OK guys, this bites me just a bit. Lynch herself has come out publically and both denied and disclaimed the incorrect stories about her capture and the actions she was supposed to have taken during the firefight. She has personally and publically set the story straight and seeks no fame for herself. She is still saddened by the loss of her best friend, the first woman to die in that combat theater. Lay off guys.
This does not make her any less deserving. Not a danged bit. She may have been a passenger in a vehicle when she got hit, but she was on combat duty and during combat operations and she sustained horrendous injuries. Her comrades died in that firefight. One telling tale of a Vietnam incident had a radioman shot through the head at the very beginning of the fight. Without even looking all thought him dead, with a bullet hole through his helmet. Four hours later, and after the fight was over, he wakes up - the bullet penetrated his helmet but skirted around his helmet liner and exited the back of his helmet. He was awarded the Purple Heart - his injuries were justified and he received them in combat and doesn't have a limp.
There is nothing that separates Jessica Lynch and that soldier, except a bunch of years and different theaters of combat.
She has set the story straight on her own, and considers those who rescued her and those who fell in combat to be the true heros. That's a real soldier and one I would be proud to have under my command.
Sorry for some of you guys that she didn't turn out to be the Marine from Hell that took her own scalps with a rusty bayonet, even with broken ankles and a broken back and an empty gun but please do not think that she is undeserving in any regard, especially when she was there and we weren't.
Three more things: (1) that M16 bullet wasn't designed to tumble - that's what happend when a light weight fast moving bullet hits resistance like a human body. Period. If it was designed to tumble the Geneva or Hague Convention types would have been all over us. (2). The wound one and two more leave to help his buddy works only in the American Forces, that I know of. It certainly doesn't work for the former Comm Bloc forces or any others we have encountered recently. (3). The M16 was designed to replace former battle rifles, and they were all designed to kill the enemy. As with point number 1, if you design anything for battle that is not intended to kill the enemy you face the same international concerns. And, most importantly for anyone who has used the M16 in combat - if the other guy doesn't go down, dead, he might still be able to shoot you. That's why you just don't 'wound' someone.
And Sgt. Raterman - I'm just so glad you don't have to hobble on over to Wal-Mart's to buy a box of straws so that you can suck it up along with your ol jarhead buddy Sgt. Beck while you're telling your tales of the Marine Corps. Yeah, it's too bad that all she did was lay there, unconscious, with shattered bones and bleeding while her dead and dying buddies were collecting the final rounds to their heads. Get the hay off it men, she doesn't deserve your immature derision. :x
