Jessica Lynch gets a gong
Freed American prisoner of war Jessica Lynch has been awarded two medals after recovering from her capture by Iraqi soldiers when her vehicle crashed.
Private Lynch was given the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat and the Bronze Star for "meritorious combat service" at a ceremony in Washington yesterday.
She was also given a third medal for being held captive in wartime.
The 20-year-old soldier will return to her home in West Virginia today after being released from a military hospital in Washington.
She received treatment for injuries suffered when her army maintenance unit, part of the 507th Maintenance Company, was ambushed when it took a wrong turn near Nasiriyah in March. Eleven soldiers in the convoy were killed.
The soldier will be driven in a motorcade to the small town of Palestine after a flight in a Black Hawk helicopter. She is also expected to speak for the first time about her experiences.
At the time of Private Lynch's highprofile rescue from an Iraqi hospital in a raid by US special forces in April it was claimed she had been wounded fighting off Iraqi soldiers until she was overwhelmed.
But a Pentagon inquiry found that her injuries, including multiple broken-bones, were caused when her Humvee crashed into another military vehicle as the convoy tried to escape.
A BBC documentary claimed that Iraqi soldiers had already left the hospital before the US special forces raid and that local medical staff had earlier tried to drive Private Lynch to US lines in an ambulance but were forced to go back when they were fired on.
Private Lynch was not among five prisoners from her unit shown on Iraqi TV and it was feared that she had been killed in the ambush until an Iraqi lawyer risked his life to tell America forces that she was being detained at a hospital.
Footage taken on the rescue mission showed US commandos kicking down doors - later said to have been unlocked - as they stormed the hospital and handcuffed medical staff before snatching Private Lynch away by helicopter.
The bodies of other members of her unit were later found buried in the hospital grounds. Doctors say that she has no memory of her capture and will probably never be able to tell exactly what happened.
