Former POW Jessica Lynch Gets College Degree – Wants to Teach
Former US Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch is now Jessica Lynch B.A., and on her way to being a teacher. She has graduated from West Virginia University with an education degree, with plans to get a Master's degree in Communication and teach it some day.
The first time most of us heard about Jessica Lynch was when she was serving in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.
We learned that she had been wounded and taken prisoner in an Iraqi attack on an army convoy that left eleven of her fellow soldiers dead, including her best friend, Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa of Arizona.
Lynch's dramatic rescue from the Iraqi hospital made news around the world, and she was later awarded the Purple Heart. Eight years later she still suffers from her wounds. "It's tough to walk, but at least I'm walking,'" she says. "...I have my legs. They may not work. But I'm alive."
She says it's been a struggle, but she forgot about the pain when she grabbed her crutches and hobbled proudly across the stage at WVU to accept her college degree and get on with her life.
Today, Lynch and longtime partner Wes Robinson are parents of 5-year-old Dakota, whose name honors her fallen American Indian friend.
Nearly 4500 Americans died and some 32000 were wounded during the eight year war in Iraq, which is now winding down as the last American troops withdraw.
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