As featured speaker at Thursday’s Symbol of Freedom lunch, Jessica Lynch expanded the scope of the annual event. The former U.S. Army soldier, who was held as a prisoner of war by Iraqi forces, represented a symbol of perseverance.
Lynch was wounded and knocked unconscious when her convoy was ambushed on March 23, 2003. The fight left 13 of her comrades dead. After nine days in captivity, the badly injured 19-year-old was rescued in a special-operations mission.
More than 12 years later, she’s still dealing with injuries that left her “a broken soldier from head to toe,” as Lynch told the audience at the Hilton Vancouver Washington.
But, as Lynch also told the crowd, she perseveres.
“My path might not have been the one I’d have chosen,” Lynch said after recounting the injuries, her captivity and her subsequent nightmares. “But all of it occurred, and I traveled it with perseverance.”
It was a message that resonated with the people who gathered to support CDM Caregiving Services, a nonprofit that benefits from the annual Symbol of Freedom fundraiser. The Vancouver-based agency provides care for the elderly and disabled. It’s clients face challenges and obstacles every day, and many of them are veterans.
Lynch retraced her military career back to the 9/11 era, when she joined the Army. She was hoping to earn veteran’s benefits that would help her go to college and achieve her long-term goal: to become a kindergarten teacher.
And, like many young people, she wanted to see the world. But Lynch was not figuring on Iraq: “I was hoping for Hawaii.”
Lynch recalled boarding a plane and heading for basic training.
“A backpack strap broke, hit me in the eye and knocked out a contact lens,” Lynch said. “I had never flown before, it was a week after 9/11, and I couldn’t see out of one eye.”
Her unit was sent to Kuwait in February 2003, then rolled into Iraq on March 20 and got lost. The navigational system failed, the commander couldn’t read the map, and the convoy wound up surrounded by Iraqis. She heard a gunshot. Then a second gunshot. And then it became a full-fledged firefight, with rocket-propelled grenades hitting the convoy and setting vehicles ablaze.
Lynch was one of five soldiers in a Humvee driven by her best friend, Pfc. Lori Piestewa. It was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into a stalled truck.
“I was essentially the only survivor,” Lynch said. “The three men were shot and killed. Lori hit her head on the steering wheel on impact.”
The two women were taken prisoner, although Piestewa died within a few hours.
“Lori struggled to survive as they beat and raped her,” Lynch said. “She died lying next to me.”
An Iraqi surgeon removed a bone from one of Lynch’s legs, replacing it with a metal rod — triggering a massive infection.
Eventually, military officials got word of her situation, and were able to “pinpoint my whereabouts,” Lynch said after her formal presentation.
She was rescued on April 1, 2003. It was described as the first successful rescue of an American POW since World War II.
Since then, she has had 20 operations, and is facing still more, including surgery on her right foot and a knee replacement. Right now, “I’m still in physical therapy,” Lynch said. The goal is to correct what can be corrected before resorting to surgery.
Lynch’s perseverance has paid off in another area. Lynch has found a way to balance her busy schedule as a speaker with her original career goal. After she earned a degree in elementary education, “I do substitute teaching,” she said.
