I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story

Only Rick Bragg's skill as a journalist keeps this from being a total car wreck. The story of Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old small-town girl captured in the early days of the Iraqi war, is ultimately a story composed of equal parts bathos and outrage.

Lynch, who grew up in a blue-collar family in West Virginia, followed many of her friends and classmates into the military,and for the same reason -- it promised a path out of the hollers, money for college, and a chance to see the world. Buried in the small print was the reality that soldiers sometimes go to war, and the promise of a clerical job stateside isn't always kept.

How Jessica and her companions ended up in a brutal firefight in an Iraqi city they had been specifically warned to show more avoid, with equipment that refused to function and communications that failed, is the story of incompetence, carelessness, and criminal unpreparedness. Captured, brutalized, dumped near death on the doorstep of an Iraqi hospital, Jessica was ultimately the subject of a rescue mission that caught the imagination of the world and whose methods and later promotion only later began to be questioned.

Again, Bragg is a professional journalist (as well as a hell of a writer), and he never lets the story slant off the straight and narrow. But neither does he gloss over the fact that mistakes, miscalculations, and negligence by Jessica's superior officers led to the death of seven of her companions and the wounding of eleven more.

Early on, as the background of Jessica's early life is spun out, the book drags somewhat, picking up only with the events leading up to her capture, bouncing back and forth between Iraq and West Virginia. The balance of the book, outlining her rescue, recovery, and return home, are actually more compelling than the battle scenes, and even harder to forget or dismiss.

It's an honest and thoughtful book that digs deep into the heart of America and takes a hard look at what we really ask of our children in times of conflict. show less

This was very well written. I would have given it 5 stars, but since the book was written there has been some controversy about some of the untruths in the story of her capture, that were manufactured by the author.

While I was browsing the nonfiction section at the library I saw this book on the shelf, thought about how long ago Jessica Lynch was rescued from an Iraqi hospital. Back in 2003 we had tv feed and remember when breaking news interrupted the broadcast to report the rescue.

The story at the time reported Lynch's fierce fighting, her capture and the dramatic rescue by our elite military forces. In this book Lynch sets the record straight about how her injuries occurred. She dispelled the stories which called her the "Rambo of the hills of West Virginia" when in fact, she never fired her gun as it jammed.

She was gravely injured by Iraqis and it's amazing she survived at all.

From the book: "Medical records show what happened in the three show more hours missing from Jessie‘s memory. Her right arm was shattered between her shoulder and her elbow, a compound fracture, slivers of bone through muscles, nerves and skin, leaving her right hand useless. Her spine was fractured in two places causing nerve damage. This left her unable to control her kidneys and bowels. Her left leg was broken into pieces above and below the knee. Also compound fracture and splintered bone that made a mess of the nerves, and left her without feeling in the limb. "

And yet there was still more damage, both physically and mentally. It wasn't known if she suffered the beatings from rifle butts and kicking before or after she was raped, nor clear why she alone was not killed immediately. Theory is she was a blonde green eyed female which could be used for propaganda purposes.

At the hospital she was taken care of best they could with the equipment and supplies they possessed. She wouldn't eat anything but crackers and juice, and only if they opened it in front of her, for fear of being drugged and unable to fight to save her leg. At one point the doctors wanted to amputate a leg as it was so badly damaged.

Jessica Lynch weighed 76 pounds by the time she was rescued. Had she been left any longer she would have certainly died, despite the medical attention from kind medical staff.

Lynch did not know the narrative the government released to the news agencies.

This is a well written book and I'm glad I picked it up. show less

Covers the background of the Lynch family as well as Jessica's ordeal that was caused by unbelievable strategic incompetence. Hard to imagine a biographer who refuses to place any Command responsibility for what occurred to Lynch's convoy during the Iraq invasion. A very positive portrayal of Lynch and her determination to continue on with her life post military discharge. I appreciated her sense of loyalty to Lori Piestewa.

This memoir covers the life go 19-year old U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, who became an American heroine when she was captured by Iraqi soldiers and held POW for nine days. In I Am a Soldier, Too, Bragg lets Lynch tell the story of her capture in the Iraq War in her own words–not the sensationalized ones of the media's initial reports. Here we see how a humble rural upbringing leads to a stint in the military, one of the most exciting job options for a young person in Palestine, West Virginia. We see the real story behind the ambush in the Iraqi Desert that led to Lynch's capture. And we gain new perspective on her rescue from an Iraqi hospital where she had been receiving care. Here Lynch’s true heroism and above all, modesty, is show more allowed to emerge, as we're shown how she managed her physical recovery from her debilitating wounds and contended with the misinformation--both deliberate and unintended--surrounding her highly publicized rescue. In the end, what we see is a uniquely American story of courage and true heroism. show less

This is the story of Jessica Lynch, as told to Rick Bragg. Jessica is a small town West Virginia girl who decided to join the Army just out of high school. Her decision was easy; she wanted to see the world, get a college education, come back home and be a kindergarten teacher. Jessica's story captured the minds and hearts of the world, but the story told was not entirely factual and until this point was not told by Jessi herself. Through media, here say and Governmental sensationalism her story took on a life of its own. Jessi never spoke of her ordeal in Iraq at the hands of Iraqi soldiers, torturers and doctors. Before she could speak about what truly happened rumors swirled, an unauthorized TV movie was written, produced and aired show more and in the end it was Jessi who was blamed for the falsehoods. She wasn't given the chance until now.
I enjoyed this biography and was glad it was written. We all need to realize how quickly stories get blown out of proportion and that we should hear the truth from the ones it happened to. I do not believe that anyone can say that Jessica is not a hero. Wikipedia defines a hero as "characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice – that is, heroism – for some greater good of all humanity, originally of martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence". Jessica, and so many others like her, stood up for her country, put her life on the line for the rest of us to be free and that is the definition of hero. show less

I'm still not sure how I feel about her. Maybe it's because deep down I'm afraid something like that could happen to me. I think the book could have been better written...it seemed to jump around a bit too much.