Prayers Are Answered in W. Virginia Hometown

Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old Army private first class listed as missing in Iraq for nine days, has been rescued from an Iraqi hospital by U.S. special forces, military officials said Tuesday.

Lynch was part of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, which was ambushed near the southern city of Nasiriyah on March 23. Of that unit, two members have been confirmed dead. Five were shown on Iraqi TV as prisoners of war. Eight others, including Lynch, had been listed as missing.

Capt. Jay La Rossa, spokesman for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit near Nasiriyah, told Reuters today that Lynch had two broken legs and a broken arm, but was stable and in good condition. Special forces also found the bodies of two U.S. soldiers, La Rossa said. Their identities were not immediately known, but La Rossa said they were thought to be members of Lynch’s unit.

Jean Offutt, spokeswoman for the U.S. military base at Ft. Bliss, Texas, where Lynch’s unit was based, said Lynch had spoken with her parents. “They are very happy to hear from her, joyful.”

In Lynch’s hometown of Palestine, W. Va., news of her rescue triggered whoops, tears, the blare of firetruck sirens and fireworks that echoed through the wooded hollows.

For nine days, Lynch’s family and friends had clung to the hope that the military supply clerk had survived the ambush.

“Our prayers came through,” said Daniel Smith, 18, a friend. “She made it.”

Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, deputy director of operations for the Army’s Central Command, announced the rescue in Qatar about 3 a.m. today (4 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday).

“Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a U.S. Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq,” Brooks said without offering other details. “The soldier has been returned to a coalition-controlled area.”

Lynch’s father, Gregory, had told one and all through the agonizing wait for news that he had confidence his daughter would make it.

“Hopefully, her country life gave her enough knowledge to lay low until she makes it back to her troops,” he said last week.

But as the days passed, many in the community braced for the worst. “When you go to bed, you think about her. You wonder, is she being abused? When you wake up, you think about her. You wonder if she’s had water,” said Gladys LaDeaux, 75, a longtime friend of the family. “I had almost given up hope. I thought she was gone.”

Then on Tuesday night came a TV news flash: An American prisoner of war had been rescued. Another news flash, moments later: It was Lynch.

“I started crying again,” LaDeaux said. “I got goose bumps.” Lynch’s brother, Gregory Lynch Jr., praised U.S. forces for the rescue.

“They did a wonderful job out there. I knew they were going to bring her home safe. I just didn’t know they were going to do it so soon,” he told CNN.

Kenneth Heiney, the principal at Wirt County High School in Palestine, said, “Fireworks started going off, and the local volunteer fire department had every truck they had out there, horns a-blowin’ and sirens blazing.”

Lynch enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school two years ago, partly for the adventure and the chance to travel. But her parents said her primary motivation was money. She dreamed of teaching kindergarten in her hometown, in the elementary school with the flagpole out front. She knew that paying for college would be a strain on her parents. So she enlisted, figuring she could spend a few years in the service, then come home to earn her degree.

She ended up enjoying the military life so much that she re-enlisted for a four-year tour just before the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Co. was deployed to Iraq in February.

“She really liked it,” said her aunt, Margie Lynch.

A few weeks before she disappeared, the private first class wrote the local kindergarten teacher that she wanted to become the class pen pal. The 5-year-olds drew pictures for her and dictated letters of support. The teacher was about to mail them when she learned that the 507th had been ambushed near Nasiriyah.

Those letters and pictures will be waiting for Lynch when she comes home to Palestine.

So will many friends who had feared they might never see her again.

“I just want to give her a big hug,” said Amanda Davis, 18, who will ship off to boot camp this summer with Lynch’s younger sister, Brandi, as her “battle buddy” for basic training. “It’s really exciting.”

Jane Kiehl, of Comfort, Texas, stepmother of Army Spc. James Kiehl, 22,still listed as missing in the ambush, said: “We’re thrilled that Jessica has been found and is in good shape.

“Maybe she can tell them where the rest of the soldiers are,” Kiehl said. “We live in hope.”

“We’re just keeping our fingers crossed that he will be next -- or somewhere down the line,” said Norman Walters, whose son, Army Sgt. Donald Walters, 33, of Salem, Ore., is also missing.

*

Times staff writer Tom Gorman and Times wire services contributed to this report.