Regarding PFC Jessica Lynch- the injuries she sustained during her ambush and imprisonment are severe enough to end her career in the Army (two broken legs, numerous other broken bones, etc.), and she is being sent home, where two West Virginia Universities are lining up to offer her a free education (sorry, no cite, but anyone who wants to confirm this can easily look it up on google).
As for the other POW’s that were rescued a couple of days ago, this story states that they are all going home, although none of the captives appear to have suffered severe enough injuries to end their careers.
I understand the idea of sending home POW’s to recuperate, visit their families, etc. But is this standard practice in the armed forces nowadays? Are you given the opportunity to take an honorable discharge if you are taken POW and then freed?
The U.S. armed forces considers the possibility of becoming a POW twice unacceptable, and does send all recovered POW’s to non-combat positions out of the area of conflict. There is no policy regarding discharge, but I imagine if one asked one could get out of the armed forces early.
Policy is that escaped (or rescued) POWs will not be exposed to the possibility of being captured by the same enemy twice.
Interesting possible loophole, Paul, or did you mean to type, “Being captured by the same enemy twice”? Is it theoretically possible that they could be captured by a different enemy, by being sent to, I dunno, Syria or Iran or North Korea or Somalia or Bosnia or Grenada or wherever?
I mean, are they kept in non-combat positions for the rest of their military careers, or just for the duration of the current Iraq war? And if some other global hotspot heats up, they could be sent into combat there?