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American Morning
Jessica Lynch Interview
Aired November 18, 2003 - 07:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, so much has been said and written about former POW Jessica Lynch, from her captivity in Iraq to her dramatic rescue to her status now as an American hero. But now for the first time we're hearing Jessica's story in her own words. Her book, "I Am A Soldier, Too," was written with former "New York Times" reporter Rick Bragg.
And recently I spoke to both of them.
And I asked Jessica if she sees herself the way the rest of America does.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA LYNCH, FORMER PRISONER OF WAR: I didn't really do anything heroic. I was more, I just survived it.
RICK BRAGG, CO-AUTHOR, "I'M A SOLDIER, TOO": We've said over and over that any of those kids who drove a truck into all that danger has to be a hero. You know, they have to be.
O'BRIEN: You are littler than a minute, as they say. You are a -- you know, to even imagine you holding a weapon and driving any kind of big truck is pretty overwhelming.
Do people have that response to you a lot?
LYNCH: Yes, mostly, you know, especially when I first got in the unit and stuff and everyone was looking at me and I'm not very tall anyway. But the size and, yes, I got that a lot.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): She even said she enjoyed parts of boot camp. One reason? Her best friend, Lori Piestewa, her roommate at Fort Bliss.
(on camera): Lori Piestewa, she was your best friend. And I was surprised by that, because you're so unalike. She was a single mother, two children, Native American. Here you come in, sort of the opposite.
Why were you two not just friends, but such close friends?
LYNCH: We don't know, because, I mean we were like so completely opposite. It was just, you know, her personality, she was so much different than I was and that's what I liked about her. It was -- and we had nothing in common. We were, you know, from different sides and different backgrounds. It was great just to have someone like that so that we could share, you know, different stories. And, you know, once we lived together for a while and then it was just an automatic connection, it was like we were sisters.
(voice-over): Lori was one of 11 soldiers who died in the ambush on the 507th.
(on camera): How tough has it been for you to know that she's gone?
LYNCH: It's hard. It's really hard.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): The now infamous attack on March 23rd, the convoy trudging through the Iraqi desert, exhausted, no sleep. The commander takes a wrong turn and part of the convoy gets lost and ambushed by the enemy near Nasiriyah. The sole survive, Jessica Lynch. Contrary to reports, she never fired a shot. She hid, she says, and prayed.
(on camera): Was it deafening?
LYNCH: Yes, loud.
O'BRIEN: What was it like inside? You were crushed in.
LYNCH: Yes, you know, it was just to the point where I knew that in had nothing to defend myself, only just to rely on the other four people in the vehicle.
O'BRIEN: Was it chaos?
LYNCH: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Were they screaming?
LYNCH: Oh, yes. Yes, it was chaos. It was loud. It was, I heard all kinds of noise from outside. It was just weird.
O'BRIEN: Did you think that's it, you were going to die?
LYNCH: Yes. At one point, you know, yes. We were so outnumbered, so outnumbered. But just a point where you're like yes, this is it.
O'BRIEN: You got through it but your colleagues did not.
LYNCH: Yes.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): They were taking evasive action when the Humvee was hit by a rocket propelled grenade and crashed.
(on camera): There's a chunk of time right in the middle of this attack where you lost consciousness, that you don't know what happened.
LYNCH: Yes. O'BRIEN: And yet, as a biographer, when you're telling the story, as you do in this book, through Jessica, sort of what many readers I think would consider the most critical time, there's a blank slate. There's nothing.
How did you piece together what happened here?
BRAGG: You can't do it to the degree that you'd like to. What you do, though, is, you know, we used medical records, conversations with doctors relayed to me through the parents. And we used Jessica's physical being after the crash of the Humvee and...
O'BRIEN: Would you like to know what happened in the three hours or are you fine not knowing...
LYNCH: I'm fine not knowing.
O'BRIEN: ... because it sounds very horrific.
LYNCH: Yes. You know, that's part of my memory that I hope that doesn't come back. And, yes, part of me wants to know, but yet I don't. I just, you know, skip past those, move on.
O'BRIEN: You went to the hospital, you woke up. Was it a slow waking up of just realizing that you were in pain first? How did you figure out sort of what had happened?
LYNCH: Oh, there was pain there. There really was. I had a headache. Of course, my back was broken, my legs, my arm. You know, there was just all this stuff and it was playing together and it was just, you know, fear. It was constant fear of not knowing.
O'BRIEN: Did you think the doctors were going to try to save you or did you think that they might try to kill you?
LYNCH: Yes, kill me, of course. That was my first instinct.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: In the second part of my interview with Jessica Lynch, we're talking about the Iraqi lawyer who is credited with saving her life and her future with her fiance, Ruben Contreras.
That's coming up in our final hour at 9:00 Eastern time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 18, 2003 - 07:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, so much has been said and written about former POW Jessica Lynch, from her captivity in Iraq to her dramatic rescue to her status now as an American hero. But now for the first time we're hearing Jessica's story in her own words. Her book, "I Am A Soldier, Too," was written with former "New York Times" reporter Rick Bragg.
And recently I spoke to both of them.
And I asked Jessica if she sees herself the way the rest of America does.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA LYNCH, FORMER PRISONER OF WAR: I didn't really do anything heroic. I was more, I just survived it.
RICK BRAGG, CO-AUTHOR, "I'M A SOLDIER, TOO": We've said over and over that any of those kids who drove a truck into all that danger has to be a hero. You know, they have to be.
O'BRIEN: You are littler than a minute, as they say. You are a -- you know, to even imagine you holding a weapon and driving any kind of big truck is pretty overwhelming.
Do people have that response to you a lot?
LYNCH: Yes, mostly, you know, especially when I first got in the unit and stuff and everyone was looking at me and I'm not very tall anyway. But the size and, yes, I got that a lot.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): She even said she enjoyed parts of boot camp. One reason? Her best friend, Lori Piestewa, her roommate at Fort Bliss.
(on camera): Lori Piestewa, she was your best friend. And I was surprised by that, because you're so unalike. She was a single mother, two children, Native American. Here you come in, sort of the opposite.
Why were you two not just friends, but such close friends?
LYNCH: We don't know, because, I mean we were like so completely opposite. It was just, you know, her personality, she was so much different than I was and that's what I liked about her. It was -- and we had nothing in common. We were, you know, from different sides and different backgrounds. It was great just to have someone like that so that we could share, you know, different stories. And, you know, once we lived together for a while and then it was just an automatic connection, it was like we were sisters.
(voice-over): Lori was one of 11 soldiers who died in the ambush on the 507th.
(on camera): How tough has it been for you to know that she's gone?
LYNCH: It's hard. It's really hard.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): The now infamous attack on March 23rd, the convoy trudging through the Iraqi desert, exhausted, no sleep. The commander takes a wrong turn and part of the convoy gets lost and ambushed by the enemy near Nasiriyah. The sole survive, Jessica Lynch. Contrary to reports, she never fired a shot. She hid, she says, and prayed.
(on camera): Was it deafening?
LYNCH: Yes, loud.
O'BRIEN: What was it like inside? You were crushed in.
LYNCH: Yes, you know, it was just to the point where I knew that in had nothing to defend myself, only just to rely on the other four people in the vehicle.
O'BRIEN: Was it chaos?
LYNCH: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Were they screaming?
LYNCH: Oh, yes. Yes, it was chaos. It was loud. It was, I heard all kinds of noise from outside. It was just weird.
O'BRIEN: Did you think that's it, you were going to die?
LYNCH: Yes. At one point, you know, yes. We were so outnumbered, so outnumbered. But just a point where you're like yes, this is it.
O'BRIEN: You got through it but your colleagues did not.
LYNCH: Yes.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): They were taking evasive action when the Humvee was hit by a rocket propelled grenade and crashed.
(on camera): There's a chunk of time right in the middle of this attack where you lost consciousness, that you don't know what happened.
LYNCH: Yes. O'BRIEN: And yet, as a biographer, when you're telling the story, as you do in this book, through Jessica, sort of what many readers I think would consider the most critical time, there's a blank slate. There's nothing.
How did you piece together what happened here?
BRAGG: You can't do it to the degree that you'd like to. What you do, though, is, you know, we used medical records, conversations with doctors relayed to me through the parents. And we used Jessica's physical being after the crash of the Humvee and...
O'BRIEN: Would you like to know what happened in the three hours or are you fine not knowing...
LYNCH: I'm fine not knowing.
O'BRIEN: ... because it sounds very horrific.
LYNCH: Yes. You know, that's part of my memory that I hope that doesn't come back. And, yes, part of me wants to know, but yet I don't. I just, you know, skip past those, move on.
O'BRIEN: You went to the hospital, you woke up. Was it a slow waking up of just realizing that you were in pain first? How did you figure out sort of what had happened?
LYNCH: Oh, there was pain there. There really was. I had a headache. Of course, my back was broken, my legs, my arm. You know, there was just all this stuff and it was playing together and it was just, you know, fear. It was constant fear of not knowing.
O'BRIEN: Did you think the doctors were going to try to save you or did you think that they might try to kill you?
LYNCH: Yes, kill me, of course. That was my first instinct.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: In the second part of my interview with Jessica Lynch, we're talking about the Iraqi lawyer who is credited with saving her life and her future with her fiance, Ruben Contreras.
That's coming up in our final hour at 9:00 Eastern time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
