Spinning and Counter-Spinning Jessica Lynch and Lynndie England

Abstract

On March 23, 2003, near the town of Nasiriyah, Iraq, the 507th Maintenance Company, an American mechanics unit carrying supplies to the front lines, lost its way and was attacked by Iraqi soldiers. Eleven American soldiers were killed and five were taken prisoner. Among the soldiers captured was 19-year-old PFC Jessica Lynch from Palestine, West Virginia. Lynch was rescued on April 1 by a Coalition task force, which set up a diversionary action on the other side of Nasiriyah, as the rescuers stormed into the hospital where Lynch was held and carried her off in the first successful rescue of an American Prisoner of War (POW) since World War II. Lynch was then sent to Germany for medical assessment and treatment, and later transferred to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for three months of further treatment and therapy; she was given a hero’s welcome in her home town of Palestine, West Virginia, on July 22, 2003, and the army awarded her the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Prisoner of War Medal.