This small mountain town is bearing witness to the magic and machinery of celebritypatriotism and hometown pride.
The homecoming Tuesday of former POW Jessica Lynch has inspired fanfare worthy of a visiting head of state. A floodlit stage and media tent have been erected with seating for hundreds. Flag-bedecked T-shirts announcing "Welcome Home Jessica" are on sale for $5, and a CD featuring a song about her -- "She was just nineteen, became America's queen" -- is available for $10. Every few miles along the main road, traffic slows for orange-vested road crews filling potholes, plucking trash from the weeds and trimming shrubbery.
"The level of preparation is consistent with a presidential appearance," said Joe Carey, director of communications for West Virginia Gov. Robert E. Wise Jr. (D) and a former Clinton advance man.
Lynch's celebrity status is undisputed here, even if the details and significance of the war story that launched her fame are not.
The town, draped in flags and yellow ribbons, is unmistakably proud. Many here have taken the recent CBS proposal to develop a Beverly Hillbillies reality TV show as an insult to their heritage [CBS has also been doing some belated apologizing for trying to "woo" Jessica with cash offers to make a made-for-TV movie about her story.--J.T.], and are pleased that tiny Wirt County (pop. 6,000) can take credit for something more dignified.
But even among the most ardent supporters of "Jessi," as she is known in town, there is an unsettling sense that the phenomenon of her celebrity, through no fault of hers, has rapidly outgrown what is known of her capture and rescue.
"Every war needs a hero," reflected James Roberts, 77, the third-generation owner of the 117-year-old general store here. "Rickenbacker . . . Kennedy . . . she's the hero in this war. The facts don't particularly matter."
Muddied by conflicting media accounts, some in this newspaper [How about almost all of them in this rag and if not them, then their evil twin the NYSlimes?--Jen], and Lynch's inability to remember much of her ordeal, her story has been dismissed by some skeptical pundits as a work of Pentagon propaganda even as it has triggered a national fascination with the 20-year-old private first class. She has not yet spoken in public.
"We are great Jessi people -- this whole county is Jessica people -- and we don't like anyone to say anything bad about her," said Ray Watson, 79, a member of the county's Board of Education, a former high school principal and something of an elder statesman in town.
He says that those trying to take the luster away from her story, or minimize her sacrifice, should "go to hell."
[Amen, Mr. Watson! And giving their track record on this and so much else, they almost certainly will! ]
But as satellite trucks rolled into town, and as camera crews looking for local comment converged on startled shoppers at the nearby grocery store, he marveled at the deep appeal her story has had for many strangers.
"Let's face it -- she's the number one hero in the war, and to a degree I understand the fame. But it's so explosive," Watson said. "I saw a woman at the dentist's office, tears in her eyes, crying about it. She didn't even know Jessica."
Even the Lynch family has sought to play down her sacrifice, aware that it could have been worse. Others died and received a fraction of the accolades.
"The family is quite cognizant that she is coming home and that other members of her unit are not," said family spokesman Randy Coleman. "She doesn't consider herself any kind of hero. She was just doing her job, and bad stuff happened."
Lynch was captured by Iraqis after her unit was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. She was rescued a week later from an Iraqi hospital in a U.S. commando mission. Word of that operation and the elation it provoked came after a string of disheartening news stories about the U.S. war effort. Lynch quickly became a focus of global media attention.
After the rescue, U.S. officials, speaking anonymously and relying on unconfirmed intelligence reports, told The Washington Post that Lynch had fought fiercely when her convoy was attacked. The supply clerk fired until she ran out of ammunition, and she was shot and stabbed, they said. Lynch "was fighting to the death," one official was quoted as saying.
Military officials familiar with an Army investigation of the matter said later that Lynch was neither shot nor stabbed, and that she had tried to fire her weapon but it jammed. Officials said she sustained major injuries after the Humvee she was riding in crashed into another Army vehicle in the attack. Two U.S. officials with knowledge of the investigation have said that Lynch was mistreated by her captors but would not elaborate.Lynch has been recovering in seclusion at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from broken limbs and a spinal injury. Her door at Walter Reed has been guarded by military police, amplifying the curiosity leading to Tuesday's appearance. At Walter Reed today, Lynch was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medals.
About 2 p.m. Tuesday, she is scheduled to arrive by Black Hawk helicopter at the local park where the stage, lights and media tent have been assembled. She is expected to reach the platform either by wheelchair or with the aid of a walker, and then make a statement of about 2 1/2 minutes. She will not take questions.
"She has days when she's in a lot of pain, and she has other days when she can endure better," Coleman said.
She is then expected to be driven from Elizabeth, the county seat, to the family home in adjoining Palestine with her family -- and out of sight of reporters.
All along that country road, winding around hills and past hayfields, she will see signs of support and shows of religious devotion, such as "Amazing Grace -- Jessi is rescued!"
[...]
The outpouring has been national in scope, too.
One of two cells at the Wirt County jail is filled with hundreds of items -- quilts, pillowcases, angels made of World Trade Center rubble, even a pair of thong underwear -- sent by people swept up by her story, officials said.
Out of fear that she could be a terrorist target, sheriff's office personnel have had the duty of opening the packages.
"We've got at least 4,000 thank-you cards to send out," said Debbie Hennen, county assessor.
Lynch, who since her rescue has received offers of college scholarships and automobiles, will find one of the most generous displays of spontaneous volunteerism at the family house.
Locals initially aimed only to add a wheelchair-accessible bedroom and bathroom, but they wound up expanding the two-bedroom, one-bath house into a four-bedroom, two-bath home.
The effort was made possible by volunteer labor and donated materials, along with $60,000 in contributions, volunteers said.
"I think everyone in the country wanted to do something for the young people in Iraq -- it wasn't just Jessi," said Lewis Peck, a sergeant in the Wirt County Sheriff's Office who took two months off to help. [This man means our troops, doncha know!--Jen]
The house remodeling for Jessi "was a tool to thank them all."
Like others, Peck wasn't exactly sure what propelled the national fascination with Jessi.
"Was it because Jessi is a blond-haired child type? -- I can't say for sure," he said. "I think it gave the country something to hold onto. Jessi is somebody that people can easily take into their hearts -- and they have."
That includes me! Wish I could be there.
Praise the Lord that Jessi is alive and finally coming home to be with her people!
I wish the other members of the 507th that were involved in that ambush in Iraq were coming home alive, too--like PFC Lori Piestewa, Jessi's friend and fellow soldier, who was mortally injured in the same crash as Jessi.
Of the dozen or more GIs who were attacked that day when they got lost on the way to resupply the 3rd ID, Jessi is one of the few who survived.
No matter how much the WaPo tries to detract from the truth (or how much they say that the Pentagon "sexed up" Jessi's story), the fact remains that Jessi was badly hurt when she was doing her duty to her country in the U.S. army.
Was she in harm's way? BIG TIME.
Until her rescue, she was at the mercy of her Saddamite captors who were using the Nasiriyah hospital for an operational HQ.
I hope someday that she can remember what happened to her during her forced confinement in that Iraqi place, so that her mind can heal as well as her body.
Maybe she'll be able to share the rest of the story with us then.
While I was struck by how many of the Iraqis there tried to help her--the doctors, nurses, other patients and visitors like the Iraqi lawyer who walked miles to get American help-- seemed to have gone the extra mile to alleviate Jessica's suffering--she was helpless at the hands of the Enemy, both as a POW and as a seriously injured patient, right up until a few hours before Special Forces rescued her and when the Baathists had fortuitously left.
Never forget that her comrades-in-arms who were caught in that ambush were paraded both dead and alive on Al-Jazeera ( Mercifully, we got the live soldiers out, also, like Shoshana Johnson!)
But we should never let it be forgotten that Saddam's boys toyed with and abused the corpses of 5 or more American soldiers on camera, more than one of whom was found to have been executed, although there was a firefight even if Jessi's gun had jammed.
[In fact, it was discovered that almost all of the 507th had troubling firing their weapons due to the accumulation of sand in the works. Remember that sandstorm that happened right about this time?]
Jessi's going to get the Victory Parade all of our troops should get who are serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom--She showed America what strength and courage our fighting men and now women! are capable of under the worst circumstances.
And she began to show Iraqis the compassion, caring and good works they are capable of when they aren't worried anymore about Saddam killing them all the time!
Jessi, enjoy your day, keep continuing to get well and welcome home, soldier!
You may even revive the use of the word "heroine" to describe a female hero!
We love you!
