Jessica Lynch

Private First Class Jessica Lynch of the U.S. Army was injured after her crew was ambushed and captured by Iraqi forces in the initial stages of the Iraq War. She was the first woman POW rescued in American history, and the first person to be rescued from behind enemy lines since World War II.

Fast Facts

1. Born: April 26, 1983 in Palestine, West Virginia
2. Captured: March 23, 2003
3. Rescued: April 2, 2003
4. Years of service in the U.S. Military: 2001-2003
5. Received a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and a Prisoner of War Medal
6. Was granted an honorable discharge from the Army in 2003
7. On April 24, 2007, Lynch testified before a House committee investigating the Pentagon's public representation of the Iraq War

Heroics

The account of Lynch's rescue was controversial at the time and has since become the subject of an official Congressional inquiry. She has denied the heroics she was initially praised of, saying that she never fired a weapon, only that she was knocked out on impact of the crash before she was captured and then taken to an Iraqi hospital. During the incident, eleven of Lynch's comrades were killed and she suffered nerve damage, spinal fractures and a shattered arm, foot and leg.

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