Jessica Dawn Lynch born April 26, is an American teacher, actress, and former United States Army soldier who served in the invasion of Iraq as a private first class. On March 23, , she was serving as a unit supply specialist with the th Maintenance Company when her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi troops during the Battle of Nasiriyah ; Lynch was seriously injured during the offensive and captured by Iraqi soldiers shortly afterwards.
Her subsequent recovery by U. Initial official reports on Lynch's capture and rescue in Iraq were incorrect. On April 24, , she testified in front of United States Congress that she had never fired her weapon her M16 rifle reportedly having jammed , and that she had been knocked unconscious when her vehicle crashed during the ambush. When asked about her heroine status, she stated: "That wasn't me.
I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do I'm just a survivor. In , Lynch made her acting debut as specialist Summer L. Gabriel in the film Virtuous.
Her role was loosely based on her own experiences during the U. Searching for a way to pay for the children's educations, the Lynch family met with an army recruiter in the summer of when Lynch was seventeen and still attending high school. On March 23, , a convoy of the United States Army's th Maintenance Company and the 3rd Combat Support Battalion elements, led by a Humvee driven by Lori Piestewa , made a wrong turn and were ambushed near Nasiriyah , a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra.
The ambush was unlikely to have been set up in advance, because the Iraqis did not know which course the convoy would take. Although some vehicles had GPS receivers, military GPS systems, unlike civilian equivalents, provide only grid references and not turn-by-turn navigation.
