Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (6090)	4/5/2003 11:01:16 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Respond to of 12231

Gifts and Offers for Book Deals Arrive at Rescued Private's House April 5, 2003 By JAYSON BLAIR with MARK LANDLER PALESTINE, W.Va., April 4 - As Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was freed from captivity in Iraq on Tuesday, had more surgery today at an American military hospital in Germany, the gifts, care packages and book deal offers began to arrive here at her parent's house in Appalachia. Private Lynch, 19, whose injuries include two broken legs, a broken right ankle and foot and a broken right arm, has become the latest American hero since her rescue from the Iraqi hospital where she was held for nine days after her unit had been ambushed. "Saving Private Lynch," one relative joked about the name of a potential book or movie deal in a reference to "Saving Private Ryan," the award-winning 1998 film about a team of soldiers during D-Day. Family members said today that they had received telephone calls and packages from Hollywood producers and New York book agents, but instead focused more on Private Lynch's health and whether her injuries would interfere with her Army career. "We are just small-town country people with simple aspirations," her father, Gregory Lynch Sr., said . Private Lynch, a supply clerk, was rescued by Navy Seals and Army Rangers at the hospital in Nasiriya more than a week after a convoy from her unit, the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, was attacked by Iraqi forces after making a wrong turn. Twelve other soldiers in the convoy have been listed as prisoners of war or missing in action. In the rescue, the special operations forces found nine bodies believed to be those of American soldiers. The bodies were flown to the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., for identification. Private Lynch's role in the firefight after the ambush, her capture and the rescue has raised questions about the role of women in the military and raised the spirits of many at a time when concerns about the war effort were rising. Instead of book deals, the family focused on Private Lynch's health and questions about her capture and rescue. "We still have some questions, but we are just focused on Jessi's health right now," Mr. Lynch said outside the family's tin-roofed wood-framed home in this tiny town. Mr. Lynch said he was "truly grateful" to the Iraqi lawyer, who, military officials said, tipped them off about where his elder daughter was being held. The man, whom military officials have identified only by his first name, Muhammad, was shown Private Lynch under Iraqi military guard. Muhammad was shown the soldier by a friend who was a doctor at the hospital, her relatives said today. Mr. Lynch said if he ever met Muhammad that "he would get a world of hugs out of that heroic deal." The commander of the hospital at Landstuhl, Col. David A. Rubinstein, said at a briefing today that Private Lynch, who also has a head laceration, had not been shot or stabbed. "The most recent evaluations by our staff do not suggest that any of her wounds were caused by either gunshots or stabbing injuries," Colonel Rubinstein said. He did not say whether the injuries were sustained in captivity or in the rescue. "We don't know at what point they were received," he said. Private Lynch is speaking to military officials at Landstuhl, though the sessions have not delved into the details of her treatment by her captors. She still spends much of her day asleep or in the operating room. Colonel Rubinstein said Private Lynch would require intensive physical therapy after her injuries had healed. But doctors said they believed that her prognosis was excellent. No date has been set for her return to the United States. It is not clear that Private Lynch understands the magnitude of her celebrity. She does not have a television set in her room, and the staff zealously guards access. A book agent from New York who has contacted the Lynch family but does not want to be named for competitive reasons, said: "This has the makings of an amazing story that could not only make them rich, but make me rich." The "symbolic importance of her rescue is not only an amazing story, but it single-handily turned around the mood of the war." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company.