Ten years ago, Jessica Lynch became the first prisoner of war to be rescued since the Vietnam War. She has since become a mother, motivational speaker and teacher. She is making the rounds on the media circuit, 10 years on, even as she says she is still haunted by her harrowing experiences where she survived a firefight, and was a POW.
"About every night I have some kind of dream where there's really someone chasing me, she told the "Today" show on Monday.
"It's hard. It really is mentally and physically draining. I'm very blessed and happy to be here, and I think that counts the most, and if I tell myself that I'm OK, I eventually I start (thinking). You know what? I can do this," she said.
On March 23, 2003, Lynch was serving as a unit supply specialist with the 507th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi forces. She was seriously injured and captured, and her subsequent rescue received considerable media coverage, much of it unwarranted, accord to Lynch.
On April 24, 2007, she testified in front of Congress that she had never fired her weapon, and has since been outspoken in her criticism of the original stories reported regarding her combat experience. She was a survivor, not a hero. "That wasn't me. I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do... I'm just a survivor," she told Congress.
"I know that there was a lot of fabricated, misconstrued but I did what I had to do," she says today. I came out and tried to tell the world what really happened. I came out and tried to tell the world what really happened. I set the record straight as much as I can and what people still want to believe or not believe, that's on them, but I felt it was important to just let the truth be known."
11 members of her unit died during the firefight.
These days, Lynch is engaged to a man to whom she has a 6-year-old daughter, Dakota. "I'm find of happy that we're finally to this 10-year mark so that I can finally put Iraq in the past," Lynch said.
"I know that it will always be with me. It's nice to make that mark of 'I've made it this far.' It's always going to be with my life, waking up every day and dealing with the injuries. I go on and I strive and I do the best that I can."
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