# Was Jessica Lynch the only POW? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169 "2003-08-28T12:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/1 "2003-08-28T12:06:22Z")
I am curious to know if Jessica Lynch was the only POW in this recent war? If no, why is she getting so much attention? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/2 "2003-08-28T12:19:31Z")
No, there were several other Americans taken prisoner by Iraqi forces during the war. See, for example, [American POWs Seized in Iraq](http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/032403_nw_iraq_pows.html) (from the website of a San Francisco-area ABC affiliate). ---
**Author:** ![Zahava424](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/76d3ee/32.png) [@Zahava424](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zahava424)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/3 "2003-08-29T04:41:49Z")
Watch the movie Wag the Dog. Every war needs a hero. Jessica Lynch has a good story, she’s young, strong, patriotic… easy to sell. She’s negotiating a TV movie deal, for god’s sake. She’s PR in a can. That’s why she’s getting so much attention. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/4 "2003-08-29T05:02:25Z")
She’s also female, few of whom have ever been POWs. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/5 "2003-08-29T05:15:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*She’s also female, few of whom have ever been POWs. \*\* The world seems to have forgotten about [Shoshana Johnson,](http://www.sacobserver.com/news/063003/shoshana_johnson.shtml) who endured far worse treatment than Lynch. > [@](#): > > Johnson was shot twice and endured weeks of harsh captivity. She was one of those paraded before Iraqi cameras, with films shown around the world. Her face, wan with fear, was burned into the memories of people everywhere. She virtually disappeared after her return to the United States. > > \ > > Three weeks after Lynch’s rescue, Johnson emerged with her fellow soldiers, hobbling to the rescue helicopter, suffering from bullet wounds in her ankles. Rumors of her bravery never surfaced. Declarations of how she fought off her attackers were never reported. Tales of her bravery were never told. There were no documentaries with smiling former schoolteachers and friends with stories of her ambitious youth. Just as during her weeks of captivity, Johnson seemed to have disappeared. Though it appears that Shoshana’s story is more compelling, cute, blond Jessica Lynch gets the book deal and the parades. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/6 "2003-08-30T05:44:52Z")
I was going to say the exact same thing as Lissa, but it’s already been said. Actually, the entire Jessica Lynch story sort of put me off the war news feed. Just because she is Pretty and Blond makes her the girl next door that The Terrorists are trying to defile. It’s media induced silliness and completely idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/7 "2003-08-30T06:39:45Z")
Was Jessica ever technically a POW? ---
**Author:** ![culov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@culov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/culov)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/8 "2003-08-30T08:09:26Z")
shes a blonde, innocent, woman from middle america. perfect exploit for the propaganda machine. i, and many people who can think for themselves, fail to see why she is the hero of the war. [The truth](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,956255,00.html) [if anyone, this guy deserves the respect.](http://www.rense.com/general39/private.htm) ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/9 "2003-08-30T08:12:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoe \* > \*\*Was Jessica ever technically a POW? \*\* Yes, in that she was held captive by enemy forces as an enemy combatant “prisoner of war”. She was the “silver lining” to the Iraqi “liberation”. As stated previously, her story was created and exploited by the administration to cast a good light on the operation. What better story than a rural girl from a town that nobody has heard of, getting abducted and then rescued by an elite special forces team tasked specifically for her rescue, and delivering “America’s sweetheart” to the waiting eyes of the media? What a bunch of crap! Cannot everyone see through this? PR campaign writ large! See, America, there are good things happening here…here’s sentimental proof. Eat it up losers. If the mods care to read this thread, they will surely notice that it has become political (my fault) I will now stop being political and say that YES Jessica Lynch Was a POW, then she was released. There have been several other POW’s in this engagement, nobody apparently cares who they are. They are not media icons. Factual? I think. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Friendly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr\_Friendly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Friendly)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/10 "2003-08-30T11:36:46Z")
Oceania was at war with Euarasia and had always been at war with Eurasia. What I dont get is why everyone can ignore the simple fact that this woman isnt a hero. It was made up. The Iraqis tried to give her back for godsake! madness. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/11 "2003-08-30T12:19:12Z")
Big inconsistancies: 1. Jessica said she didn’t remember much of what happened after the vehicle collision. 2. Everyone in her unit but her was killed. 3. Hi, Opal. 4. One day after being rescued, this big story of how she fought to the last bullet, was captured, then tortured in the hospital came out. Who exactly relayed this story to the media? ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/12 "2003-08-30T13:46:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jinx \* > \*\*I am curious to know if Jessica Lynch was the only POW in this recent war? If no, why is she getting so much attention? - Jinx \*\* IIRC, she’s the first POW to be retrieved from behind enemy lines since WWII. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/13 "2003-08-30T14:55:23Z")
There is no doubt that the story of grand heroism on Jessica’s behalf is now proving false. She was thought to be dead in the Humvee along with the 3 other passengers. One of the other POWs who was captured at the same scene after actually putting up an incredible fight reported seeing her bleeding and immobile save for a twitching foot which he thought was analogous to the way a chicken twitches after being decapitated. That same soldier went on to save the lives of all of the Americans who had been caught in the accident/ambush by picking off no fewer than a half-dozen Iraqis who were preparing to mortar the American position. So what was special? First, Jessica Lynch was alone during her confinement. That’s the first point in her favor in terms of making her case special. The other POWs were kept in the same building, though Shoshana Johnson was held separately (once the Iraqis realized that she was female) until their Iraqi captors felt that the American forces were getting too close for comfort. Second, the other POWs whereabouts were completely unknown to the US military command. They reported that they were all legitimately afraid that as their liberators took the compound where they were held, they might end up victims of friendly fire because the buildings were being attacked and the walls and ceilings of the room where they were held were shaking and crumbling around them. Conversely, Ms. Lynch’s whereabouts became known to the US military via one of the doctors who worked at the hospital who took on some aspect of personal risk to get the information to our forces. (Has any part of that story, about the three late night excursions with notes about an “American soldier girl” and all, ever been debunked?) That was unusual and undoubtedly hastened her retrieval and removal from Iraqi soil and updated medical treatment. The other POWs were rescued in the midst of a conventional military effort, but setting her case apart again, the removal op which took Jessica out was a joint force (Army and Marine) covert operation under cover of night. Those particulars – along with the embellishments which seem to have been media creations that were based upon initial misinformation from the military spokespeople – created the Jessica Lynch Story which has been played out on all of TV screens. Ms. Lynch received her honorable discharge this week, leaving her free to pursue media deals for her story. _However_ she hasn’t spoken to anyone in the media about what she experienced, and at last report still has little or no memory of most of what she endured. Her family, in their appearances at press conferences while she was in the hospital in Germany, did not seem at all media savvy. If her “story” is going to be told in film or book form any time soon, I’d imagine that it wouldn’t be with too much cooperation from Ms. Lynch. I don’t think that she has too much firsthand story to tell, at least not about the meat of what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Illiniwek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e495f1/32.png) [@Illiniwek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illiniwek)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/14 "2003-08-30T18:04:06Z")
I guess that settles it! ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/15 "2003-08-30T18:08:25Z")
I will certainly agree that Pfc. Jessica Lynch’s actions may not have been the same as those attributed to her early in the affair, but let’s not vilainize her for it. To her credit, others have been making the extroirdinary claims about her, not herself. Hopefully, the public will come to understand the terrible burden carried by all POW’s from this and other conflicts, and the heroism of people such as the Private identified in Culov’s link, Pfc. Walters. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2003, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-jessica-lynch-the-only-pow/198169/16 "2003-08-30T20:45:35Z")
Yeah, it’s not fair to criticize Lynch for this; she was just a pawn in a massive media orgy. The villains are the media and the Pentagon. BTW, I suggest that everyone read **culov’s** second link. Apparently, the heroics attributed to Lynch (ie, standing up against the Iraqis alone, fighting 'till she ran out of ammo) were actually committed by this other guy. He’s the one who got stab wounds and bullet wounds. He died, however, so credit for his actions got shifted to Lynch. Also, he was going one-on-one with the Iraqis because the rest of his unit had forgotten about him and left him behind!