi army regiment that had captured her, Lynch was taken to a hospital in Nasiriyah. US forces were tipped off as to Lynch's whereabouts by an Iraqi, who told them she had been tortured and injured but was still alive. The Iraqi was described as a 32-year-old lawyer, initially described only as "Mohammed" and later identified as Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief. In light of Mohammed's role in Lynch's rescue, he and his family were granted asylum by the United States.
Initial reports indicated that al Rehaief's wife was a nurse in the hospital where Lynch was being held captive, and that while visiting his wife at the hospital, al Rehaief noticed that security was heightened and inquired as to why. However, hospital personnel later confirmed only part of al Rehaief's story, indicating that while al Rehaief had indeed visited the hospital, his wife was not a nurse there. While visiting the hospital from which Lynch was eventually extracted, al Rehaief also claimed that he had observed an Iraqi colonel slapping Lynch. "My heart stopped", said al Rehaief, "I knew then I must help her be saved. I decided I must go to tell the Americans."
Al Rehaief's story has been disputed by doctors working at the hospital, who say that Lynch was shielded and protected from Iraqi military personnel by hospital staff and was treated well throughout her stay at the hospital. Lynch's own story concurs with these accounts, saying that she was treated humanely, with a nurse even singing to her.
Moreover, according to reports, on March 30, Harith Al-Houssona, a doctor in the Nasiriyah hospital, reportedly attempted to have Lynch delivered to the U.S. forces, an attempt which had to be abandoned when the Americans fired on the Iraqi ambulance carrying her.
According to al Rehaief's version of the events leading up to Lynch's rescue, he walked six miles to a US Marine checkpoint to inform American forces that he knew where Lynch was being held. After talking with the Marines, al Rehaief was then sent back to the hospital to gather more information, which was used to plan Lynch's rescue. Allegedly, al Rehaief returned to the checkpoint with five different maps of the hospital and the details of the security layout, reaction plan, and shift changes.
The US military reportedly learned of Lynch's location from several informants, one of whom was al Rehaief.
On April 1, 2003, U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion 4th Marines, 2nd Battalion 8th Marines and 2nd Battalion 1st Marines, as well as members from the Navy SEALs under the command of the U.S. Army, staged a diversionary attack, besieging nearby Iraqi irregulars to draw them away from Saddam Hospital (now named the Imam Hussein Teaching Hospital) in Nasiriyah. Meanwhile, an element from the Joint Special Operations Task Force 121 composed of U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets), Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs), Army Rangers, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) and Delta Force launched a nighttime raid on the hospital, and successfully retrieved Lynch and the bodies of eight other American soldiers.
According to certain accounts of doctors present during the raid, they were gathered into groups at gunpoint and treated as possible hostiles until they could be identified as being hospital staff. Many military and Special Operations Forces experts have defended the tactics of the operators who led the raid, saying that Special Operations Forces teams are trained to expect the worst and move quickly, initially treating each person they encounter as a possible threat. Additionally, the doctors stated that the Iraqi military had left the hospital the day before, and that no one in the hospital had offered any resistance to the American forces during the raid.
One witness account claimed that the Special Operations Forces had foreknowledge that the Iraqi military had fled a day before they raided the hospital, and that the entire event was staged, even going so far as to use blanks to create the appearance that they were firing. The use of blanks was disputed by weapons experts who pointed out that there was no sign of blank adapters being used on the weapons of those who appeared in the video of the raid.
In the initial press briefing on April 2, 2003, the Pentagon released a five-minute video of the rescue and claimed that Lynch had stab and bullet wounds, and that she had been slapped while on her hospital bed and interrogated.