Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published April 2, 2003

Pfc. Jessica Lynch -- hero

What a spunky kid! Out of the mountains of West Virginia, she wanted to be a school teacher, but knew her parents could never afford to send her to college. So she decided the Army might help with an education. She wore combat boots beneath her formal gown at her high school homecoming dance, where she was named "Miss Congeniality."

By now we all know her story. Dreadful beginning, happy ending. The first U.S. POW to be rescued since World War II. Requests for book and movie rights are already pouring in. Anything she gets, she richly deserves.

But there are a couple of stories behind the headlines that deserve attention. Why was a 19-year-old, 105 pound, high school girl put in harm's way in the first place? That is a question that will haunt us parents and grandparents for years to come. It has something to do with the 1994 recommendation by the then Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, that the Pentagon's "Risk Rule," barring women from situations with a high risk of encountering enemy fire or capture, be revoked.

The bravery that made Private Lynch's rescue possible must be shared by many. But by none more than an Iraqi lawyer named Mohammad, hardly the stuff of heroes.

On Wednesday, March 19, Mohammad came to visit his wife, Iman, a nurse at the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriyah where Private Lynch was being held captive. There he walked past a window where he saw Lynch, head bandaged, broken arm in a sling, being repeatedly slapped by one of her four Fedayeen guards. Mohammad said, "My heart cut!" Disguised as a doctor, and escorted by a doctor friend, he said to Pvt. Lynch, "Good morning." And, "Don't worry." She smiled. He recalled, "She was very brave."

So lawyer Mohammad sent his wife and children to his father's home for safety, and began a 10 kilometer (6 mile) walk to the nearest forward U.S. Marine base on the outskirts of Nasiriyah, not knowing who might shoot him first, the Americans or the Iraqis.

Holding his hands high in the air, he approached the Marine base, and told them of the location of Private Lynch. They asked him to return the six miles, again on foot, and obtain more complete information on the hospital facility. Number of floors, layout of the stairs, guard emplacements, available space for a helicopter landing. He did.

As U.S. jets bombed the city, "I walked under bombs - boom, boom, fire, fire!" he recalled. But he returned to the Marine base the next day with detailed maps. Five detailed maps!

As they say, the rest is history. The Fedayeen raided Mohammed's home, taking away all his possessions, even his car. A neighbor was shot and killed, as an example of the fate that awaited him and his family. Mohammed is in U.S. protective custody, and has been offered safe passage and resettlement in the U.S. He has refused, preferring to stay and help rebuild a new and liberated Iraq.

And as for Pfc. Lynch, she has been reunited with her family at a medical facility in Germany.

She is well on her way to a full recovery, and is scheduled to be returned to Walter Reed General Hospital in Bethesda, MD, not too far from her home in Palestine, WV. Both major West Virginia colleges, the University of West Virginia in Charleston, and Marshall College in Huntington have offered her full educational scholarships all expenses paid. She'll make a great teacher!

So what's the lesson to be learned from this sad story with the happy ending? First of all, we have seen that bravery comes in all genders, sizes, skin colors and religions. Even lawyers! And secondly, isn't it time we took another look at what happens when female personnel are placed in a position to be killed, or perhaps even worse, captured? No one has asked for what purpose little Jessica Lynch was spared while all her male colleagues were killed on the spot. And I do hope the news reporters will have the decency not to ask. And for what virtue did she fight so fiercely that both her legs were fractured, one arm broken, one vertebrae cracked, and her head split? Maybe Private Lynch's experience will encourage President Bush to take a fresh look at reinstating the "Risk Rule" abolished by the executive order of his predecessor.

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Ed Wood is a resident of Sparta, TN. His column is published each Wednesday in the Crossville Chronicle. He can be contacted at edwd@blomand.net