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American Morning

A POW's Story

Aired November 10, 2003 - 08:32   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: Suddenly Jessica Lynch is everywhere. A TV docudrama about the former Army private's capture and rescue was on NBC last night. Tomorrow, there will be an interview on ABC and Lynch's book also goes on sale. Rick Stengel got to spend a lot of time with Jessica Lynch before co-writing the cover story in the current issue of "Time" magazine. And he joins us this morning.
Nice to see you. Good morning.

RICK STENGEL, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Nice to see you. Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Every time I see Jessica Lynch in front of the cameras, I'm struck by how young she is. I mean, she's an extremely young woman. Who was she like in person?

STENGEL: I know it's probably not correct to say, but she does feel like a girl, rather than a woman. She's frail, she's soft spoken, she's very quiet. I mean, she is absolutely tiny. I can't imagine her holding an M-16. She's reserved, which I presume she was even before this horrible ordeal. She's the sort of girl who sat in class and never raised her hand, I think.

O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about how she feels about the Army now. There were some reports that she was dismayed by the portrayal that she was firing until the last moments until she was captured. Wasn't the true story. So, first, how does she feel about Jessica the hero image?

STENGEL: Yes. I mean, she thinks that's bogus. She says she wasn't a hero. In fact, she wasn't a hero. I mean, she was huddled down, praying to God, hoping nothing would happen. There were certain a lot of other heroic people around here, including her friend Lori (ph), who was driving the Humvee.

But the reports that she was dismayed with the way the military was depicting it I think were a bit exaggerated. She had no idea that this whole thing even happened while she was lying in a hospital bed in Germany. She'd never seen the video of the rescue. She asked her mother when she was in Germany -- actually, by the time she got to Washington, she asked, have I made the hometown papers?

O'BRIEN: Yes, that and a little more.

STENGEL: She was not complicit in this exaggeration. In fact, she didn't even know much about it at all. O'BRIEN: Did she talk to you about what actually happened that day? I mean, the conditions as they're described really seem to be pathetic in a lot of ways.

STENGEL: If you look at the actual military report of what happened to the 507th, I mean, it is a comedy of errors. It really was tragic. They took one wrong turn after another. And she was a kind of, you know, accessory to that, in the sense she had nothing to do with it, but she was just afraid that something was going wrong. From the very beginning, she felt like nothing was wrong.

O'BRIEN: She was brought in not to be in combat of course.

STENGEL: Right. They're a maintenance crew. In fact, she operated a computer back at Ft. Bliss. I mean, she was ordering toilet paper and things like that. They shouldn't have been anywhere near the front lines. And of course, if the plan had gone correctly, they probably wouldn't have been.

But in this kind of war, there is no kind of back end that's different from the front end. I mean, everybody is involved.

O'BRIEN: I was struck when you asked her about her expectations, where she sort of said, I was expecting roads. What they were driving now was just sand. Sort of, I think, really underscoring just what chaos it was for maybe undertrained soldiers.

STENGEL: Yes, in fact, you know, her dad is a truck driver. She was driving a five-ton truck herself in the desert. And her father said to me, you know, training on roads is a lot different than driving these big trucks in sand, and he was implying that they weren't really ready. And in fact, you know, a huge percentage of the trucks broke down, and that's one thing that kept that convoy from catching up.

O'BRIEN: She's a real small-town girl. I mean, she has said that a lot in every interview she's done. How has all that media attention changed her? I mean, she's got sort of a media blitz going.

STENGEL: Yes, it's hard so say. It's sort of beginning now. I think she was probably dismayed with the stories that came out last week about her criticizing the military, which she has no intention of doing and doesn't believe. I think you'd have to ask her that question probably a couple weeks from now.

O'BRIEN: Maybe years, even more interesting.

STENGEL: It's kind of a second assault for her, I think, sadly.

O'BRIEN: How's her memory?

STENGEL: Her memory is fine up until a certain point. I mean, she talks about that three-hour period where she doesn't remember anything, where she was knocked unconscious, which is perfectly plausible. But her memory up until that point and afterwards is pretty good. O'BRIEN: Rick Stengel of "Time" magazine. It's an interesting interview. She seems like a pretty incredible young lady. I know she doesn't consider herself a hero, but I think a lot of people, even without sort of a made-up story around it, will still actually consider her that.

STENGEL: And she's very brave after this whole thing.

O'BRIEN: Right. Nice to have you. Thanks so much.

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 10, 2003 - 08:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Suddenly Jessica Lynch is everywhere. A TV docudrama about the former Army private's capture and rescue was on NBC last night. Tomorrow, there will be an interview on ABC and Lynch's book also goes on sale. Rick Stengel got to spend a lot of time with Jessica Lynch before co-writing the cover story in the current issue of "Time" magazine. And he joins us this morning.
Nice to see you. Good morning.

RICK STENGEL, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Nice to see you. Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Every time I see Jessica Lynch in front of the cameras, I'm struck by how young she is. I mean, she's an extremely young woman. Who was she like in person?

STENGEL: I know it's probably not correct to say, but she does feel like a girl, rather than a woman. She's frail, she's soft spoken, she's very quiet. I mean, she is absolutely tiny. I can't imagine her holding an M-16. She's reserved, which I presume she was even before this horrible ordeal. She's the sort of girl who sat in class and never raised her hand, I think.

O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about how she feels about the Army now. There were some reports that she was dismayed by the portrayal that she was firing until the last moments until she was captured. Wasn't the true story. So, first, how does she feel about Jessica the hero image?

STENGEL: Yes. I mean, she thinks that's bogus. She says she wasn't a hero. In fact, she wasn't a hero. I mean, she was huddled down, praying to God, hoping nothing would happen. There were certain a lot of other heroic people around here, including her friend Lori (ph), who was driving the Humvee.

But the reports that she was dismayed with the way the military was depicting it I think were a bit exaggerated. She had no idea that this whole thing even happened while she was lying in a hospital bed in Germany. She'd never seen the video of the rescue. She asked her mother when she was in Germany -- actually, by the time she got to Washington, she asked, have I made the hometown papers?

O'BRIEN: Yes, that and a little more.

STENGEL: She was not complicit in this exaggeration. In fact, she didn't even know much about it at all. O'BRIEN: Did she talk to you about what actually happened that day? I mean, the conditions as they're described really seem to be pathetic in a lot of ways.

STENGEL: If you look at the actual military report of what happened to the 507th, I mean, it is a comedy of errors. It really was tragic. They took one wrong turn after another. And she was a kind of, you know, accessory to that, in the sense she had nothing to do with it, but she was just afraid that something was going wrong. From the very beginning, she felt like nothing was wrong.

O'BRIEN: She was brought in not to be in combat of course.

STENGEL: Right. They're a maintenance crew. In fact, she operated a computer back at Ft. Bliss. I mean, she was ordering toilet paper and things like that. They shouldn't have been anywhere near the front lines. And of course, if the plan had gone correctly, they probably wouldn't have been.

But in this kind of war, there is no kind of back end that's different from the front end. I mean, everybody is involved.

O'BRIEN: I was struck when you asked her about her expectations, where she sort of said, I was expecting roads. What they were driving now was just sand. Sort of, I think, really underscoring just what chaos it was for maybe undertrained soldiers.

STENGEL: Yes, in fact, you know, her dad is a truck driver. She was driving a five-ton truck herself in the desert. And her father said to me, you know, training on roads is a lot different than driving these big trucks in sand, and he was implying that they weren't really ready. And in fact, you know, a huge percentage of the trucks broke down, and that's one thing that kept that convoy from catching up.

O'BRIEN: She's a real small-town girl. I mean, she has said that a lot in every interview she's done. How has all that media attention changed her? I mean, she's got sort of a media blitz going.

STENGEL: Yes, it's hard so say. It's sort of beginning now. I think she was probably dismayed with the stories that came out last week about her criticizing the military, which she has no intention of doing and doesn't believe. I think you'd have to ask her that question probably a couple weeks from now.

O'BRIEN: Maybe years, even more interesting.

STENGEL: It's kind of a second assault for her, I think, sadly.

O'BRIEN: How's her memory?

STENGEL: Her memory is fine up until a certain point. I mean, she talks about that three-hour period where she doesn't remember anything, where she was knocked unconscious, which is perfectly plausible. But her memory up until that point and afterwards is pretty good. O'BRIEN: Rick Stengel of "Time" magazine. It's an interesting interview. She seems like a pretty incredible young lady. I know she doesn't consider herself a hero, but I think a lot of people, even without sort of a made-up story around it, will still actually consider her that.

STENGEL: And she's very brave after this whole thing.

O'BRIEN: Right. Nice to have you. Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com